Nicolaes Berchem the Elder

Haarlem-born Nicolaes Berchem was a successful artist, best known for his Italianate landscape paintings. His extensive oeuvre of paintings, drawings, and etchings includes hunting, biblical and mythological scenes. Berchem was friendly with Jacob van Ruisdael. They toured together around Bentheim in 1650 and collaborated on several paintings. Berchem moved to Amsterdam in 1677. He was an influential artist with many pupils, including Karel Dujardin and Pieter de Hooch. His style was emulated widely and his popularity is further illustrated through the large number of prints made after his paintings in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.