Aelbert Cuyp

Cuijp, Aelbert

Dutch, 1620 - 1691

Explore Selected Works

An elegantly dressed man and woman ride horses toward us and to our right in a landscape with low, rolling hills, stone buildings, and trees in this horizontal painting. The two horses and riders take up the right half of the composition. Both people have pale skin and look at us. The woman has a high forehead, a straight nose, a round face, and curly blond hair falling to her shoulders. She wears a sapphire-blue dress with slashed sleeves to reveal a white garment beneath. Her hat is adorned with blue and white feathers, and she wears a string of pearls around her neck. The legs of her white horse darken to black below the knees, and the bridle is tied with blue bows near the horse’s ears. The sidesaddle sits on a woven, rug-like blanket. Next to her, to our right, the man rides a larger chestnut-brown horse with a white triangle between its eyes. The man looks at us out of the corners of his dark eyes under gathered brows. He has a long, straight nose and is cleanshaven, though a hint of a five o’clock shadow slightly darkens his cleft chin. His light brown hair falls in curls down past his shoulders, and he wears a dark brown coat with voluminous white fabric rippling out above tan-colored gloves. He holds a riding crop in his right hand, on our left, resting against his hip. Near the white horse’s feet, to our left, a dark brown dog with a white nose sniffs at a plant. Behind it, another reddish-brown dog sniffs the ground near the horse’s back hoof. A third dog stands beyond, partially obscured by bushes and plants growing in the lower left corner of the canvas. A man wearing a tall black, wide-brimmed hat and carrying a long staff leads two slender dogs resembling grayhounds on leashes along the path, a little behind the riders. Two more elegantly dressed men ride horses toward us father back on the path. Sand-colored stone buildings, hazy in the distance, are clustered around a squared tower, possibly a bell tower, to our left. The land dips gently to the horizon line in the deep distance. The riders are silhouetted against a swirling slate-blue cloud that fills most of the sky in the top two-thirds of the painting. The sky clears to pale blue to our left and then warms to golden yellow along the horizon, beyond the buildings. The artist signed the painting near the lower left corner: “A. Cuijp.”
Aelbert Cuyp, Lady and Gentleman on Horseback, c. 1655, reworked 1660/1665, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.15

Lady and Gentleman on Horseback

Aelbert Cuyp · c. 1655, reworked 1660/1665 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.15

A man stands and a woman sits near a herd of seven cows under a light-drenched sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The herd gathers on a grassy rise just beyond some large boulders and twiggy branches. The cows are caramel or copper brown and ivory white. They stand and lie, legs tucked demurely beneath their hulking bodies, facing different directions, their short horns curling like parentheses against the sky. The man stands on our side of the herd with his back to us to the left of center. He holds a tall shepherd’s staff in one hand as he hunches slightly and points with the other, to our right. He wears a high-crowned, wide-brimmed black hat, a crimson-red jacket, black trousers, and black knee-high boots. A knapsack hangs across one shoulder and rests behind his left hip. The woman sits on the far side of the herd so we see her under the man’s raised arm. She looks at him, her face peachy and round under a wide-brimmed straw-colored hat. She wears a white shirt under a robin’s egg-blue dress, and also holds a tall staff upright with both hands. Two more pale-skinned people sit on the ground or on a donkey in the near distance to our right, near the right edge of the canvas. Both wear hats and earth-toned clothing in black, gray, and blue. The donkey stands facing us, its face low, and a pair of baskets are slung across its back. The people and cattle cast long shadows from the setting sun, out of view to our left. The sunset ignites the undersides of the towering, slate-gray clouds with peach and gold against the ice-blue sky. A body of water stretches from beyond the low hill to a distant shore, where stone ruins are outlined on the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. A flock of six birds and another pair dot the sky.
Aelbert Cuyp, Herdsmen Tending Cattle, 1655/1660, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.59

Herdsmen Tending Cattle

Aelbert Cuyp · 1655/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1937.1.59

