View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds

In this celebrated panorama Jacob van Ruisdael looks down across the flat dunes west of Haarlem, where long white strips of linen lie out to bleach in the sun. The composition is dominated by towering cumulus clouds that catch the light, while the city’s great church of St. Bavo rises on the horizon. The bleaching grounds, an everyday industry of the Dutch Republic, are transformed into a luminous, almost abstract pattern of light and shadow.