A Pool surrounded by Trees, and Two Sportsmen coursing a Hare

In 17th-century Holland you could not simply go out and chase a hare. Hunting was a privilege, reserved for the nobility and for those granted the right, so the two small men on the rise under the big oak are people of some standing. They are easy to miss. One of them points, and below him a big white dog splashes through the shallows after a hare you can barely see. A single fleck of white paint at his feet suggests a second dog, waiting its turn to run. Ruisdael painted this large canvas around 1665, and the National Gallery notes a stillness that is unusual for him. The clouds hang over the wood without drifting, and the leaves are quiet. The oak's trunk twists in a double curve among the straighter trunks around it, and on the right a dead tree shows its silvery bark. At the edge of the pool new reeds are coming up around a rotting log, with pale water-lily buds resting on the pads.