Ruysdael has a reputation for inventing topography, but this canvas depicts a largely faithful view of Gorinchem (Gorcum) from the south. The artist's viewpoint was on a spit of land called Buiten de Waterpoort, along the river de Merwede. The 197-foot tower of the Great Church is seen through the trees, while a windmill, ramparts, and identifiable buildings recede in the right background. Travellers at an inn and in a fishing-cum-ferry boat enliven the scene. Ruysdael lived well to the north in Haarlem, but he was part-owner of a mill in Gorinchem and in 1643 and 1644 painted landscapes incorporating parts of the local castle of Loevestein.

Forthcoming

Inscription: Signed and dated (lower center, on boat): S.vRvysdael [vR in monogram] 164[6]

E. Secrétan, Paris (until 1889; his sale, Galerie Sedelmeyer, Paris, July 1ff., 1889, no. 161, as "The Banks of the Meuse," for Fr 5,300 to Sedelmeyer); [Sedelmeyer, Paris, from 1889]; Morris K. Jesup, New York (until d. 1908); Mrs. Morris K. (Maria DeWitt) Jesup, New York (1908–d. 1914)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Hudson-Fulton Celebration," September–November, 1909, no. 119 (as "Canal Scene," lent by Mrs. Morris K. Jesup, New York).

Wooster, Ohio. Josephine Long Wishart Museum of Art. "Exhibition of Paintings of French, Italian, Dutch, Flemish and German Masters, lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 20–December 15, 1944, unnumbered cat. (p. 10).

Allentown, Pa. Allentown Art Museum. "Seventeenth Century Painters of Haarlem," April 2–June 13, 1965, no. 70 (as "Ferry near Gorcum").

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

Wilhelm R. Valentiner. The Hudson-Fulton Celebration: Catalogue of an Exhibition Held in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1909, vol. 1, p. 120, no. 119, ill. opp. p. 120, as "Canal Scene," lent by Mrs. Morris K. Jesup; reads date as 1640.

Joseph Breck. "L'art hollandais à l'exposition Hudson-Fulton à New York." L'art flamand & hollandais 13, no. 2 (1910), p. 59 [published in Dutch in Onze Kunst 17 (February 1910), p. 45].

B[ryson]. B[urroughs]. "European Paintings in the Jesup Collection." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 10 (May 1915), p. 88, ill. p. 91, as "Haarlem, Holland"; reads date as 1640.

Wolfgang Stechow. Salomon van Ruysdael: Eine Einführung in seine Kunst. Berlin, 1938, p. 108, no. 349, reads date as [in translation] "1646? (last digit uncertain; also wrongly read as 1640)"; tentatively identifies the church tower as that at Gorcum [Gorinchem].

Wolfgang Stechow. "Salomon van Ruysdael's Paintings in America." Art Quarterly 2 (1939), p. 264 n. 12, compares it to "View of the Town of Alkmaar" (MMA, 71.135).

Wolfgang Stechow. Salomon van Ruysdael: Eine Einführung in seine Kunst. 2nd, rev., expanded ed. Berlin, 1975, p. 121, no. 349.

Walter A. Liedtke. "'Pentimenti' in our Pictures of Salomon van Ruysdael and of Jan van Goyen." Shop Talk: Studies in Honor of Seymour Slive. Cambridge, Mass., 1995, pp. 154–55, 157 n. 18, fig. 4, identifes the tower as the Sint Jans tower of the Great Church at Gorinchem.

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 2, pp. 805–9, no. 185, colorpl. 185, fig. 231 (color detail).

This works depicts, in the distance, the Sint Jans tower of the Great Church at Gorinchem (also called Gorcum).