Aert van der Neer, 'An Evening View near a Village', about 1650

The vast majority of this picture is taken up by the landscape, but our perception of it hinges on the two figures standing in the gateway. The angle created by the dead tree and stumps in the left foreground guides our gaze to them, as does the red dress of the milkmaid, which stands out so strongly against the deep green background. A sense of movement, the slight lilt of her posture as she steps towards the man with his back to us, also catches the eye.

Two milk buckets hang from the milkmaid’s yoke; we can’t tell if they are full or empty, but the long shadows and the up-lit clouds suggest that it’s evening and she is on her way to the cows in the field to her left. Her companion also wears a yoke, but the hangers are looped loosely upwards and he appears to be showing her something in one of his own buckets.

Behind them, a long silvery thread of light reflects off the path running down to the muddy foreshore and then the winding creek beyond. Finally it leads to a distant sailing boat and a tiny grey windmill on the skyline. This meandering line gives a sense of depth to the picture and connects us – as well as the two figures – with the far horizon. It also subtly divides the landscape into two halves. The town and church stand on the right side, with what seems to be a large, moated country house to the left. This is probably not a depiction of a real place, but an arrangement which Aert van der Neer created in the studio for pleasing effect.

The figures talking on the bridge are also almost certainly figments of the artist’s imagination. Much more smartly dressed – their clothes are trimmed with expensive lace collars – they contrast sharply with the barefoot milkmaid and her friend. Clearly the former belong to the world of the grand house, while the two peasants keep to their ‘place’ in the fields. But in the quiet of this summer’s evening, both couples have time to stop and talk.

Aert van der Neer was an Amsterdam-based painter who specialised in landscapes at dawn and dusk, such as this one, and paintings depicting fires, but he also tapped into a demand for landscapes transformed by moonlight or by frost or snow. Often his skies are turbulent, characterised by dramatic billowing clouds. Here the mood is much more tranquil. Only a few low clouds roll around the horizon, while a single dark grey rain cloud has drifted into view.

This painting probably dates from the early 1650s and it once bore the falsified signature of Aelbert Cuyp. This was probably added to try to increase its value. The pastoral scene and the way the painting is backlit by a luminous sky are somewhat reminiscent of Cuyp’s paintings, which were highly popular with collectors during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.