1248 - Nicolaes Berchem, Nachfolge

Nicolaes Berchem, Nachfolge Nicolaes Berchem, follower of Evening landscape with shepherds and their flock Oil on panel. 46 x 62.5 cm. Provenance Private collection, northern Germany. Inscribed lower centre: Berchem f. In the golden light of the setting sun, herdsmen drive their sheep and oxen through the Campagna. Flanked by dogs, a peasant in a slouch hat rides his donkey in the center of the picture, and leads viewers into the southern landscape. Beside him, an ox looks out of the picture at us with a knowing gaze. Between periods in Haarlem and Amsterdam, Nicolaes Berchem achieved great renown as a painter of Arcadian scenes and Italianate landscapes. Yet it remains unresolved to this day whether he ever traveled to Italy, as his fellow painters of the Dutch "Bentvueghel" did. A comparable painting by Berchem can be found in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich (Italian Landscape in the Evening Light, c. 1670, inv. no. 266).