River Landscape with Ruins

Barend Cornelis Koekkoek and Wijnandus Johannes Josephus Nuyen combined Romantic landscape with a revival of the Dutch seventeenth-century style, in particular the dramatic mood painting of Jacob van Ruisdael and Allaert van Everdingen.

When he was twenty, Nuyen travelled to France. There he met artists who painted in the Romantic manner, with strong contrasts of light and shade, intense colours and a sense of drama. Nuyen became fascinated with this style of painting and soon emerged as Holland’s leading Romantic artist. This painting is a good example of his work, with a ruined castle, a dead tree blown down by the wind, clouds scudding across the sky, and shadows darkening the landscape. Nuyen’s work was innovative and exuberant by Dutch standards.