Bentheim Castle
Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael
Masterpiece from the golden age
Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was born in Haarlem in 1628 and died in Amsterdam in 1682. He was a successful Dutch landscape painter and widely traveled artist. Around 1650, he also traveled to the county of Bentheim. In the following years, he painted several views of Bentheim Castle in his studio at home: true to detail and yet alienated with elements from sketches from other journeys. No two of his paintings are alike, even if they depict the same motif.
Ruisdael’s castle painting, which dates from around 1655 and can be seen in Bentheim Castle, was only rediscovered in 1988. Until then it was considered lost. The district bought it at auction and exhibited it for 23 years in Frenswegen Abbey in Nordhorn. It was only in 2012, as part of the “raumsichten” art campaign, that it was returned to the place it was intended for: Bentheim Castle. The painting is the property of the Niedersächsische Sparkassenstiftung.
Other of his paintings of Burg Bentheim are exhibited in the Reichsmuseum Amsterdam and the National Gallery Dublin , among others.
- Artists
- Year of origin
about 1655
- Technology
Oil on canvas
The life of Jacon Isaackszoon van Ruisdael
Jacob Isaackszoon Ruisdael was born into an artistic family of craftsmen and painters. He probably received his training in painting from his father and his uncle Salomon.
Between 1642 and 1645, he completed an apprenticeship before working as a “vrije Gast”, or journeyman, from 1646 to 1648. In 1648, he was then accepted as a master at the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke — an artists’ association that united painters, sculptors and other craftsmen and helped to promote local artists, provide economic security and enable access to workshops and the public art market.
In 1656/57, he moved to Amsterdam, where he became a citizen of the city in 1659.
At an auction in 1664, one of his large-format landscape paintings fetched the highest price of the auction at 60 guilders — impressive proof of the outstanding artistic quality of his works.
Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was buried in the Grote Kerk in his native city of Haarlem on March 14, 1682.
- Birth
* 1628
- Teaching
1642 to 1645
- Journeyman
1646 to 1648
- Master at the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke
from 1648
- Death
† 1682