RUYSDAEL, or RUISDAEL, JACOB, the prince of Dutch landscape-painters, was born at Haerlem in 1630, and is said to have studied under Berchem. Settling in his native country, he commenced to paint landscapes with unsurpassed success. His eye sought for subjects under every aspect of nature. He selected a wide sweep of meadow-land, a wooded hamlet, or a frozen canal with unfailing artistic skill. His lively fancy imparted to the scene its appropriate poetic feeling, and his hand copied the whole with exquisite fidelity. But it was especially in the wild and the magnificent that Ruysdael was at home. His ardent imagination loved to exercise itself in imitating the lawless strength of nature. Tempestuous seas and rude forest landscapes came out upon the canvas with all the striking effect of reality. Ruysdael died at Haerlem in 1681. Specimens of the works of this great painter are found in most of the principal collections in Europe. There is a landscape in Worcester College, Oxford, a church interior in Lord Bute's collection, and two landscapes in the National Gallery of Scotland. His masterpiece, a "Stag-Hunt," is in the Dresden gallery. The figures in his pictures are painted by Philip Wouwerman, Adrian Vandevelde, or Berchem. Jacob Ruysdael's elder brother Solomon was also a landscape-painter.