The ford

1640s

Trips to Blaricum, Egmond aan Zee and Rhenen

For a landscape painter Ruisdael travelled little: in the 1640s he visited Blaricum, his grandfather's home village, Egmond aan Zee and Rhenen.

1650

Journey to Germany with Nicolaes Berchem

With Nicolaes Berchem, one of the painters who would later add figures to his landscapes, Ruisdael travels to Bentheim and Steinfurt, just across the German border (other accounts date the trip to Westphalia to around 1650). Afterwards his landscapes take on a more heroic character, with larger and more prominent forms.

c. 1657

Moves to Amsterdam

Ruisdael moves to prosperous Amsterdam, which likely offered a bigger market for his work: his fellow Haarlem painter Allart van Everdingen had already moved there and found buyers. He lived there for the rest of his life (other accounts date the move to 1657).

1668

Witness at the wedding of his pupil Meindert Hobbema

In 1668 Ruisdael witnesses the marriage of Meindert Hobbema, his only registered pupil. He himself never married — according to Houbraken, to reserve time to serve his old father.

1672

Still comfortable after the Disaster Year

There is no record of Ruisdael owning land or shares, yet he appears to have lived comfortably even after the downturn of the disaster year 1672: in inventories of 1650–1679 his paintings averaged 40 guilders against 19 for attributed paintings generally. The legend that he died poor in a Haarlem almshouse confuses him with his cousin Jacob Salomonszoon.

10 March 1682

Died