Nicolaes Berchem, Dutch, 1620/1621 - 1683
Title: An Italianate Landscape
Date: 1650-1670
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
61.4 x 65.3 cm
Credit Line: Bequeathed, Sir Henry Page Turner Barron, 1901
Object Number: NGI.510
DescriptionOn the plain, lit by warm sun, a rock with a castle and ruined aqueduct evoke the landscape of Italy. They provide a carefully disposed backdrop to the cattle drovers who water their beasts in a stream. The crisp quality of the figures and animals, with their attractive colouring, reflect Berchem's specialisation in this area. He provided them, on occasion, for at least seven other artists, including Jacob van Ruisdael, Meindert Hobbema and Jan Baptist Weenix. His ink-and-wash drawings were made into more than 50 etchings, most of which deal with animal subjects.
The son of the still-life painter Pieter Claesz., Berchem possibly never travelled to Italy but absorbed the lessons of earlier Italianate landscapists. He was an adept painter of many landscape types and produced a wide variety of allegorical religious and mythological subjects, perhaps over 800 in all. He was widely regarded in the 18th century as a result of the large number of engravings made from his paintings.
(National Gallery of Ireland: Essential Guide, 2008)
The son of the still-life painter Pieter Claesz., Berchem possibly never travelled to Italy but absorbed the lessons of earlier Italianate landscapists. He was an adept painter of many landscape types and produced a wide variety of allegorical religious and mythological subjects, perhaps over 800 in all. He was widely regarded in the 18th century as a result of the large number of engravings made from his paintings.
(National Gallery of Ireland: Essential Guide, 2008)
ProvenanceChristie's, 6-13 June 1885, Christopher Beckett Denison sale, lot 5; Sir Henry Page Turner Barron; bequeathed, Sir Henry Page Turner Barron, 1901
Exhibition HistoryCentenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Art Surpassing Nature: Dutch Landscape in the Age of Rembrandt and Ruisdael, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 29 October 2012 - 20 January 2013
Art Surpassing Nature: Dutch Landscape in the Age of Rembrandt and Ruisdael, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 29 October 2012 - 20 January 2013
Label TextLit by warm sunlight, a rock with a castle and ruined aqueduct evoke the landscape of Italy. They provide a carefully disposed backdrop to the shepherds who water their cattle in a stream. The crisp quality and attractive colouring of the figures and animals reflect Berchem’s specialisation in this area. One of the most prolific landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age, Berchem is chiefly known for his views of the Italian countryside. Although it remains unclear whether he actually visited Italy himself, he painted hundreds of views of herdsmen wandering through landscapes filled with ruins and basked in Mediterranean sunlight.