About the Artwork
The ruins hauntingly silhouetted here against a darkening sky are those of Rijnsburg Abbey in the Netherlands, founded in 1133 as a Benedictine convent for noblewomen. Destroyed in 1573 by Spanish forces attacking Leiden, the abbey was subsequently rebuilt on a smaller scale. However, Aelbert Cuyp’s painting, made some seventy years later, still conveys the impression that Rijnsburg had remained a deserted relic of its time. This work falls into the genre of ruin pictures that was popular in the seventeenth century as a way to reflect upon the passage of time and the ephemeral quality of human achievement.
Landscape with the Ruins of Rijnsburg Abbey
ca. 1645
Aelbert Cuyp
1620-1691
Dutch
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Oil on canvas
Unframed: 40 1/4 × 55 1/2 inches (102.2 × 141 cm) Framed: 50 × 65 × 4 1/2 inches (127 × 165.1 × 11.4 cm)
Paintings
European Painting
Gift of Mrs. Lillian Henkel Haass and Mrs. Trent McMath in memory of Julius H. Haass
33.7
Public Domain
Markings
Signed, at bottom, in center: A. cuyp
Provenance
1834, Lady Hampdon (London, England);London, auction Lady Hampdon
April 16, 1834, sold by (Christie's, London, England);
1834, purchased by Mr. J. Woodin [for 105 guineas];
1922, (Galerie Van Diemen, Berlin, Germany);
Julius H. Haass (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
Mrs. Lillian Henkel Haass and Mrs. Trent McMath (Detroit, Michigan, USA);
1933-present, gift to the Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
For more information on provenance, please visit:
Provenance pageExhibition History
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Smith, J. Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. 5. London, 1834, no. 258, pp 358-359. and Supplement, London, 1842, no. 42, p. 662.
Hofstede de Groot, C. Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, vol. 2. London, 1908, p. no. 319.
Exhibition of Old Masters. Exh. cat., Kunstverein. Dusseldorf, June 1928, no. 13.
Ninth Loan Exhibition of Dutch Genre and Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts, 1929, p. xiii, cat. 18.
Holmes, J. "The Cuyps in America." Art In America 18, no. 4 (June 1930) p. 169 (ill.).
Richardson, E.P., ed. Detroit Institute of Arts Catalogue of Paintings. Detroit, 1944, p. 35, no. 501.
Glasbergen, W. and H.H.van Regteren Altena. "De Abdij van Rijnsburg: Opgravingen in 1960/61 en 1963/64 (Voorlopige mededeling)." Leids jaarboekje 57 (1965): pp. 144-157.
Mauritshuis, Landschappen 17de Eeuw. The Hague, 1980, pp. 21-23, cited in footnote 5 under inv. 822. [Landscape with the Ruins of Rijnsburg Abbey.]
Chong, A. "New Dated Works from Aelbert Cuyp's Early Career." Burlington Magazine 133 (1991): pp. 606-612.
Wissman, F.W. European Vistas: Cultural Landscapes. Detroit, 2000, pp. 77-78 (ill.).
Bandes, Susan J. Pursuits and Pleasures: Baroque Paintings from the Detroit Institute of Arts. Exh. cat., Dennos Museum Center, Kalamazoo Art Museum, Kresge Art Museum, Muskegon Museum of Art. Battle Creek, 2003, pp. 10, 18-19 (ill.).
Keyes, George S. et al. Masters of Dutch Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2004, pp. 60–61, no. 21 (ill.).
Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. Exh. cat., Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, et al. Poughkeepsie, 2005, pp. 55, 132-133, cat. 11 (ill.).
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Credit Line for Reproduction
Aelbert Cuyp, Landscape with the Ruins of Rijnsburg Abbey, ca. 1645, oil on canvas. Detroit Institute of Arts, Gift of Mrs. Lillian Henkel Haass and Mrs. Trent McMath in memory of Julius H. Haass, 33.7.
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