Il castello di Bentheim

Bentheim Castle sits on a low rise just over the German border from the Dutch Republic, no great height at all. Jacob van Ruisdael visited it around 1650, travelling with the painter Nicolaes Berchem, and went on to paint it a dozen times. In this version, made in 1653, he lifted the castle onto the crown of a steep, wooded mountain it never actually had. The oak trees in the foreground climb almost to the level of the walls, so the eye works its way slowly up from the sandy path to the towers. Dutch landscapes look faithful, and mostly are, but Ruisdael was composing here. Of the dozen times he painted Bentheim, this is the one where he raised the hill the highest.