Oil Painting, 'Landscape with Cattle', follower of Nicolaes Berchem, late 17th century

A rocky landscape with trees and figures, a man is carrying an ass and some cattle is resting nearby a pond with a mill in the background.

Bequeathed by George Mitchell

Bequeathed by George Mitchell, 1878

Historical significance: Originally catalogued as a signed Berchem (1893 Catalogue, p. 175), the signature was found to be false - a late addition over the varnish - and was removed when the picture was cleaned in 1895. It appears to be a late 17th century work in the style of Berchem.
This composition, structured on the imposing rock at the right, is recurrent in Berchem's work, such as his Peasants by a Roman ruins, in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, and Italian ruins, in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. The mill in the background is typically Dutch but the golden palette implies a Mediterranean setting.

Nicolaes Pietersz., son of the still-life painter Pieter Claesz., he adopted the surname Berchem (1620-83). Born in Haarlem, he studied with his father and with Jan van Goyen and Nicolaes Moeyaert, among others, and entered the Haarlem guild in 1642. He went to Italy with his cousin Jan Baptist Weenix in 1642 and is recorded in Rome until 1645. From 1646 he lived in Haarlem; by 1677 he had settled in Amsterdam. He is best known for his imaginary Italianate landscapes, and had a prolific output, in a variety of themes. It is uncertain if he visited Italy or only known Italy through the drawings of artists who had travelled there. His numerous pupils included Karel Dujardin, Willem Romeyn, Hendrick Mommers, Dirck Maes, Pieter de Hooch and Jacob Ochtervelt. The French painter François Boucher owned some of Berchem's pictures in the mid-18th century, and his work also inspired Francesco Zuccarelli, Marco Ricci and perhaps even Antoine Watteau.

Italianate landscapes were particularly popular during the 17th century. The term conventionally refers to the school of Dutch painters and draughtsmen who were active in Rome for over a century from the early 17th century. They mainly produced pastoral scenes bathed in warm southern light, set in an Italian, or specifically Roman, landscape. The term is also often applied, but wrongly, to artists who never left the northern Netherlands but also worked primarily in an Italianate style. The taste for Italianate landscapes continued undiminished into the 19th century.

Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683) may have trained in Haarlem with Jan van Goyen. He was a prolific painter (about 850 paintings), draughtsman and etcher. He joined the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1642. From the mid-1650s until his death, Berchem shuttled back and forth between Haarlem and Amsterdam where he died in 1683.

This painting is a typical example of Nicolaes Berchem's rocky landscape warmed by a golden sunrise. In these paintings, Berchem usually depicted figures involved in rustic daily activities such as travelling around the countryside and watching after the cattle. These pictures are also reminiscent of Italy: here the mill in the background is typically Dutch but the golden palette employed gives a sense of Mediterranean setting. Although the attribution to Berchem himself is not likely, this painting appears as a genuine late 17th-century work. Berchem had many followers among whom his own son, Nicolaes (van) Berchem who imitated his father's style.

350-1878