Nicolaes Berchem was a member of the second generation of Dutch Italianate artists. These painters, many of whom had spent time in Rome, produced pastoral subjects set in a warm, sunbathed Italian landscape. Berchem’s depiction of this idyllic countryside, where shepherds live in peace and harmony, was meant to evoke the spirit of Classical authors such as Virgil. Berchem’s thick, fractured brushstrokes are evident throughout and provide a lively rhythm on the surface.
Details
- Artist Name: Nicolaes Berchem (Dutch, 1620-1683)
- Title: Pastoral Scene
- Date: 1679
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: 26-5/8 x 25-1/4 in. (67.6 x 64.1 cm)
- Credit Line: The Norton Simon Foundation
- Accession Number: F.1972.15.4.P
- Copyright: © The Norton Simon Foundation
Object Information
Farret.
F. Kamermans (sale, Rotterdam, A. Lamme, 3 October 1825, lot 2, presumably bought in by);
[Arnoldus Lamme].
Jean-Francois Boursault (sale, Paris, Paillet, 7 May 1832, lot 8, sold to);
[Henry Artaria, buying for];
Edmund Higginson, Esq., Saltmarshe Castle, Herefordshire (sale, London, Christie's, 5 June 1846, lot 122, to);
[John] Hickman† (possibly sale, London, Christie’s, 20 March 1847, lot 28, bought-in).
Frederick C. Dickson (sale, London, Sotheby's, 30 June 1971, lot 4, sold to);
[Morris, buying for];
[Edward Speelman, Ltd., London, sold 24 April 1972 to];
The Norton Simon Foundation.
[on loan]
- Oberlin College, Dudley Peter Allen Art Museum, 1972-01-06 to 1973-05-08
[on loan]
- Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1973-05-09 to 1974-11-26
All Consuming: Art and the Essence of Food
- Norton Simon Museum, 2023-04-14 to 2023-08-14
Tulips are in Bloom
- Norton Simon Museum, 1993-04-29 to 1993-08
- Hoogewerff, G.J., O.H.,
- Sotheby's, fig. 26
- C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonne of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, 1834, no. 221
- A descriptive catalogue of the gallery of pictures collected by Edmund Higginson Esq. of Saltmarshe, 1842, no. 8 p. 4
- E. Schaar, Studien zu Nicolaes Berchem, 1958,
- Kuznetsov, J., Iz istori russkogo I zapadnoevropeskogo iskusstva, 1960,
- Norton Simon Museum, Selected Paintings at the Norton Simon Museum, 1980, p. 61
- Sutton, Peter C., A Guide to Dutch Art in America, 1986, p. 219
- Masterpieces from the Norton Simon Museum, 1989, p. 61
- Brown, Beverly Louise, Paolo Marini, et al., Jacapo Bassano c. 1510-1592, 1992, no. 32, fig. 140 pp. 167, 207
- Aikema, B., Jacopo Bassano and His Public: Moralizing Pictures in an Age of Reform, ca. 1535-1600, 1996, no. 32, fig. 140 pp. 167-168, 204
- Campbell, Sara, Collector Without Walls: Norton Simon and His Hunt for the Best, 2010, cat. 788 p. 339
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