July 7, 2025
BELIEVES HE HAS
GENUINE RUYSDAEL.
W. E. MELLIER'S FIND MAY BE
VALUABLE PAINTING.
Landscape in Oil on Copper, Dis-
playing Characteristics of Great
Dutch Master, Sent to Antwerp
for Identification.
On a copper plate 6 1/2 by 9 inches in size and weighing a quarter of a pound, which was listed with the surveyor of the port for reimportation by Walter E. Mellier yesterday, is a landscape in oils, its subject matter, cook, dark green coloring, and other characteristics, indicating it was painted by Jacob Ruysdael (1625-1682), one of the greater masters of the Dutch school. If so, $5,000 is considered a fair valuation for the little painting, making that bit of copper worth $20,000 a pound, a price beyond the dreams of Amalgamated.
Mr. Mellier said the copper plate had been picked up in Kansas City. He believes he has a genuine Ruysdael, and is sending it to Antwerp, Holland, where it will be submitted to experts, that its identity may be established.
Mr. Mellier does not say where he got his supposed Ruysdael nor what he paid for it, further than that it was "picked up" in Kansas City. People well informed concerning painting and who have seen it, declare it a genuine Ruysdael, though it is not signed.
COLORING CHARACTERISTIC.
Large trees are shown right and left in the foreground, with a prominent clay bank commanding a stream in which there are ducks swimming. To the right there is a shepherd and his sheep, to the left a man bracing himself against a wind which is shaking the trees.
There are a lot of other things in the sixteenth century picture that nobody knew about till a twentieth century camera got a look at it. Then everybody concerned found out about the supposed Ruysdael. The old Dutch master painted in dark colors invariably. This Mellier plate is olive green in the main.
After all the knowing ones had scanned the picture closely and speculated on it, the camera made everything plain by developing a village in the background.
"That was about the most important thing we wanted to find," said Mr. Mellier, as he pointed on the photographic copy of the plate to a village in the center. "Ruysdael always had a church in his scenes. There is the church the picture seemed to lack. He never painted his own figures. He was great on detail. Look at the ducks."
The photograph showed sharply outlined and perfectly painted ducks in every detail.
RUYSDAEL'S STYLE OF WORK.
Jacob Ruysdael, one of the greatest landscape painters of the Dutch school, was born at Haarlem, Holland, in 1635. He studied under his uncle, Salomon. He was so little appreciated that he descended to absolute penury, and the Mennonites, to which sect he belonged, secured for him admission to the almshouse in Haarlem, where he died in 1682.
Ruysdael rendered nature in its various phases with rare truthfulness. His work is noted by power, warm coloring, and a mastery of execution.
The flat and homely scenery of his native country furnished Ruysdael with subjects. With lonely hamlets, watermills, dark sheets of water overshadowed by trees, and a sky usually clouded, he imparted a melancholy character to his landscapes. Dark masses of foliage make the prevailing tone of his coloring a dark green.
Labels: arts
