Art Institute of Chicago

Pastoral Scene with a Shepherdess Milking a Goat

Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem (Dutch, 1621/22-1683)LinkedCulture matchlcp-195b2c180b22

Date: c. 1665–c. 1670
Medium: Oil on panel
Culture: Netherlands
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Institution: Art Institute of Chicago
Object ID: 214269

From the Art Institute of Chicago record

One of the most prolific Dutch landscape painters, Nicolas Pietersz. Berchem executed scenes of the Italian campagna (countryside) for cosmopolitan collectors who appreciated foreign views. Against the muddy palette used for the livestock, Berchem highlighted the shepherdess’s skirt with a vibrant blue, a color that attracts the eye of the viewer and of the young shepherd nearby. Alongside paintings of the flat but fertile Dutch landscape, collectors enjoyed fanciful depictions of Italy for their hilly terrain and playful peasants.

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Provenance & credit

As published by the source institution. Coverage varies — not every institution's open-data feed includes ownership history.

Credit line: Purchased with funds provided by Donald and Carol Asher; gift in part from Scott, Lynda, Jonathan, and Lindsey Canel; and purchased with funds provided by Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan in honor of Marlene Welsh Phillips
Provenance: E. Arents, Brussels, by 1795; sold on August 12, 1795, to Gerard van der Pot of Groeneveld, for 336 guilders [according to Hofstede de Groot 1926]; Gerard van der Pot of Groeneveld, Rotterdam (died 1807); his estate sale, Gebroeders Van Ryp, Rotterdam, June 6, 1808, lot 13, to Nortwijck, for 1,160 florins [according to annotated copy of sale catalogue in the Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie, The Hague; copy in curatorial file]. Charles Brind, London, by 1834 [according to Smith 1834, no. 286]; sold his estate sale, Christie’s, London, May 10 -12, 1849, lot 52, to Norton, for 91 guineas [according to annotated copy of the sale catalogue at the R.K.D, The Hague; copy in curatorial file]. George Field, Ashurst Park, Kent, by 1856 until at least 1875 [exhibited with his collection at Marlborough House, 1856, according to Waagen 1857]. Sold Sotheby’s, London, June 21, 1961, lot 205, to Terry Engell, for £500 [buyer and price in marked copy of sale catalogue in Ryerson Library; copy in curatorial file]. Gooden and Fox, Ltd., London, 1961; sold to Christian B. Peper, Saint Louis (died 2011); consigned by his estate to Christie’s, New York; sold Christie’s, New York, January 25, 2012, lot no. 46, to Scott Canel in consultation with two other members of the Old Masters Society; given to the Art Institute, 2012.