A Barn on the Bank of a Stream in Gelderland, Wouter Johannes van Troostwijk, c. 1805 - c. 1810
Van Troostwijk breathed new life into Dutch landscape painting. In his pictures he did not compose an ideal vision of nature, nor did he refer back to monumental 17th-century landscapes. Instead, he lovingly rendered familiar everyday motifs, such as this bleaching field at a farm in Gelderland. The bright light and lush vegetation in this scene make it a truly Dutch landscape.