Pastoral Landscape with Ruins
<p>With its warm southern sunlight and leisurely interactions between herders, this painting of the Italian countryside would have affirmed urban Dutch perceptions of rural areas as places of innocence and peace. The son of a painter, Adriaen van de Velde was also inspired by the cattle pieces of <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/36253/paulus-potter">Paulus Potter</a> and the Italianate pastoral scenes of <a href="https://www.artic.edu/artists/33605/nicolaes-berchem">Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem</a>. He achieved a harmonious balance of elements by studying the landscape from life as well as by sketching the cattle in the pasture and the human figures in the studio.</p>
Catalogue
- Year
- 1664
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 67 × 78.4 cm (26 3/8 × 30 7/8 in.); Framed: 81.3 × 92.4 × 6.4 cm (32 × 36 3/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Artist
- Adriaen van de Velde
Artist
Painting
Adriaen van de Velde was a 17th-century Dutch painter, draftsman and printmaker best known for his landscapes and animal paintings. Amsterdam in the mid-17th-century was in a bustling era of economic growth, in which newly-rich merchants and guilds were on the rise as both powerful economic figures and leading patrons of artistic production. Given this, Van de Velde was able to secure consistent commissions before dying at the young age of 35. His prolific and impressive career embodies the Dutch Golden Age in terms of experimentation with hazy light, naturalistic landscapes and nuanced depictions of figures.
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More by Adriaen van de Velde
The Hut
1671 · canvas, oil paint (paint)
Two Cows under a Tree
1670 · etching
Bull Grazing and Three Sheep
1670 · Etching in black on paper
Grazing Cow with Two Sheep
1670 · etching
The Lamb
1670 · Etching in black on ivory wove paper
Two Cows under a Tree
1670 · etching
Record
Verified by WattsOS- Artist
- Adriaen van de Velde
- Year
- 1664
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 67 × 78.4 cm (26 3/8 × 30 7/8 in.); Framed: 81.3 × 92.4 × 6.4 cm (32 × 36 3/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
- Watts ID
- WW-1664-049956
Source
- Collection
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Source
- aic
- Reference
- View at source
- Status
- verified