Small Bridge

Jacob Van Ruisdael (1628-1682)
Dutch
"Small Bridge"
Etching
Van Ruisdael studied landscape painting for ten years in Germany before settling down in Amsterdam. He is well known for his dramatic and naturalistic rendering of landscapes and emotional use of color. His masterful compositions, meticulous draftsmanship and thick
impasto (the thick laying on of paint) made quiet subjects such as trees or the flat Dutch countryside into deep sources of contemplation.
Although this etching is called "Small Bridge", the eye is drawn towards the house, carefully drafted to show individual timbers, the windows are boarded over - the darkness within almost palpable. In the doorway, stands a woman -her form is barely discernible. The house seems to emerge from the trees surrounding it -more of an outgrowth, then a free standing structure. The house, the trees, the woman, all
juxtaposed against a brightly lit sky, billowy cumulus in the distance and the man and his dog -silhouettes crossing the bridge - walking away from the undergrowth of tlis life into the light.