as much mystery

Interesting older article on Dutch landscape paintings by the Guardian's Jonathan Jones. He writes,

"...anyone who gazes at Ruysdael's river under a cool sky [pictured above] will soon notice what is strange about it. The soft pale green trees that fringe the river are reflected in its calm glassy surface so completely and clearly that the painting depicts two worlds, not one: the mirror-world in the water conjoins with its counter-image above, the roots of the trees literally pointing in two directions. What at first seemed a simple scene turns out to hint at a portal to another dimension, a grotesque intertwining of worlds. There is as much suggestion, as much mystery in this painting as in any surrealist dreamscape."

I agree - and on a more personal note I find the mysterious qualities of Dutch landscapes to be much more intriguing than most surrealist works. Probably no suprise.