Of all the landscape paintings you have seen, what main features come to mind? Do you picture a
pleasant, peaceful scene, or a darker, and more weighted moment? Although both the American and
Netherlandish paintings in this exhibition are landscapes, there are several differences in style and form.
While you examine these six paintings, consider the main differences, but also the main themes that
connect these paintings from artists of the Netherlands and the United States. Together we will investigate
those differences, and see how both artworks from different regions in the world can be so similar, yet
characteristically unique. The time periods vary, as does the style, but the main focus of each painting
is distinctive as well as the mood and setting. Some are snapshots in time of exactly how a landscape
looked, while others are more imaginary. One thing to keep in mind while exploring these images is that
we will look into 17th century landscapes in the Netherlands in contrast to 19th century American
landscapes. In these respective time periods, artists of the Netherlands focused more on the human
relationship with nature, while in American landscapes, nature alone is the main focus. You will see this
reflected in these six paintings. With this collection, I will argue that all of these artworks carry the same
theme of landscape, whether realistic or imaginary. We will then concentrate on the different forms,
perspectives, and moods, and elaborate on how both the American and Netherlandish styles present
those concepts differently.
Title: A Woodland Road with Travelers
Artist: Jan Brueghel the Elder (Netherlandish, Brussels)
Date: 1607
Medium: Oil on wood
Accession Number: 2001.216.1
One of Jan Brueghel the Elder’s many paintings is the Woodland Road with Travelers. He
purposefully chooses brown and a rich green to contrast many important elements in this painting.
The healthy, eager horses plunge through the water in the background, while hidden from their view
in the foreground is a horse carcass. The abundant, rich forest and blue sky is juxtaposed against
the dry, broken tree and tangled brush in the foreground. As many Netherlandish paintings are, this
also is more imaginary than an exact painting of a forest. Combined with the weary, hunched over
travelers, this painting was meant to depict mortality, and how finite we are in a tiring world surrounded
by life and death at all times.
Title: Peace and Plenty
Artist: George Inness (American, Newburgh, New York 1825–1894 )
Date: 1865
Medium: Oil on canvas
Accession Number: 94.27
Although this painting by George Inness is based on a real location, it has been altered, which
shows that art does not have to be exact to be meaningful, but rather its ability to evoke emotion.
This work has a much softer tone and style than Jan Brueghel’s crisp trees and textured ground.
Instead of a bright sky that illuminates the trees in Brueghel’s painting, the trees here are silhouetted
against the fading sunset and still water. The soft, golden sunlight just touches the lush grass and
tuffs of hay, and not a breeze reaches the trees or silent pond. These calm elements unite the
painting as a whole, and it gives the viewer a sense of peace. Meanwhile, Brueghel’s painting is
busy with birds, travelers, and is separated with a foreground and background. As seen here,
American depictions of landscapes at this time tended to focus on the landscape alone, and not on
the people interacting in the landscape. The mood of this painting is much more tranquil, and not as
ominous as Brueghel’s.
Title: Landscape with a Battle between Two Rams
Artist: Jan Miel (Flemish, Beveren 1599–1664)
Date: ca. 1640
Medium: Oil on canvas
Accession Number: 93.29
While the last two paintings were similar in theme, the next two present a more jarring contrast,
but with the same perspective. This darker and highly naturalistic scene features much chiaroscuro;
high contrast of light and dark, and also depicts a heavier scene than the previous paintings. Jan Miel
creates a flat plain of a winding pathway and trees, and all along the foreground of the painting there
are what appear to be people in distress. The mood and setting of this painting is more directly
unsettling than the previous darker pieces; the trees lean eerily, and half of the characters are hidden
in the shadows. This piece also has crisp lines, high amount of detail, and is focused downward, on
what the people are doing instead of upward as the next paintings will be like. This style is similar to
Jan Brueghel’s artwork, drawing the focus onto the characters, and capturing the grit of the scene in a realistic manner.
Title: Delaware Water Gap
Artist: George Inness (American, Newburgh, New York 1825–1894)
Date: 1861
Medium: Oil on canvas
Accession Number: 32.151
In contrast to Jan Miel, this style of painting is less about the subjects and more about the mood
it creates for the viewer. George Inness again produces a hazy sky and textured grass against clear
water, without a single ripple or disturbance. These components are pulled together and encapsulated
by the huge rainbow. As with previous Inness work, there is no main focal point, and it is meant to be
accepted as a whole by the viewer. The dramatic rainbow is perhaps the most eye-catching element
of the artwork, but once again it is a peaceful scene that is more blurred and vague, and meant to
convey a feeling rather than being a literal and exact depiction.
Title: Wheat Fields
Artist: Jacob van Ruisdael (Dutch, Haarlem 1628/29–1682)
Date: ca. 1670
Medium: Oil on canvas
Accession Number: 14.40.623
This Dutch painting by Ruisdael is considered a landscape painting, but its perspective focuses at
the very center of the painting, on what appears to be a woman and a child, with another figure
approaching them. The observer’s eyes are drawn upwards towards the vast opening of the sky, where
the clouds have stains of gray on them, as if a storm is advancing. What makes this piece unique is
how the vantage point is set at the same height as a person, creating a believable perspective and
placing the viewer in this moment. The rough, well-used road in the foreground carries an extremely
detailed array of moss and shrubbery that spills onto the plains of grass. Again, while this form of
painting is a landscape, the focus is on the woman and child at the center. All is overshadowed by the
tint of gloom from the heavy clouds. Although the sky takes up most of the painting, it is not in a
peaceful manner, but almost in an overwhelming sense, as the grayness indicates a foreboding storm.
Title: At the Waterfall
Artist: David Claypoole Johnston (American, Philadelphia 1799–1865)
Date: ca. 1850
Accession Number: 1978.512
Similarly to Ruisdael, this painting also has a focal point at the bottom center, but you are meant to see
the painting as one entity. We can see at first glance that this is a later painting than those of the
Netherlands that we have explored so far, and by looking at the rock on the right, it appears to
represent a more graphic style of landscape than we have seen previously. The tree and brush on the
left seem clear at first, but if you look closely, you will see they are actually quite blurred, as is the
ground the two men are standing on. Clearly this is a different type of landscape than the five other
pieces; there are no fields, but instead what seems like an endless scenery of mountaintops. Unlike
how Ruisdael ensures that even the very distant trees have crisp details, Johnston prefers to use fog
around the mountain view, leaving the distance unclear, and what lies behind the obscuring rock
unknown. There is an element of mystery, accompanied by peace. In spite of the higher contrasts
portrayed in here, this work provides an overarching sense of peace, which is not as often present in
Netherlandish paintings.
Sources: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
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