(c. 1628-1682) Dutch landscape painter. He painted rural scenes near his native town of Haarlem and in Germany, and excelled in depicting gnarled and weatherbeaten trees. A notable example of his work is The Jewish Cemetery about 1660 (Gemäldegalerie, Dresden). The few figures in his pictures were painted by other artists.
Ruisdael probably worked in Haarlem with his uncle, the landscape painter Salomon van Ruysdael (c. 1600–1670), before moving to Amsterdam about 1656. Jacob is considered the greatest realist landscape painter in Dutch art. Meindert Hobbema was one of his pupils.