The ''Windmill of Wijk bij Duurstede'' (c. 1670) is an

oil An oil is any nonpolar chemical substance that is composed primarily of hydrocarbons and is hydrophobic (does not mix with water) & lipophilic (mixes with other oils). Oils are usually flammable and surface active. Most oils are unsaturated ...

-on-canvas painting by the

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

painter

Jacob van Ruisdael Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael (; 1629 – 10 March 1682) was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and etcher. He is generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age, a period of great wealth and cultural achi ...

. It is an example of

Dutch Golden Age painting Dutch Golden Age painting is the painting of the Dutch Golden Age, a period in Dutch history roughly spanning the 17th century, during and after the later part of the Eighty Years' War (1568–1648) for Dutch independence. The new Dutch Republ ...

and is now in the collection of the

Amsterdam Museum The Amsterdam Museum, known until 2010 as the Amsterdam Historical Museum, is an Amsterdam-based museum dedicated to the city's past and present. Due to the renovation of its main location, the museum is temporarily located in the building the Amst ...

, on loan to the

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the St ...

Subject, date, and provenance

The painting shows

Wijk bij Duurstede Wijk bij Duurstede () is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. Population centres *Cothen * Langbroek *Wijk bij Duurstede Topography ''Dutch Topographic map of the municipality of Wijk bij Duurstede, 2013.'' City The city ...

, a riverside town about 20 kilometers from

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

, with a dominating cylindrical windmill, harmonised by the lines of river bank and sails, and the contrasts between light and shadow working together with the intensified concentration of mass and space. The attention to detail is remarkable. Art historian

Seymour Slive Seymour Slive (September 15, 1920 – June 14, 2014) was an American art historian, who served as director of the Harvard Art Museums from 1975 to 1984. Slive was a scholar of Dutch art, specifically of the artists Rembrandt, Frans Hals, and Ja ...

reports that both from an aeronautical engineering and a hydrological viewpoint the finest levels of details are correct, in the windmill's sails and the river's waves respectively. It is not known for certain when Ruisdael painted the ''Windmill''. The painting is not dated, as very few of his works are after 1653. Dating subsequent work has therefore been largely detective work and speculation. It is assumed that it was painted in 1670. Unlike many other Ruisdaels the ''Windmill'' seems to have remained in Dutch hands. It was acquired by

Adriaan van der Hoop Adriaan van der Hoop (28 April 1778, in Amsterdam – 17 March 1854, in Amsterdam) was a Dutch banker and in the first half of the 19th century one of the richest men in the Netherlands. He also was an influential politician: a member of the ...

at an unknown date, and bequeathed by him to the new

in 1854. Since 30 June 1885 it has been on loan to the

in Amsterdam. Its enduring popularity is evidenced by card sales at the Rijksmuseum, with the ''Windmill'' ranking third after

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

's '' Night Watch'' and

Vermeer Johannes Vermeer ( , , see below; also known as Jan Vermeer; October 1632 – 15 December 1675) was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. During his lifetime, he was a moderately succe ...

's ''

View of Delft A photograph taken in 2019 from approximately the point where Vermeer painted the painting. ''View of Delft'' ( nl, Gezicht op Delft) is an oil painting by Johannes Vermeer, painted ca. 1659–1661. The painting of the Dutch artist's hometown is ...

''.

The other windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede

Ruisdael's windmill no longer stands, although its foundations can still be seen. Another windmill located a few hundred meters further is often confused with Ruisdael's. This confusion was created when

Hofstede de Groot Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...

in 1911 wrote about the painting: File:1209 Wijk bij Duurstede 112.JPG, All that's left of the original mill File:Wijk Bij Duurstede..JPG, Skyline of Wijk bij Duurstede today File:Rijn-en-Lek-Wijk-bij-Duurstede.jpg, The other windmill in Wijk bij Duurstede, by night

Similar paintings

This scene is similar to other Ruisdael panoramas of (unidentified) windmills. Ruisdael's work inspired later landscape painters such as

John Constable John Constable (; 11 June 1776 – 31 March 1837) was an English landscape painter in the Romanticism, Romantic tradition. Born in Suffolk, he is known principally for revolutionising the genre of landscape painting with his pictures of Dedha ...

. File:Landscape with a Windmill, oil on wood painting by Jacob van Ruisdael, 1646.JPG,

Cleveland Museum of Art The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egyptian ...

File:Jacob van Ruisdael - Evening Landscape- a Windmill by a Stream.jpg,

Royal Collection The Royal Collection of the British royal family is the largest private art collection in the world. Spread among 13 occupied and historic royal residences in the United Kingdom, the collection is owned by King Charles III and overseen by the ...

File:Jacob van Ruisdael - Landscape with a windmill by a river.jpg, Private collection File:Van Ruisdael, Jacob - Landscape with Windmills near Haarlem - Google Art Project.jpg,

Dulwich Picture Gallery Dulwich Picture Gallery is an art gallery in Dulwich, South London, which opened to the public in 1817. It was designed by Regency architect Sir John Soane using an innovative and influential method of illumination. Dulwich is the oldest publi ...

File:Constable, John - Landscape with Windmills near Haarlem, after Jacob van Ruisdael - Google Art Project.jpg, Copy by Constable

References

Bibliography

Landscape with the mill near Wijk bij Duurstede, ca. 1670
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

* * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Windmill At Wijk Bij Duurstede 1670s paintings Paintings by Jacob van Ruisdael Amsterdam Museum Paintings in the collection of the Rijksmuseum Wijk bij Duurstede Ships in art Works about windmills