A Forest Marsh with Travelers on a Bank, 1651-1655, Jacob van Ruisdael, Dutch, 1628 or 1629¡V1682, 7 1/8 ¡Ñ 10 9/16 in. (18.1 ¡Ñ 26.83 cm) (plate, sheet, trimmed at edges)7 3/8 ¡Ñ 10 3/4 in. (18.73 ¡Ñ 27.31 cm) (mount, strips along edges of sheet), Etching and drypoint, Netherlands, 17th century, Jacob van Ruisdael is among the most highly regarded landscape artists of Holland¡¦s Golden Age. He was a prolific painter and made about a dozen etchings. In The Travelers, he wielded the etching needle with exceptional freedom and expressive force, a departure from the delicacy normally seen in the work of his forebears and contemporaries. As is evident in this brilliant impression, the light is diffuse but infinitely varied despite the simplicity of his two-bite etching technique.