A Road through a Wood

This painting is large by Berchem’s standards. Nevertheless, the young artist has controlled the space with a series of brilliant diagonals upwards to the sky, and brought light and air into play through the pure blue stripe of distant hills visible through the trees.

Cattle, a conversing milkmaid and other figures in the foreground make up a typically sleepy scene. This moment is transformed by two huntsmen galloping out of the frame to the right, one of whom has just fired his rifle.