Nicolaes Pietersz, son of the still-life painter Pieter Claesz., adopted the surname Berchem. He was born in Haarlem and worked chiefly in that city; he probably travelled to Italy in the 1640s. By 1677 he was working in Amsterdam. He was the principal Dutch painter of Italianate pastoral scenes. He was highly productive and versatile and had many pupils and followers. He collaborated with Ruisdael and J. B. Weenix.
Nicolaes Berchem
1620 - 1683
Paintings by Nicolaes Berchem
There is a rough grandeur in Berchem’s picture. The oxen are fine animals, well muscled and rich in colour. The man is strong, windswept and sunburnt. His massive arms labour at the primitive plough; his shirt is shabby, but gleams white and clean in the sun. He leans back in a huge effort to sho...
Picked out in the glow of a soft evening light, a sleepy toddler lies on his mother’s lap, his eyes half closed, one chubby arm dangling at his side. His mother smiles down at him, the last of the sun catching her wide brow and her white shawl. Beside them a man leans forward with a smile, lullin...
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The picture of a hunt, with aristocratic riders wielding spears and the stag surrounded by hounds all ready for the kill, might not be to everyone’s taste today. But the speed and vitality of the animals and the huntsman blowing the horn – the stag itself moving with such energy that it still jus...
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Autumnal colours and a soft sky lend a certain melancholy to a vast landscape. The high cliff and spindly birch trees on one side and a dark cluster of undergrowth on the other narrow the view, almost hypnotic in its stillness. The figures in the foreground seem almost incidental but flashes of w...
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The evening sun touches the sturdy cattle standing at the foot of the ruins of a Roman archway. The soft light casts shadows on the weather-worn stones, displaying the ruin’s age and former grandeur. The hills behind may have been recorded by Berchem during a possible stay in Italy, but the cows...
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Many Dutch artists went to live in Italy when they were young and brought their idyllic dreams of a warmer, slower, rural lifestyle home to an enthusiastic Dutch public. Nicolaes Berchem was probably one of them. Dutch cities were growing fast and people were migrating to them from the country in...
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