Drawing the Eel
early 1650s
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
29 1/2 x 41 3/4 in. (74.9 x 106 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Purchase, 1871
Accession Number
71.75
Tags
Art Historical Context
Salomon van Ruysda *Drawing the Eel*, in the early 165s, captures a lively winter village scene from the Dutch Golden Age. oil-on-wood panel29½ × 41¾ in.) depicts men and women gathered in a snowy hamlet, likely engaged in the communal activity suggested by the title—hauling an eel from a frozen waterway. Horses stand nearby, adding to the bustle, while thatched roofs and distant hills evoke the everyday rhythms of 17th-century Dutch rural. As a master of landscape painting, Ruysdael (c. 1602–1670), brother to the renowned Jacob van Ruisdael, blended meticulous realism with atmospheric depth,...
About the Artist
Salomon van Ruysdael
Comment on works: Views; Marines; Still life with dead birds