The Windmill at Wijk bij Duurstede

In the pictureOn the right side of the picture stands a windmill shaped like a round tower, its sails spread in an X, with a railed gallery around the middle of its body. The horizon lies low near the bottom of the picture, and above it the sky is filled with dark gray and white clouds. On the left the river Lek spreads out, with a white-sailed boat afloat, and a row of wooden posts is driven into the riverbank. Through the trees to the left of the windmill the tower of Duurstede Castle can be seen, and at the far right a church tower, while a few women walk along the path on the riverbank.

BackgroundJacob van Ruisdael (about 1628–1682) was born in Haarlem and later worked in Amsterdam, and he is one of the leading Dutch landscape painters of the 17th century. This painting is set in Wijk bij Duurstede, a small town on the Lek in the province of Utrecht, and was painted around 1670. The painter set the horizon low so that the windmill seems to soar into the sky, and painted the castle and church small beside it. The museum explains that the composition brings all the elements of the Dutch landscape, low land, water and a vast sky, together in the windmill. The painter's signature is at the lower right.

Puzzle tipThe sky takes up nearly two-thirds of the picture, and its gray clouds look alike, making it the hardest part of this painting. First fit the bright windmill body and sails and the dark riverbank and post fence at the lower right to complete the lower band. Then join the white sailboat on the left, the horizon and the ripples of the river. Fill the sky in sections: the dark storm clouds at the upper left, the sunlit white clouds in the middle, and the patches of blue sky showing between them. The recommended piece count is the Hard level, about 100 pieces.