Marsh, c.1660/70 Jacob van Ruisdael (c.1628-1682)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Jacob van Ruisdael also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Marsh is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

After adding your artwork to the shopping cart, you will be able to check the delivery price using the Estimate Shipping and Tax tool.

The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

Jacob van Ruisdael's "Marsh" from around 1660-70 invites us into a world of brooding silence and almost palpable dampness. Here, nature is neither the idyllic playground of Romantic poets nor the serene backdrop for human activity. Instead, it's a place of raw, untamed power, where twisted trees, their branches gnarled and almost arthritic, stand sentinel over a dark, reflective pool.

The colors Ruisdael employs are deep and earthy, with greens and browns dominating the canvas, as if the very pigments were pulled from the soil itself. These muted tones are contrasted sharply by the pale blue of the sky, peeking through the dense canopy, and the occasional bright touches of white clouds, adding a sense of depth and infinite space beyond the oppressive forest.

Ruisdael's technique is nothing short of meticulous. Every tree, every patch of grass, every ripple in the water is rendered with an attention to detail that borders on the obsessive. Yet, for all this precision, there’s a certain wildness to the composition. The trees are not neatly arranged; they lean and twist in ways that suggest a landscape in the grip of some unseen force. The fallen tree in the foreground - pale against the dark waters - seems almost like a memento mori, a reminder of the fragility of life in the face of nature's relentless march.

Compositionally, the painting is a masterful balance of light and shadow, of stability and chaos. The viewer's eye is drawn into the heart of the marsh, guided by the winding water and the jagged lines of the trees, yet there is no clear path forward - only the suggestion of an infinite, impenetrable wilderness beyond. Ruisdael captures the marsh not as a mere setting, but as a living, breathing entity - at once beautiful and terrifying in its solitude.