Shepherd Asleep on a Hummock
17th century
Medium
Etching; second state of three
Dimensions
sheet: 9 1/4 x 11 3/4 in. (23.5 x 29.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
Accession Number
47.100.21
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the tranquil etching *Shepherd Asleep on Hummock*, 17th-century Dutch artistthonie Waterloo captures a pastoral moment. Created during the Dutch Golden Age, when landscape prints flourished, this work exemplifies Waterloo's mastery of intricate natural scenes. As a specialist in wooded landscapes and atmospheric etchings, he draws viewers into a quiet countryside idyll, evoking the era's fascination with rural harmony amid urban prosperity. The composition centers on a shepherd dozing peacefully atop a grassy hummock, surrounded by grazing sheep and stately trees. Rendered in the second st...
About the Artist
Anthonie Waterloo · 1609–1690
Anthonie Waterloo (1609–1690) was a prominent Dutch Golden Age landscape artist, born on May 6 in Lille, then part of the Spanish Netherlands. Little is known of his early life beyond his mother, Magdalena Vaillant, who joined Amsterdam's Walloon Church in 1621, with Waterloo following in 1630; no records exist of formal training, and he was likely self-taught. Registered as a painter in Amsterdam...