A Waterfall in a Rocky Landscape

Although the signature was apparently added later, this painting is the work of Jacob van Ruisdael. Ruisdael painted many waterfalls from the late 1650s onwards. In the past it had been assumed that he himself must have travelled to Northern Europe where he would have seen this type of landscape. However, no such trip has been recorded and, instead, his paintings were inspired by the Amsterdam landscape painter Allart van Everdingen, who had visited Scandinavia in 1644 and had made a number of drawings of rocky mountainous scenes with torrents and waterfalls.