Jacob van Ruisdael (c. 1629 – 1682) was a prolific and versatile Dutch artist, generally considered the pre-eminent landscape painter of the Dutch Golden Age. During this period of great wealth and cultural achievement when Dutch painting became highly popular, his father and uncle were also landscape artists. His earliest works, dating from 1646, show remarkable quality for his age. He moved from his Haarlem birthplace to Amsterdam around 1657, where he lived until his death. Ruisdael painted a wide variety of landscape subjects, including Dutch countryside scenes, city panoramas, seascapes, and Scandinavian waterfalls. The sky often takes up two thirds of the canvas. His accurate rendering of trees was unprecedented, and he is particularly known for his paintings of mills, such as Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede (pictured). Ruisdael shaped landscape painting traditions worldwide, influencing the English Romantics, the French Barbizon School, and the American Hudson River School, as well as generations of Dutch landscape artists. The National Gallery, the Rijksmuseum, and the Hermitage Museum hold the largest collections of his paintings.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_van_Ruisdael

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1607:

Susenyos defeated the combined armies of Yaqob and Abuna Petros II at the Battle of Gol in Gojjam, making him Emperor of Ethiopia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susenyos_I

1876:

Alexander Graham Bell made his first successful bi-directional telephone call, saying, "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invention_of_the_telephone

1959:

An anti-Chinese uprising erupted in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, as about 300,000 Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace to prevent the 14th Dalai Lama from leaving or being removed by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1959_Tibetan_uprising

1966:

Military Prime Minister of South Vietnam Nguyễn Cao Kỳ sacked rival General Nguyễn Chánh Thi, precipitating large-scale civil and military dissension in parts of the nation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Ch%C3%A1nh_Thi

2006:

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (artist's conception pictured) attained orbit around Mars. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Reconnaissance_Orbiter

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

quiescent: 1. Inactive, quiet, at rest. 2. (grammar) Not sounded; silent. 3. (cell biology) Non-proliferating. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/quiescent

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

I had crossed de line of which I had so long been dreaming. I was free; but dere was no one to welcome me to de land of freedom, I was a stranger in a strange land, and my home after all was down in de old cabin quarter, wid de ole folks, and my brudders and sisters. But to dis solemn resolution I came; I was free, and dey should be free also; I would make a home for dem in de North, and de Lord helping me, I would bring dem all dere. Oh, how I prayed den, lying all alone on de cold, damp ground; "Oh, dear Lord," I said, "I haint got no friend but you. Come to my help, Lord, for I'm in trouble!"   --Harriet Tubman https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubman