Terms and conditions of use
The watermill
(c. 1660)
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Measurements
- 63.3 × 68.7 cm (image) 64.7 × 70.8 cm (canvas)
- Inscription
- inscribed in black paint l.l.: JvR (monogram)
- Accession Number
- 1249-3
- Department
- International Painting
- Credit Line
- National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1922
© Public Domain
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited - Gallery location
- 17th Century & Flemish Paintings Gallery
Level 2, NGV International - About this work
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Jacob van Ruisdael is often regarded as the finest Dutch landscape artist of the seventeenth century and one of the most influential Dutch artists internationally at that time. Unlike many artists, he did not specialise in a particular landscape type but painted a wide variety of subjects – including seascapes, townscapes and winter scenes – with equal passion and virtuosity. Instead of painting idyllic landscapes, Ruisdael charged his subjects with strong spiritual and moralising content.
- Subjects (general)
- Labour, Industry and Machinery Landscapes Structures
- Subjects (specific)
- clouds ponds (water) trees water mills
- Frame
- Reproduction, 2005, based on a Dutch frame from 1652
Frame
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The former frame on Ruisdael The watermill, c.1653, acquired 1922, had been cut down from a larger format on all sides, reducing the ‘frieze’ section and creating an imbalance through the dominance of the, now oversized, corner ornament.
A note in the Felton correspondence states: ‘the compo. frame has been replaced by a carved wood frame’, suggesting the frame that came with the painting to Melbourne was a revision of the framing at the time of acquisition.
The proposal to reframe the Ruisdael came in 2005 at the time the painting was cleaned.
The frame design comes from 1652, a year before the painting.
The frame was made from coachwood (pink sycamore), stained to an ebonised finish.
The frame was fitted to the painting in 2005. - Framemaker
- Reproduction - crafted by the NGV
- Date
- 2005
- Materials
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ebonised coachwood