Pastoral Landscape with Ruins
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
67 × 78.4 cm (26 3/8 × 30 7/8 in.); Framed: 81.3 × 92.4 × 6.4 cm (32 × 36 3/8 × 2 1/2 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
863
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
With its warm southern sunlight and leisurely interactions between herders, this painting of the Italian countryside would have affirmed urban Dutch perceptions of rural areas as places of innocence and peace. The son of a painter, Adriaen van de Velde was also inspired by the cattle pieces of Paulus Potter and the Italianate pastoral scenes of Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem. He achieved a harmonious balance of elements by studying the landscape from life as well as by sketching the cattle in the pa...
About the Artist
Adriaen van de Velde · 1636–1672
Adriaen van de Velde (1636–1672) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, draftsman, and etcher renowned for his luminous pastoral landscapes and his extraordinary versatility. Born in Amsterdam, he was the son of the marine painter Willem van de Velde the Elder and brother of the marine painter Willem van de Velde the Younger. He studied under Jan Wijnants, a landscape specialist, and possibly under Phili...