Golden sunlight pours across a landscape with three people on horseback and two more people near a flock of sheep, a cow, and a mule in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin. The horizon is about a third of the way up the composition and is lined with towers on distant, hazy, pale yellow hills. Two of the horses are to the right of center, both facing us. The horse on the left is white, and the rider wears an azure-blue tunic and red brimless cap. The other horse is brown with a white blaze, and its rider wears a red tunic and black cap. That second rider points with a whip to the sitting and standing people near the sheep, to the right. Those two people wear brown jackets, and the standing man has a mustache. The seated person rests a long staff over one shoulder. About half of the nine sheep there lie on the ground, and the others stand. The cow dips her head down to the sheep, and the splay-footed donkey has baskets hung to each side. This grouping is in front of a copse of tall trees that nearly reach the top edge of the composition. The third rider is to our left and a short distance away. That dark brown horse gallops to our right. A short distance away, another herdsman along the left edge of the composition wears a red tunic and brown pants, and he rests a long staff on one shoulder. One cow stands and one lies down next to that herdsman. Sunlight rakes across twigs, leafy plants, scrubby growth, and rocks in the foreground, closest to us. Sailboats float on the waterways that stretch horizontally across the painting in the distance, and the land separating those bodies of water is dotted with spires, windmills, towers, and other structures. A dozen dark birds fly high in the sky, which takes up the top two-thirds of the picture. A bank of iridescent yellow and pearly white clouds trundle across the pale blue sky. The artist signed the painting in the lower right corner, “A.cuijp.”
Aelbert Cuyp, Horsemen and Herdsmen with Cattle, 1655/1660, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.16

Horsemen and Herdsmen with Cattle

Aelbert Cuyp · 1655/1660 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.16

A fleet of ships gathers in a river lined by trees and buildings in this horizontal painting. The horizon is low, less than a quarter of the way up the composition, and the immense pale blue sky above is filled with clouds with golden tops above dove-gray undersides. The river spans the width of the painting and is congested with boats and ships, many festooned with red, white, and blue flags and banners. The vessels are crowded with people, mostly men wearing hats and black or brown garments. A ship to our right is closest to us and is the largest in the composition. A rowboat has pulled up to the side of the ship, and is occupied by a seated man wearing crimson red and a standing man wearing black. Another man, wearing brown, pulls the rowboat closer to the ship. Amid the densely packed deck over the rowboat, a musician plays a drum while another drinks from a flagon. Ships with unfurled sails, rowboats, and ferries fill the river behind and around the large ship. Churches and buildings are clustered along the riverbank to the left and trees line the river to the right.
Aelbert Cuyp, The Maas at Dordrecht, c. 1650, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1940.2.1

The Maas at Dordrecht

Aelbert Cuyp · c. 1650 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1940.2.1

Warm sunlight bathes a scene with a herd of five golden tan, ivory, or chocolate-brown cows lying or standing on a low hill near four people on foot and on horseback in this horizontal landscape painting. The people all have pale, peachy skin. The horizon line is about a quarter of the way up the composition and is lined in the deep distance with spires rising over trees. Close to us and at the center of the composition, two cows look off to our left in profile; one is caramel brown and lies on the ground in front of a standing, gray cow. The three remaining cows cluster to our right and look off that side of the painting. One of two standing cows is ivory and the other is brown with a white face. The fifth cow lies down and is the same pale brown color of the other reclining cow. Two men riding horses converse with two people on foot to our right of and slightly behind the cows. The person closest to us rides a black horse and faces away from us. He wears a plumed hat and a red cape draped over a blue-gray coat, and he carries a long, thin rod. He looks toward the two people on foot farther back behind the cows. One standing person wears a gray coat, a floppy black, plumed hat, and holds a long staff in one hand and points to our right with the other. The other standing person wears a straw hat over blond hair and wears a blue garment over a white shirt. Near the right edge of the painting, the other horseman wears a gray coat and a brown cap over brown hair. He rides a silvery gray horse and looks back over his shoulder toward the interaction or herd. Birds fly in the distance in the watery blue sky below a bank of dove-gray clouds.
Aelbert Cuyp, Landscape with Herdsmen, mid-1650s, oil on panel, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2014.79.707

Landscape with Herdsmen

Aelbert Cuyp · mid-1650s · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2014.79.707

