Travelling Peasants (Le Soir)
Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchemc.1655-59
Dulwich Picture Gallery
London, United Kingdom
"This painting was formerly titled Le Soir, having been thought to be part of a pair with another Dulwich picture, Roman Fountain with Cattle and Figures (also known as Le Midi). Le Midi certainly did have a pair called Le Soir, but by the time it entered the Bourgeois collection they had been separated, and the mistaken assumption was made.
The handling of this painting is remarkably soft and impressionistic. By using broken brushstrokes the grain of the wood is left to show through and play an important visual role in capturing the hazy distances of the mountains in the background – a bold and confident effect."
- Title: Travelling Peasants (Le Soir)
- Creator Lifespan: 1620 - 1683
- Date: c.1655-59
- Physical Dimensions: w456 x h344 cm
- Type: Painting
- Medium: Oil
- Work Nationality: Dutch
- Support: Panel
- Provenance: Amsterdam, Van Kretschmar sale, 29 Mar. 1757, lot 40; Paris, Gaignat sale, Dec. 1768 (with DPG166); London, Sir Francis Bourgeois, 1811; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811.
- Inscriptions: Berchem f
- Further Information: This picture shows an extensive Italian landscape, where depth is created by the mountain in the background obscured by a haze of light clouds. The composition, however, is focused on the peasants and animals. It seems likely to have been painted in the mid to late 1650s, at a point when Berchem had achieved his own distinctive and idealising style. The young woman riding an ass is one of his stock figures, as are groups of peasants or herdsmen on the move, typically near fords or streams (cf. DPG122 and DPG196). What is particularly impressive is the way in which the mountain is made up of broken brushstrokes that give the impression of hazy light. The long shadows cast by the figures indicate that the scene is intended to be set in the early morning or late afternoon.
- Artist: Berchem, Nicolaes Pietersz
- Acquisition Method: Bourgeois, Sir Peter Francis (Bequest, 1811)
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