Landscape with a woman and child walking along a wooded country lane

Summary

In this tranquil scene by Ruisdael a woman and child make their way up a country lane rutted by cart wheels. The lane, which runs alongside a narrow stream, has cottages on the left and mature trees on either side. A cat sits in the road, watching their progress. The stream curves to the right, leading to a view of grazing animals and low hills, where the sun still shines. Ruisdael has captured beautifully the low light under a sky heavy with dark grey clouds, which threatens imminent rain. Ruisdael is considered the most important figure in Dutch landscape painting of the second half of the seventeenth century. An inventive, versatile and superbly accomplished landscapist, his painting had a huge influence on European landscape painting, both in his own time and notably in mid-19th century France, in the work of the Barbizon painters.