Dune Landscape with Oak Tree

Jacob van Ruisdael

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The image of the oak tree is one for which Ruisdael is justly well known. In this highly finished drawing, which must have had an independent status since the artist monogrammed it, the majestic tree takes center stage atop a dune around which a small stream trickles. The footbridge crossing the gulley and the thatch hut nestled in the trees introduce a human element, whereas the high dunes in the background enhance the heroic character of this intimate view of nature imparted by its composition. With simply a light sketch in chalk elaborated with semi-opaque gray washes, Ruisdael created a sense of atmosphere and deeply receding space that belie the size of the paper on which the drawing is made.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art