Herdsmen Tending Cattle

1655/1660

Aelbert Cuyp

Artist, Dutch, 1620 - 1691

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.

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Aelbert Cuyp’s painting of herdsmen and cattle along a river with an evocative ruin in the background is more pastoral than agricultural in its associations. In this respect it parallels a rich literary tradition glorifying the values of rural life. The herdsman in the bright red jacket seems to be getting his cows ready to return to the farmstead, if only he can convince his female companion to abandon this lovely spot on the riverbank.

Many of the components of this work—the golden light, the atmospheric character of the distant landscape with its dramatic ruins, the diffused golden light that casts long shadows, the abstract shapes of the rocks and branches in the foreground—show the influence of the Italianate style of Jan Both (1615/1618–1652) and other Dutch artists who had worked in Italy.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 47

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Andrew W. Mellon Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 66 x 87.6 cm (26 x 34 1/2 in.)
    framed: 88.9 x 109.9 x 3.8 cm (35 x 43 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.)

  • Accession

    1937.1.59

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century: Herdsmen Tending Cattle, 1655/1660

This horizontal painting shows a group of eight light-skinned musicians and onlookers gathered closely around a rectangular, carpet-covered table. The front edge of the table runs parallel to the bottom edge of the painting, and seems close to us. Shown from about the waist up, the men and women’s vivid lapis-blue, coral-red, buttercup-yellow, lilac-purple, and moss-green garments fall in crisp folds. Bright reflections on the fabric suggest a satin-like material. Two women wear feathers in their hair and one man’s hat is plumed. One man, wearing crimson red and black, sits with his back to us to our left on the near side of the table. He holds the neck of a bass viol, about the size of a cello, with his left hand, and points to pages of an open music book with the bow in his right hand. The other people cluster on the far side of the table. A man to the left plays a violin; a woman at the center plays a guitar-sized bandora, and a woman to our right plays a lute. The musicians, along with a man who leans over the table from between the two women, look down at the music books. A young man behind the woman at the center holds up a glass of pale liquid with his right hand as he touches his left forefinger to his smiling lips. A man and woman stand close together in the background to our right, in the top right corner of the canvas.

Scholarly Series:  Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Possibly Gerard Vandergucht [1696-1776], London, c. 1750; possibly (his sale, London, 1757, no. 66); Jennens,[1] possibly for Henry Penton [d. 1806], London;[2] (his sale, Skinner & Dyke, London, 10 June 1800, no. 49); Sir Henry Paulet St. John-Mildmay, 3rd bt. [1764-1808], Dogmersfield House, Hampshire; by inheritance to his wife, Lady Jane St. John-Mildmay [c. 1765-1857], Dogmersfield House; by inheritance to her grandson, Sir Henry Bouverie Paulet St. John-Mildmay, 5th bt. [1810-1902], Dogmersfield House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Henry Paulet St. John-Mildmay, 6th bt. [1853-1916], Dogmersfield House; (M. Knoedler & Co., New York), from 1902; sold April 1905 to Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The only source to mention Vandergucht (also written van der Gucht) is the Knoedler prospectus for the painting, in NGA curatorial files, which mistakenly lists the Vandergucht sale of 1777 that did not include any paintings by Cuyp. See instead Frank Simpson, “Dutch Paintings in England before 1760,” The Burlington Magazine 95 (January 1953): 41, who lists a "Landscape with Cattle, etc." by Cuyp as being no. 66 in a 1757 Vandergucht sale in London, where it was bought by “Jennens.” The listing appears in one of two manuscript volumes in the Victoria and Albert Museum library, London, that contain transcripts of catalogues of the principal collections of paintings sold in England between 1711 and 1759. Jennens was likely Charles Jennens, whom Simpson describes as having brought together by the mid-eighteenth century the largest collection of Dutch paintings then in England. Without further description or size information in the transcription, however, it is not possible to know whether the painting in question is identical to Herdsmen Tending Cattle.
[2] The Knoedler prospectus, in NGA curatorial files, says that Penton acquired the painting at the Vandergucht sale. Penton certainly owned the picture by 1760, the date on François Vivares’ reproductive engraving, entitled The Evening. It depicts the composition in reverse but, with the exception of a group of two birds, it is otherwise identical. This print is listed in Charles LeBlanc, Manuel de l’amateur d’estampes, 4 vols., Paris, 1854: 4:141, no. 20; and Andreas Andresen, Handbuch für Kupferstichsammler..., 2 vols., Leipzig, 1873: 2:678, no. 17.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1866

  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom, London, 1866, no. 43.

1883

  • Works by Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1883, no. 243.

