The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede

Artist
Jacob van Ruisdael
Year
ca. 1668–1670
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
height 83 cm x width 101 cm
Public Domain Rijksmuseum

Van Ruisdael was the greatest Dutch landscape painter of the seventeenth century, whose monumental compositions of windmills, waterfalls, and forests shaped the European landscape tradition for generations. This painting, one of his most celebrated works, became an icon of Dutch national identity and influenced landscape painting from Constable to the Hudson River School.