Just like in Dutch landscapes, the immense sky takes up two thirds of the painting. A slightly hilly plain is immersed in semi-darkness. It stretches out towards the horizon.
The painting's main subject remains the play of light, crossing a sky filled with clouds blown by the wind. This light warms the shades of grey, blue, and white in its path! And splashes across a field of wheat!
A ray of sun also hits the trail, a winding path upon which a rider, dressed in a red cape, travels, accompanied by his dog. The cape's red colour is striking, as the only bright colour in the painting. In the distance, the silhouettes of a man and a child stand out.
This sudden, almost brutal, lighting over the field creates a feeling of instantaneousness. The subtle variations of lighting effects on nature, in all the colours of autumn, and this golden light announcing the end of the day come together to create a certain nostalgia. This feeling is reinforced by the presence of characters, seen from behind and moving further away up the path.
Detail 1: The Ray of Light, Jacob van Ruisdael, Paris, Louvre Museum
Detail 2: This artist tackles the same subject as his contemporary Jacob van Ruisdael. The representation here is almost naive. The cultivation of wheat, abandoned in Holland for several decades, reappeared with the economic prosperity experienced in the middle of the century. (Wheat Fields, Guillam Dubois, Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts)
Just like in Dutch landscapes, the immense sky takes up two thirds of the painting. A slightly hilly plain is immersed in semi-darkness. It stretches out towards the horizon.
The painting's main subject remains the play of light, crossing a sky filled with clouds blown by the wind. This light warms the shades of grey, blue, and white in its path! And splashes across a field of wheat!
A ray of sun also hits the trail, a winding path upon which a rider, dressed in a red cape, travels, accompanied by his dog. The cape's red colour is striking, as the only bright colour in the painting. In the distance, the silhouettes of a man and a child stand out.
This sudden, almost brutal, lighting over the field creates a feeling of instantaneousness. The subtle variations of lighting effects on nature, in all the colours of autumn, and this golden light announcing the end of the day come together to create a certain nostalgia. This feeling is reinforced by the presence of characters, seen from behind and moving further away up the path.
Detail 1: The Ray of Light, Jacob van Ruisdael, Paris, Louvre Museum
Detail 2: This artist tackles the same subject as his contemporary Jacob van Ruisdael. The representation here is almost naive. The cultivation of wheat, abandoned in Holland for several decades, reappeared with the economic prosperity experienced in the middle of the century. (Wheat Fields, Guillam Dubois, Lille, Palais des Beaux-Arts)
