Artist: Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/1629–1682)
Title: Bentheim Castle
Genre: landscape painting
Description: Castle Bentheim. The castle located on a hilltop, seen from below by a stream with a small waterfall, rocks, and tree trunks.
Date: between 1650 and 1682
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: height: 68 cm (26.7 in)
Collection: Rijksmuseum
What I like about this painting:
Jacob van Ruisdael gives us a view of Castle Bentheim in the late afternoon. The sun is low in the sky behind us and to our right, casting a warm glow on the sandstone walls of the ancient keep. Skies are one of van Ruisdael’s fortes, but in this painting, the sky with its clouds of gray and white doesn’t quite dominate. The fortress on its hill rises high, as if to say “You have no power over me. I’ve withstood the centuries and risen from the ashes more than once. I am not going away.”
This painting is an excellent visual for fantasy writers. We see how it seems to grow from the rocky hill, how it towers over the countryside. There are many stories here, both historical and imagined.
About Ruisdael’s visit to Bentheim Castle, via Wikipedia:
There has been speculation that Ruisdael accompanied an expedition to acquire Bentheimer sandstone for building the new Amsterdam Town Hall, an ambitious project by mayor Nicolaes Tulp that employed many artists, including the Haarlem architect Jacob van Campen as master builder. Bentheimer sandstone was a popular product being used to build canal mansions along the new canals of Amsterdam. In Haarlem, the facade of the house of Pieter Teyler van der Hulst is cladded with Bentheimer sandstone, and though this was probably done later in the 1740s, it shows how the popularity of this material overshadowed the use of Namur stone from Belgium, the material used earlier in the 17th century for cladding of the Waag, Haarlem, which is a few doors down from Teyler’s house. However it is also entirely plausible that Ruisdael was invited to the castle to paint it, but little is known of the art collection in the castle at that time.
Ruisdael was even tempted to make a dramatic sweeping version of the castle that was copied almost in mirror image by Haarlem contemporary Nicolaes Berchem, called “his great friend” by Ruisdael biographer Arnold Houbraken. It is assumed that the artists travelled together, but no archival evidence beyond dated artworks survive which support this. [1]
For more about the history of Castle Bentheim go to Bentheim Castle – Wikipedia. Also, The Secrets of Bad Bentheim | What’s Hidden Under the Castle?
About the artist, via Wikipedia:
Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was born in Haarlem in 1628 or 1629 into a family of painters, all landscapists. The number of painters in the family, and the multiple spellings of the van Ruisdael name, have hampered attempts to document his life and attribute his works. The name Ruisdael is connected to a castle, now lost, in the village of Blaricum. The village was the home of Jacob’s grandfather, the furniture maker Jacob de Goyer. When de Goyer moved away to Naarden, three of his sons changed their name to van Ruysdael or van Ruisdael, probably to indicate their origin. Two of De Goyer’s sons became painters: Jacob’s father Isaack van Ruisdael and his well-known uncle Salomon van Ruysdael. Jacob himself always spelled his name with an “i”, while his cousin, Salomon’s son Jacob Salomonszoon van Ruysdael, also a landscape artist, spelled his name with a “y”. Jacob’s earliest biographer, Arnold Houbraken, called him Jakob Ruisdaal.
It is not known whether Ruisdael’s mother was Isaack van Ruisdael’s first wife, whose name is unknown, or his second wife, Maycken Cornelisdochter. Isaack and Maycken married on 12 November 1628.
Ruisdael’s teacher is also unknown. It is often assumed Ruisdael studied with his father and uncle, but there is no evidence for this. He appears to have been strongly influenced by other contemporary local Haarlem landscapists, most notably Cornelis Vroom and Allart van Everdingen. [2]
Credits and Attributions:
IMAGE: Wikimedia Commons contributors, “File:Kasteel Bentheim Rijksmuseum SK-A-347.jpeg,” Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Kasteel_Bentheim_Rijksmuseum_SK-A-347.jpeg&oldid=1176106258 (accessed April 16, 2026).
[1] Wikipedia contributors, “View of Bentheim Castle,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=View_of_Bentheim_Castle&oldid=1332491171 (accessed April 16, 2026).
[2] Wikipedia contributors, “Jacob van Ruisdael,” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jacob_van_Ruisdael&oldid=1346810374 (accessed April 16, 2026).
Artist: Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/1629–1682)
Life in the Realm of Fantasy 