Circle of Nicolaes Berchem (1620, Haarlem – 1683, Amsterdam), Scene with herds

Circle of Nicolaes Berchem (1620, Haarlem – 1683, Amsterdam)

Scene with herds

Oil on canvas, 30 x 39 cm – With frame 56 x 65 cm

In the present canvas depicted a Scene with Herds at Sunset, we can recognize the hand of a painter who had the opportunity to directly know the works and models of Nicolaes Berchem, (1620, Haarlem – 1683, Amsterdam), one of the most famous landscape painters Italians.

Son of the still life painter Pieter Claesz (1598-1661), he introduced him to the artistic world and taught him the first pictorial rudiments; It is not known exactly why he adopted the surname Berchem instead of Claesz, perhaps due to the place of birth of his father. According to the most recent studies, the young Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem continued his apprenticeship under the guidance of the landscape painter Jan van Goyen (1596-1656) and Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert (1590-1655), representing the second generation of Dutch Italians.

No travels by Berchem are well documented, but, according to many sources, he may have traveled with his cousin Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-1663), with whom he also shared the experience in Moeyaert's workshop in a period prior to 1642 when it is documented his presence in the St. Luke Guild of Haarlem.

He stayed in Rome twice (1642 and 1653); there he fell in love with the Roman countryside, which became the main inspiration for his landscapes, drawing from the Roman countryside the themes of his successful landscapes. He visited Westphalia with Jacob van Ruisdaele and then returned to Amsterdam where he worked for Jan de Visscher.

In his youth, Berchem's paintings were greatly influenced by the style of the master Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert and by biblical and mythological figures with powerful close-ups, three-dimensional figures in landscapes immersed in clear and warm light. Subsequently, during his full artistic maturity he preferred a production for mostly focused on port panoramas, hunts, ruins in Latin and Roman landscapes, battles and obviously landscapes with a pastoral background as in the work examined. His style is strongly influenced by his Italian stays and is characterized by a definition of ideal rural environments, hilly or mountainous as the case may be, enriched by human and animal figures (he was also an engraver and his studies on animals were of considerable importance).

The painting in question evokes the compositions of the Dutch artist, describing an Arcadian-style landscape characterized by a delicate, lyrical atmosphere with delicate but at the same time lively and present tones. In the rich and balanced composition, the landscape is rendered with great attention paid to detail and light while the slight fading and attenuation of the colors in the distance gives the sense of a delicate depth. The warm tones and the refined transitions of tone, immersed in this particular light, give the work an atmosphere in which time seems to have stopped.

In relation to this painting, see the pastoral scenes preserved in the National Gallery in London, Vienna and the Getty Museum.

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