_Salomon Ruysdael_ (Dutch: 1600-1670).
A good example of one of the founders of the Haarlem School of
Landscape, uncle of the more famous Jacob Ruysdael. Like his
nephew, he was a member of the sect of Mennonites. He appears
to have had some talent for business; he was a prominent
officer to the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke, and there is a story
of his having invented a sort of imitation marble, by the sale
of which he was able to live in easier circumstances than the
majority of his artistic brethren. Salomon's work resembles
much that of Van Goyen (see 137), and it is difficult to
distinguish early works by the two painters. Afterwards they
diverged. "Van Goyen prefers the round forms of the clouds
that on a fine summer day overhang the Maas; his brush always
plays with the delicacy of their shadows, and loves to turn a
landscape into what the moderns would call 'a harmony of gray
and silver.' Salomon Ruysdael is by no means so reticent in the
matter of colour. His skies in his later period are frankly
blue" (_Quarterly Review_, October 1891).
There is in this picture "a peculiarly sharp, clear, and firm touch,
very like that of Stark of Norwich. The warm, deep-toned evening sky is
admirable" (_Athenæum_). The picture is signed, and dated 1659.