The shepherdess on a donkey

Nicolaes Berchem (1620-83) was the son and presumably pupil of Pieter Claesz, a Haarlem painter of down-to-earth still lives. He also studied with a variety of artists, including Jan van Goyen, and became a prominent member of the Haarlem artistic community, on one occasion travelling to Germany with his famous fellow townsman, Jacob van Ruisdael. The last decade of his life was spent in Amsterdam. Berchem painted some northern forest landscapes of a type which this training and milieu might lead one to expect. The majority of his work however is Italianate, either inspired by an undocumented visit to Italy, which can only have occurred between 1651 and 1653, or by exposure to the work of returning Italian-influenced artists such as Cornelis van Poelenburgh.

In the course of his career, Berchem completed some 500 paintings and 80 etchings. This etching combines Dutch comedy with Italian influence, seen in the mountainous landscape. The shepherdess seems an incongruously delicate and graceful figure, mounted side-saddle on the undignified braying donkey as they cross a brook. She gestures towards an excitedly leaping dog. How long could this pose be sustained? At close hand a cow drinks from the brook. The shepherdess is accompanied by her partner, mounted on a horse, who looks tenderly towards her and holds a scroll of paper with the artist's name inscribed on it.

This etching is more decorous compared with another by Berchem (example in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London), where the donkey is depicted urinating. Berchem combined technical elegance, seen  for example in the tonal gradation to convey distance, with sympathetic insight into animals and their human companions. Te Papa's impression is a fourth-state etching, with the scenery well defined and the rear figures, including another donkey, added. It is the last of a series of five etchings showing domestic animals and their owners/minders.

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaes_Pieterszoon_Berchem

https://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/401352/a-shepherd-and-shepherdess-with-flocks

Dr Mark Stocker    Curator, Historical International Art       June 2017