Salomon van Ruysdael was, according to Houbraken,…

Salomon van Ruysdael was, according to Houbraken, the son of a woodworker specializing in making fancy ebony frames for mirrors and paintings.

His father had sent his sons to learn Latin and medicine, and they had both become landscape painters, specializing in ruis-daal, or trickling water through a dale, after their name.

Jacob is registered with the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke and signs his paintings, while Salomon signs them much less often and is not a member for several years.