1894

  • Loan Collection of Pictures, Art Gallery of the Corporation of London, Guildhall, London, 1894, no. 51.

1903

  • Exhibition of a Selection of Works by Early and Modern Painters of the Dutch School, Art Gallery of the Corporation of London, Guildhall, London, 1903, no. 176.

1925

  • Paintings by Old Masters from Pittsburgh Collections, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1925, no. 10.

2005

  • Time and Transformation in Dutch Seventeenth Century Art, The Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie; The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; The Speed Art Museum, Louisville, 2005-2006, no. 13, repro.

Bibliography

1826

  • Burnet, John. Practical hints on light and shade in painting. London, 1826: 26-27, pl. 6, fig. 1 (etching).

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):305, no. 75.

1850

  • Burnet, John. "Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting." In A Treatise on Painting in Four Parts. Reprint. London, 1850: Part 3:26-27, pl. 6, fig. 1 (etching).

1866

  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom. Catalogue of pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, Franch, and English masters. Exh. cat. British Institution. London, 1866: no. 43.

1880

  • Burnet, John. "Practical Hints on Light and Shade in Painting." In A Treatise on Painting in Four Parts. Reprint. London, 1880: Part 2:26-27, pl. 6, fig. 1 (etching).

1882

  • Royal Academy of Arts. Exhibition of works by the old masters, and by deceased masters of the British School. Winter Exhibition. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1882: 28, no. 243.

1891

  • Cundall, Frank. The Landscape and Pastoral Painters of Holland: Ruisdael, Hobbema, Cuijp, Potter. Illustrated biographies of the great artists. London, 1891: 161.

1894

  • Temple, Alfred G. Masterpieces of Art. Exh. cat. Art Gallery of the Corporation of London, 1894: 14, repro.

1907

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. 8 vols. Translated by Edward G. Hawke. London, 1907-1927: 2(1909):68, no. 203.

  • Hofstede de Groot, Cornelis. Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts. 10 vols. Esslingen and Paris, 1907-1928: 2(1908):68, no. 203.

1913

  • Graves, Algernon. A Century of Loan Exhibitions, 1813-1912. 5 vols. London, 1913-1915: 1(1913):245, 247, 250.

1925

  • Carnegie Institute. An Exhibition of Paintings by Old Masters from the Pittsburgh Collections. Exh. cat. Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, 1925: no. 10.

1937

  • Jewell, Edward Alden. "Mellon's Gift." Magazine of Art 30, no. 2 (February 1937): 82.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 50-51, no. 59.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 240, repro. 23.

1949

  • National Gallery of Art. Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 96, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 314, repro.

1965

  • National Gallery of Art. Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1965: 35.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 28, repro.

1975

  • Reiss, Stephen. Aelbert Cuyp. Boston, 1975: 129, no. 92, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art. European paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. Washington, 1975: 88, repro.

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 298, no. 402, color repro.

1983

  • Spicer, Joaneath A. "'De Koe voor d’aerde statt': The Origin of the Dutch Cattle Piece." In Essays in Northern European Art Presented to Egbert Haverkamp-Begemann on His Sixtieth Birthday. Edited by Anne-Marie Logan. Doornspijk, 1983: 251-253, fig. 2.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 298, no. 396, color repro.

1985

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. Washington, 1985: 109, repro.

1986

  • Sutton, Peter C. A Guide to Dutch Art in America. Washington and Grand Rapids, 1986: 306, fig. 456.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 54, 73, color repro.

1992

  • Chong, Alan. "Aelbert Cuyp and the Meanings of Landscape." Ph.D. dissertation, New York University, 1992: 509, no. Calr. 12.

1995

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1995: 44-46, color repro. 45.

2001

  • Wheelock, Arthur K., Jr. Aelbert Cuyp. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; National Gallery, London; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. Washington, 2001: 29, fig. 20.

2004

  • George S. Keyes, et al. Masters of Dutch Painting: The Detroit Institute of Arts. London, 2004: 62, fig. 2.

2005

  • Kuretsky, Susan Donahue. Time and Transformation in Seventeenth-Century Dutch Art. Exh. cat. Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota; J.B. Speed Art Museum, Louisville. Seattle, 2005: 24, 135-137, no. 13.

2020

  • Libby, Alexandra. “From Personal Treasures to Public Gifts: The Flemish Painting Collection at the National Gallery of Art.” In America and the Art of Flanders: Collecting Paintings by Rubens, Van Dyck, and their Circles, edited by Esmée Quodbach. The Frick Collection Studies in the History of Art Collecting in America 5. University Park, 2020: 132.

Inscriptions

lower left: A.cuijp

Wikidata ID

Q20177389

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