View of Haarlem with Bleaching Fields
Haarlem seen across the dunes from Overveen, its great church rising over fields where linen was spread to bleach in the sun.
Haarlem
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
View of Haarlem with Bleaching Fields — at a glance
- Artist
- Jacob van Ruisdael (c. 1628–1682)
- Year
- c. 1670–1675
- Movement
- Dutch Golden Age
- Place
- The dunes near Overveen, west of Haarlem, the Netherlands
- Viewpoint
- The western dune high ground — St Bavo's still dominates the skyline; bleaching fields gone
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 55 × 62 cm
- Now at
- Mauritshuis, The Hague; Kunsthaus Zürich; and other collections
Overview
Jacob van Ruisdael painted more than a dozen small panoramic views of his home city, Haarlem, seen from the dune country to its west — the pictures nicknamed ‘Haarlempjes’ (‘little Haarlems’). Made about 1670–75, they show a very low strip of land under an enormous sky: fields of white linen laid out to bleach, cottages and bleachers' sheds, a windmill or two, and on the horizon the town, dominated by the tall wooden crossing-tower of the church of St Bavo (the Grote Kerk). They are oil on canvas, typically about 55 by 62 cm; versions hang in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, the Kunsthaus Zürich and elsewhere.
Where was View of Haarlem with Bleaching Fields painted?
Scholarship The viewpoint is the high dune ground near the village of Overveen, a few kilometres west of Haarlem in the Netherlands. Haarlem's linen-bleaching industry used these open fields, where cloth was watered and spread in the sun. St Bavo's church still dominates Haarlem's skyline and can be seen from the dunes; the bleaching fields are gone, replaced by suburbs and woodland, but the general prospect of the town under its big sky from the western high ground survives.
What is in the painting?
The bottom fifth of the canvas is the land: rectangular fields, some bright with spread linen, hedgerows, low buildings, figures tending the cloth, a windmill. Beyond, the town lies as a thin band, St Bavo's bulk rising above the roofs, other church towers to the sides. The rest — four-fifths of the picture — is a towering sky of grey and white cloud, with sunlight and shadow sweeping across the fields below.
Look closely
The bleaching linen
Rectangles of white cloth spread on the grass to whiten in the sun — Haarlem's linen industry.
St Bavo's tower
The tall crossing-tower of the Grote Kerk rises above the town on the horizon; it still does.
The tiny bleachers
Small figures tend and water the cloth in the fields.
The spotlight of sun
A break in the cloud throws light onto one patch of field and the church.
Analysis
Composition and technique
An extremely low horizon and a vast, active sky, with the town as a distant accent and cloud-shadows moving over the fields.
Scholarship Ruisdael pushes the horizon right down and gives the sky almost the whole surface, using breaks in the cloud to spotlight patches of field, the bleaching linen and the church. The eye is led across the flat foreground to the town and then up into the weather.
History & provenance
The ‘Haarlempjes’ are spread across many museums, including the Mauritshuis, The Hague, the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Rijksmuseum and the National Gallery, London.
Sources
- Mauritshuis, The Hague / Kunsthaus Zürich — collection entries for Jacob van Ruisdael, ‘View of Haarlem with Bleaching Grounds’ (c. 1670–75)
- Seymour Slive, ‘Jacob van Ruisdael: Master of Landscape’ (2005)
Related paintings
The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede
1670
Ruisdael's most famous single landscape — the same low horizon and towering sky, around a monument.
View of Delft
1661
Vermeer's portrait of another Dutch town from just outside it, a few years earlier.
View on the Amstel from Amsteldijk
1680
Ruisdael's river view of Amsterdam from its dyke — the companion ‘city from outside’ idea.
More by Jacob van Ruisdael
The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede
The Jewish Cemetery
Castle Bentheim
Also connected to Haarlem
The Jewish Cemetery