Rembrandt as a Shepherd with a Staff and Flute

Depictions of shepherds and shepherdesses were popular in the 17th century. They show an idyllic world, one full of simple pleasures. Busy city dwellers could dream away while looking at such paintings. Govert Flinck here portrayed his teacher Rembrandt in the guise of a shepherd. The companion to this picture, of Rembrandt’s wife Saskia as a shepherdess, is in the museum in Braunschweig.