Painting of the Dutch painter Jacob van Ruysdael “Square in Amsterdam”. The size of the painting is 52 x 65 cm, oil on canvas. In his younger years from 1650 to 1653, Reisdal traveled quite a lot with his friend Nikolaes Berkem in search of nature in the Netherlands, as well as in the neighboring lands of western Germany.
Around 1655, the artist Jacob van Ruisdal settled in Amsterdam, where he lived until the end of his days. The capital Amsterdam in the middle of the 17th century was strikingly different from the more provincial Haarlem.
The first document relating to the Amsterdam period of the artist’s life is the record in the archives of the Dutch Reformed Church, announcing that Jacob van Reisdal was baptized on June 14, 1657. Probably, before this, the religious artist belonged to the Mennonites.