A Panoramic View of Amsterdam looking towards the IJ

To get this view Ruisdael climbed the scaffolding of Amsterdam's new Town Hall, the building on the Dam that is now the Royal Palace, and drew the city from high above its roofs. The painting came later, around 1665 to 1670, on a canvas only about 40 centimetres square, and today it is lent to the National Gallery by a private collector.

Below him the tall, narrow houses of the Damrak run toward the water, and the tower of the Oude Kerk, the Old Church, climbs over the skyline in tiers. Beyond lies the IJ, the broad water that was then the city's harbour, thick with the masts of trading ships. Nearer in, barges and small inshore boats called galjoots cross it under white sails.

Amsterdam was the busiest port in Europe in those years, and its population had grown to about 200,000. Ruisdael put no people in the picture at all.