Jacob van Ruisdael (Haarlem 1628/29 – Haarlem 1682) was one of the greatest landscape painters of the Golden Age. He is famous for his cloudy skies and trees that have been tormented by wind and weather. He has in an inimitable way incorporated the dreadful, grand nature in his paintings. Thirty-five of his landscapes were brought together in the exhibition. The paintings showed how Ruisdael broke away from traditional landscape painting between 1646 and 1655 and went his own way towards a more dramatic and majestic view of the landscape. The exhibition also showed work by pastors and contemporaries such as Salomon and Isaack van Ruysdael, Jan van Goyen, Allart van Everdingen, Meindert Hobbema and Philips de Koninck.

The exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Kunsthalle Hamburg.