Landscape with a Figure

Private collection

landscape

This painting represents a landscape with a figure on a path and a bleaching field beyond. In the seventeenth century, Holland had a virtual monopoly on cotton bleaching, and bleachers played a crucial role in the textile industry. Jacob van Ruisdael, van Vries's tutor, also painted several images of the bleaching fields around Haarlem.

About the Artist

Roelof van Vries

1630 – 1681

Dutch painter, known for landscapes in the manner of more famous Haarlem landscapists such as Jacob van Ruisdael, Meindert Hobbema, Jan Wynants and Philips Wouwerman. He mostly signed his works as Rvries. He entered the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke in 1657. He got married in Amsterdam in 1659, then 28 years old, and Reynier Hals was his witness. The year of his death is unknown, but his latest signed work is dated 1681, and he is listed as dead in a list of guild members by Vincent van der Vinne in 1702, so he died before that. Staffage in his works has sometimes been attributed to other painters.

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