The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede

Litho print. The painting shows Wijk bij Duurstede, a riverside town about 20 kilometers from Utrecht, with a dominating cylindrical windmill, harmonised by the lines of river bank and sails, and the contrasts between light and shadow working together with the intensified concentration of mass and space. [1] The attention to detail is remarkable. Art historian Seymour Slive reports that both from an aeronautical engineering and a hydrological viewpoint the finest levels of details are correct, in the windmill's sails and the river's waves respectively.[2]
It is not known for certain when Ruisdael painted the Windmill. The painting is not dated, as very few of his works are after 1653.[3] Dating subsequent work has therefore been largely detective work and speculation. It is assumed that it was painted in 1670.[4]