This picture is one of only half a dozen landscapes by Adriaen van Ostade, four of which bear dates ranging from 1639 to 1645.4 It is tempting to see his brief foray into this genre in the light of a suit brought against him on 30 March 1640 by Salomon van Ruysdael for a claim of 14 guilders for ‘board and painting fees’.5 It is not known whether Adriaen van Ostade, who had already been working independently for some time, or his younger brother Isack had been rooming with Van Ruysdael and receiving lessons from him, and thus incurring the debt.6 However, that this contact with one of the foremost landscape artist in Haarlem had something to do with Adriaen’s sudden interest in this subject matter seems a distinct possibility. Probably inspired by the dunes around Haarlem, the Rijksmuseum scene is built up according to a formula already in use since the early 1630s by Dutch landscapists like Esaias van de Velde, Jan van Goyen, Salomon van Ruysdael and Pieter de Molijn: a dark, raised foreground, followed by a light middle ground and a dark, summarily executed background.7 Staffage plays a very minor role in Van Ostade’s painting. Only after close inspection can a man be made out seated on the far left, with a shepherd and his flock approaching the stone bridge in the middle ground. It has been argued that this structure was derived from Rembrandt’s 1638 Landscape with the Good Samaritan.8 It has also been suggested that Van Ostade’s elevation of a gnarly oak to principal motif was inspired by Rembrandt’s example,9 although the slanting tree with its dead branches closely resembles those in Van Goyen’s oeuvre, where they are also often the central focus of the composition.10 On the other hand, one can readily imagine that Rembrandt’s 1638 picture and his Landscape with Stone Bridge in the Rijksmuseum,11 inspired the stormy sky and dramatic chiaroscuro in Van Ostade’s scene. The palette of golden yellow, brown and ochre, however, is closer to that employed by Van Ruysdael and the other Haarlem tonal painters than to Rembrandt’s, whose remarkable pinks, oranges and blue-greys are not to be found in this work.12 The painting does not bear the year of execution. The dendrochronology indicates that the panel was probably ready for use in or after 1635.13 The monochrome palette suggests that the picture was made in or slightly after 1639. The two landscapes by Van Ostade that are dated 1639 are also tonal works, whereas he admitted colour into those from 1644 and 1645.14 The composition of the present scene is also very similar to one of 1641 by Isack van Ostade in Basel.15 Jonathan Bikker, 2022 See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements