Jacob van Ruisdael

Jacob Isaackszoon van Ruisdael was painting countryside scenes of startling maturity by 1646, still a teenager. A trip to Germany in 1650 shifted his vision toward something more heroic - bigger skies, rougher ground. Settling in Amsterdam, he expanded into city panoramas and seascapes, often giving two-thirds of the frame to weather and light. He painted more than 150 Scandinavian views despite likely never going there, imagining waterfalls into being. His only registered student was Meindert Hobbema, whose work later got mistaken for his teacher's. Ruisdael's landscapes - in demand during his life, now scattered from the Rijksmuseum to the Hermitage - set the template for everyone from English Romantics to the Hudson River School.