Jacob van Ruisdael, the pre-eminent Dutch landscape painter of the seventeenth century, is renowned for the unmatched number of subjects he depicted and the wealth of closely observed naturalistic detail in his works. In this elegant catalogue, published to accompany an international retrospective, the reader is taken on a journey through the many landscapes captured by Ruisdael's observant eye. In a fascinating discussion of Ruisdael's paintings, drawings and etchings, renowned scholar Seymour Slive examines the various landscapes depicted by the artist from the plains of Haarlem to its bleaching fields, to wind and water mills, forests and woods, grains fields and Scandinavian waterfalls. Lavishly illustrated this book covers works ranging from early pieces produced in Haarlem in 1646 aged seventeen to a celebrated series of his mature masterworks.