Provenance
Jacob Odon, Amsterdam (sold, van der Schley-Yver, Amsterdam, Spetember 6, 1784, lot 1).; M. Lapeyriere (Paris, France), (sold, Henry, Paris, April 19, 1825, lot 89).; by 1830 Mr. O’Neil, sold to Edward Lloyd; Edward Lloyd (Manchester, England); Lewis Lloyd of Beckenham.; E. N. F. Lloyd (sold, Christie’s, London, April 30, 1937).; Bernard Houthakker (Amsterdam, The Netherlands), 1957.; Dr. and Mrs. Paul J. Vignos, Jr., died 2010 (Chagrin Falls, OH), 1960, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1968.
Accession Number
1968.239
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Unframed: 101.6 x 137.2 cm (40 x 54 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Dr. and Mrs. Paul J. Vignos Jr.
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Canvas Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683) was a Dutch painter known for the elegant, Italianate landscape paintings that make him one of the most important painters of the Italianate landscape tradition in Dutch painting. Rush Gatherers from 1657 depicts rush gatherers in an Italianate landscape in the elegant, atmospheric manner that distinguishes Berchem's best work from the more naturalistic landscape painting of his Dutch Golden Age contemporaries. The 1657 date places this in Berchem's most productive period, when he was producing the elegant, Italianate landscape paintings that are his most accomplished works, and the rush gatherers subject shows his talent for combining Italianate landscape with genre figures.
Cultural Impact
Rush Gatherers is important in the history of Dutch landscape painting because it demonstrates the elegant, Italianate manner that Berchem brought to landscape as one of the most important painters of the Italianate landscape tradition. Berchem's elegant, Italianate landscapes—combining the golden light of the Italian landscape with the genre figures of Dutch painting—represent one of the most popular traditions in Dutch Golden Age painting, and the 1657 painting shows this tradition at its most elegant.
Why It Matters
Rush Gatherers is Berchem's elegant Italianate landscape: rush gatherers in an Italianate setting rendered in the golden, atmospheric manner of one of the most important painters of the Italianate landscape tradition in Dutch painting. The 1657 painting shows the combination of Italian landscape light with Dutch genre figures that made Berchem one of the most popular Dutch painters.