Eight cows bathed in warm sunlight stand and lie on a riverbank carpeted in mossy green in this horizontal painting. The cows are amber, ginger, or tawny brown, bone white, or black, and all have short, curving horns. Seven are clustered closely together, at the bottom center of the painting. There, one tawny red cow with a white face looks at or toward us as it lies at the middle of the grouping, legs tucked under her big body. The eighth cow is black with a white face, and lies just to our left of the group. Behind the cows, to our right, a hill rises about halfway up the right side of the composition. Three men meet at the top. One man is on horseback with his back to us, while the other two stand to the right holding tall staffs. They are dressed in sage-green, tan, or peanut-brown tunics and knee-length pants, and they all wear hats. Beyond the cows, the silvery-blue river extends back to a row of low trees in the deep distance on the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up the composition. A few sailboats with white sails navigate the waterway. The sky, which takes up about three-quarters of the composition, is filled with puffy white, pale gray, and shell-pink clouds. A shaft of sunlight breaks through the clouds near the top center of the composition and falls toward the men on the hill. Birds flying in a loose band are painted with a few swipes of brown, tiny in the distance. The artist signed the lower right, “A:Cuijp.”
Aelbert Cuyp, River Landscape with Cows, 1645/1650, oil on panel, Gift of Family Petschek (Aussig), 1986.70.1

River Landscape with Cows

Aelbert Cuyp · 1645/1650 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1986.70.1

We look across a body of calm water onto a wooden pier, rowboats, sailboats, and a town on the distant shore, all beneath a cloudy sky that takes up the top three-quarters of this horizontal landscape. The pier extends into the scene from the left edge, and stretches about a quarter of the way across the painting’s width. Three men and a woman, all with light skin, stand in a group near a fourth man, who sits on a piling at the front corner. They all wear charcoal-gray, muted blue, or fawn-brown clothing and hats. A rifle leans against the hip of one man, and another man looks out at the water, his back turned to the rest of the group. Three small boats are tied to the end of the dock. The one closest to us holds large containers, perhaps wrapped with rope. A fifth man bends over the far edge of the boat farthest from us. In another rowboat to our right, a man stands, another sits, and a third pulls on the oars. Four sailboats float into the distance down the center of the composition. To our right, the town along the far shore has closely spaced buildings with peaked roofs, a windmill, and a tall steeple, all painted with tones of peanut brown and tan. Light falls across the water from our left, casting the area closest to us in deep shadow. The surface of water is painted with tones of ivory and gray, matching the sky above. Light filters and streaks through ash-gray clouds across most of the sky. The clouds part to reveal a patch of pale blue at the upper left corner.
Aelbert Cuyp, A Pier Overlooking Dordrecht, early 1640s, oil on panel, Gift of George M. and Linda H. Kaufman, 2012.73.1

A Pier Overlooking Dordrecht

Aelbert Cuyp · early 1640s · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2012.73.1

Aelbert Cuyp, Panoramic Landscape along the Rhine, 1640s, black chalk with yellow, brown, and gray wash and touches of gum arabic on laid paper, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2001.91.1

Panoramic Landscape along the Rhine

Aelbert Cuyp · 1640s · black chalk with yellow, brown, and gray wash and touches of gum arabic on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.91.1

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River Scene

Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Friedrich Christoph Dietrich, Christian Josi · published 1821 · chalk manner with aquatint and roulette printed in black ink and hand-colored with wash ·  Accession ID  1974.6.2.43

Bibliography

1753

  • Houbraken, Arnold. De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen. 3 vols. in 1. The Hague, 1753 (Reprint: Amsterdam, 1976): 1:248-249.

1829

  • Smith, John. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters. 9 vols. London, 1829-1842: 5(1834):279-368.

1884

  • Veth, J. H. "Aelbert Cuyp, Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp en Benjamin Cuyp." Oud Holland 2 (1884): 233-290.

1966

  • Stechow, Wolfgang. Dutch Landscape Painting of the Seventeenth Century. National Gallery of Art Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art, no. 1. London, 1966.

1969

  • Burnett, David G. "Landscapes of Aelbert Cuyp." Apollo 89 (1969): 372-380.

1975

  • Reiss, Stephen. Aelbert Cuyp. Boston, 1975.

1977

  • Aelbert Cuyp en zijn familie: schilders te Dordrecht. Exh. cat. Dordrechts Museum, 1977.

1987

  • Sutton, Peter C., et al. Masters of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting. Exh. cat. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Philadelphia Museum of Art. Boston, 1987: 290-304.

1991

  • MacLaren, Neil. The Dutch School, 1600-1900. Revised and expanded by Christopher Brown. 2 vols. National Gallery Catalogues. London, 1991: 1:86-87.

1992

  • Chong, Alan. Aelbert Cuyp and the Meanings of Landscape. Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1992.

  • De Zichtbare Werelt. Exh. cat. Dordrechts Museum, 1992, 117-136.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1995: 32-33.

2001

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Aelbert Cuyp. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Washington, D.C., 2001.