Gaspard Dughet, 'Landscape with a Cowherd', about 1637
About the work
Overview
A herdsman waves a stick at his cattle to encourage them to move towards the stream. This painting does not show a story from the Bible or mythology – it is a scene inspired by the countryside near Rome, where Dughet spent most of his career.
Probably painted around 1637, this is one of Dughet’s early works. He was still perfecting certain skills: he has used clumsy paint dots, dashes and lines to convey the leaves and branches of the trees, and the cowherd’s pose is awkward. However, we can see the beginning of his talent for creating perspective, and his technique of overlapping darker green and yellow tones with lighter ones to avoid the trees appearing flat.
The foreground scene is framed by trees. Their curved trunks lead our eye into the centre of the composition and towards the distant buildings – the domed roof and obelisk recall the architecture of Rome – and the blue mountains.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Landscape with a Cowherd
- Artist
- Gaspard Dughet
- Artist dates
- 1615 - 1675
- Date made
- about 1637
- Medium and support
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 54.2 × 43.5 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Salting Bequest, 1910
- Inventory number
- NG2619
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Humphrey Wine, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth Century French Paintings’, London 2001; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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20101775-1840 Lucien Bonaparte: Un homme librePalais Fesch26 June 2010 - 27 September 2010
Bibliography
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1812Choix de gravures à l'eau forte: D'après les peintures originales et les marbres de la galerie de Lucien Bonaparte: Cent quarante deux gravures, London 1812
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1815Buchanan, Catalogue of the Splendid Collection of Pictures Belonging to Prince Lucien Bonaparte: Which will be Exhibited for Sale by Private Contract on Monday the Sixth Day of February, 1815, and Following Days, at the New Gallery, London, 6 February 1815
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1824W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
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1836J.D. Passavant, Tour of a German Artist in England, London 1836
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1903M. Bryan, Bryan's Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, ed. G.C. Williamson, revised edn, 5 vols, London 1903
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1914O. Grautoff, Nicolas Poussin: Sein Werk und sein Leben, Munich 1914
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1914E. Magne, Nicolas Poussin, premier peintre du roi, 1594-1665, Brussels 1914
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1928O. Grautoff, 'Die Malerei im Barockzeitalten in Frankreich und Spanien', Handbuch der Kunstwissenschaft, II/18, 1928
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1946Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, London 1946
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1950A. Blunt, 'Poussin Studies V: The Silver Birch Master', The Burlington Magazine, XCI, 1950, pp. 70-1
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1957Martin Davies, National Gallery Catalogues: French School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1957
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1966A. Blunt, The Paintings of Nicolas Poussin: A Critical Catalogue, London 1966
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1974J. Thuillier, L'opera completa di Poussin, Milan 1974
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1976C. Wright, Old Master Paintings in Britain: An Index of Continental Old Master Paintings Executed before c.1800 in Public Collections in the United Kingdom, London 1976
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1979C. Whitfield, 'Poussin's Early Landscapes', The Burlington Magazine, CXXI/910, 1979, pp. 10-9
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1980D. Wild, Nicolas Poussin: Band I, Leben, Werk, Exkurse, Band II, Katalog der Werke, Zürich 1980
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1980A. Blunt, 'The Silver Birch Master, Nicolas Poussin, Gaspard Dughet and Others', The Burlington Magazine, CXXII/929, 1980, pp. 576-82
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1986M.-N. Boisclair, Gaspard Dughet, sa vie et son oeuvre, Paris 1986
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1995M. Natoli, Luciano Bonaparte: Le sue collezioni d'arte, le sue residenze a Roma, nel Lazio, in Italia (1804-1840), Rome 1995
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1996C. Whitfield, 'A propos des paysages de Poussin', in A. Mérot (ed.), Nicolas Poussin (1595-1665): Actes du Colloque organisé au Musée du Louvre, 1994, Paris 1996, pp. 243-67
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2001Wine, Humphrey, National Gallery Catalogues: The Seventeenth Century French Paintings, London 2001
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.
Images
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