Wooded Landscape with Stream

Ruisdael is considered the most famous Dutch landscape painter. Around 1650 he took a trip to a region bordering Germany, where the wooded marshy landscape inspired him to motifs such as those on the Prague painting. The viewer’s low standpoint allows the backdrop of trees to rise up majestically. Dead branches, stumps and stones eroded by the flow of water indicate that nature has a life of its own. There is no figural staffage to distract from the experience of nature.