Jacob van Ruisdael, View of Haarlem

The Dutch loved the landscapes and vast skies of their own country. The Haarlem landscape specialist Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/29-1682), whose popularity drew many pupils to his workshop was especially adept at both the invention of dramatic composition and the projection of moods in his canvases. His View of Haarlem from the Dunes at Overveen, painted about 1670, celebrates the flatlands outside Haarlem that had been reclaimed from the sea as part of a massive landfill project. The Dutch compared it with God’s restoration of the Earth after Noah’s Flood.

Such a religious interpretation may be referenced here in the prominent Gothic church of St. Bavo, looming on the horizon. There may be other messages as well. While almost three-quarters of this painting is devoted to a rendering of the powerfully cloudy sky, tiny humans can be seen laboring below. They are caught in the process of spreading white linen across the broad fields to bleach in the sun. This glorification of the industriousness of citizens engaged in one of Haarlem’s principal industries must have made the painting particularly appealing to the patriotic local market.^[1]