  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.
  
  
  Title
  Landscape with the Ruins of Rijnsburg Abbey
  
  
  Artwork Date
  ca. 1645
  
  Artist
  Aelbert Cuyp
  
  
  
  Life Dates
  1620-1691
  
  
  
  
  Nationality
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Definitions for nationality may vary significantly, depending on chronology and world events.
  Some definitions include:
  Belonging to a people having a common origin based on a geography and/or descent and/or tradition and/or culture and/or religion and/or language, or sharing membership in a legally defined nation.
  
  
  
  Dutch
  
  
  
  Culture
  
  
  
  Please note:
  Cultures may be defined by the language, customs, religious beliefs, social norms, and material traits of a group.
  
  
  
  
  ----------
  
  
  Medium
  Oil on canvas
  
  
  Dimensions
  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)
  
  
  Classification
  Paintings
  
  
  Department
  European Painting
  
  
  Credit
  Gift of Mrs. Lillian Henkel Haass and Mrs. Trent McMath in memory of Julius H. Haass
  
  
  
  Accession Number
  
  
  
  This unique number is assigned to an individual artwork as part of the cataloguing process at the time of entry into the permanent collection.
  Most frequently, accession numbers begin with the year in which the artwork entered the museum’s holdings.
  For example, 2008.3 refers to the year of acquisition and notes that it was the 3rd of that year. The DIA has a few additional systems—no longer assigned—that identify specific donors or museum patronage groups.
  
  
  
  33.7
  
  
  Copyright
  ----------
