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Painted around the mid-1650s, The Cloister is one of a group of works directly influenced by Ruisdael's travels around the German-Netherlandish borderlands, the regions of Overijssel and Westphalia. The painting unites a number of painterly and compositional elements that clearly relate directly to Ruisdael's impressions from his journey: the open, generously composed riverscape contains a number of 'non-Dutch' motifs, such as a cloister complex with a ruined tower on the riverbank, the dark, overgrown hill ridge in the background, and the bizarrely shaped, knotty trunks of the ancient trees on the right-hand side of the picture. The pale bark of the dead tree on the right-hand riverbank corresponds to the ochre façade of the ruins, warmly lit by the evening sun. Dark, heavy clouds gather over the hills against the pale evening sky, whose light is reflected by flat areas of the riverbank. The careful, finely detailed work on the foliage, the pure, cool coloration, and the richer and more powerful approach of this picture go far beyond Ruisdael's works from the 1640s.
The artist sketching scenery in the foreground of the painting invites the viewer to immerse himself in contemplation at the sight of the genesis and decay of nature and of the achievements of civilisation.
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