With F. Kleinberger, Paris (as a joint work by Ruysdael and Van Goyen);
E. Sarasin-Von der Mühll, Basel (Stechow lists as Sarasin; Von der Mühll, Basel).

Salomon van Ruysdael is perhaps best known for his river landscapes, which he painted throughout his career.  The River Landscape with Three Rowboats is a classic example of what is usually referred to as his tonal period, which began in the early 1630s.  Working in tandem with Jan van Goyen, by whom he was influenced and whom he in turn influenced, Ruysdael developed a color scheme and a compositional template to bring a unity and focus to his landscapes that was lacking in the previous generation's work.  Moving away from the local col❀or of his predecessors, he used a palette dominated by muted grays, greens ♌and browns, to create a more harmonious effect.  At the same time he employed a system of diagonals to organize his works, as here where the line of the boats in the foreground rises from the lower left to the middle right, balancing the sharper angle of the line of trees descending from the upper left, and creating a stable composition.

Comparing the River Landscape with Three Rowboats to other works from this same period, such as the River Bank with Old Trees (Stechow, Op. cit., fig. 16), also of 1633, in the Mauritshuis, one sees how characteris💞tic a work this is.  Not only are the organizing principles comparable, but Ruysdael also repeats specific motifs, such as the bl🌄asted tree that anchors the composition at the left and the sailboat on the horizon at the right.  But perhaps most satisfying is his use of the reflections in the water as a counterweight and an echo of the clouded sky and above.