Still lives and landscape paintings do have a lot in common.
For one, books about them amiably share
space on my window sill, equally exposed to the spring light filtering through the curtains.
More to the point, they both do invite contemplation - not
needing a story to unfold, nor showing a human character to be assessed. They
just let the self quietly watch, observe and love its surroundings.
To my great joy I recently found another book on Jacob van Ruisdael ("Windmills and Water Mills" by Seymour Slive) to complement the old The Hague catalogue (pictured) that I once picked up in a second hand bookshop.
Look, how Van Ruisdael paints this man in a red jacket on a background
of silvery greens, anticipating Corot’s
happy red & shimmering grey chromaticism. (see: Two Undershot Water Mills with an Open Sluice )
And there, what an amazing riverscape – like a busy , industrious vedute painted by an Italian. (see: Panoramic view of the river Amstel looking toward Amsterdam )
