# Lady and Gentleman on Horseback **Aelbert Cuyp** (Dutch, 1620–1691) c. 1655, reworked 1660/1665 oil on canvas overall: 123 x 172 cm (48 7/16 x 67 11/16 in.) framed: 164.8 x 214 x 16.2 cm (64 7/8 x 84 1/4 x 6 3/8 in.) Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942.9.15. [The museum's record](https://www.nga.gov/collection/art-object-page.1152.html). ## About this work An elegantly dressed couple ride out with their hounds: she sits side-saddle on a white horse with blue bows on its bridle, he on a chestnut with a white blaze, riding crop at his hip. Dogs nose through the undergrowth, a huntsman leads a pair of greyhounds along the path, and two more riders follow behind. Cuyp, the great painter of Dordrecht and its golden light, silhouettes the pair against a slate-blue cloud while the sky warms to yellow over a distant town. The dating records that he began the picture around 1655 and returned to rework it some years later. _Written by Ochre Editions._ Aelbert Cuyp painted this in about 1655, reworked 1660/1665, aged about 35. It is now at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC. ### What you’re looking at An elegantly dressed man and woman ride horses toward us and to our right in a landscape with low, rolling hills, stone buildings, and trees in this horizontal painting. The two horses and riders take up the right half of the composition. Both people have pale skin and look at us. The woman has a high forehead, a straight nose, a round face, and curly blond hair falling to her shoulders. She wears a sapphire-blue dress with slashed sleeves to reveal a white garment beneath. Her hat is adorned with blue and white feathers, and she wears a string of pearls around her neck. The legs of her white horse darken to black below the knees, and the bridle is tied with blue bows near the horse’s ears. The sidesaddle sits on a woven, rug-like blanket. Next to her, to our right, the man rides a larger chestnut-brown horse with a white triangle between its eyes. The man looks at us out of the corners of his dark eyes under gathered brows. He has a long, straight nose and is cleanshaven, though a hint of a five o’clock shadow slightly darkens his cleft chin. His light brown hair falls in curls down past his shoulders, and he wears a dark brown coat with voluminous white fabric rippling out above tan-colored gloves. He holds a riding crop in his right hand, on our left, resting against his hip. Near the white horse’s feet, to our left, a dark brown dog with a white nose sniffs at a plant. Behind it, another reddish-brown dog sniffs the ground near the horse’s back hoof. A third dog stands beyond, partially obscured by bushes and plants growing in the lower left corner of the canvas. A man wearing a tall black, wide-brimmed hat and carrying a long staff leads two slender dogs resembling grayhounds on leashes along the path, a little behind the riders. Two more elegantly dressed men ride horses toward us father back on the path. Sand-colored stone buildings, hazy in the distance, are clustered around a squared tower, possibly a bell tower, to our left. The land dips gently to the horizon line in the deep distance. The riders are silhouetted against a swirling slate-blue cloud that fills most of the sky in the top two-thirds of the painting. The sky clears to pale blue to our left and then warms to golden yellow along the horizon, beyond the buildings. The artist signed the painting near the lower left corner: “A. Cuijp.” _Description from the National Gallery of Art._ ### How it was made - **Oil paint.** Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled. ### [Aelbert Cuyp](https://www.ochreeditions.com/artists/aelbert-cuyp) Dutch, 1620–1691 Cuyp spent his life in Dordrecht, where he trained with his father, the portraitist Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp. Influenced by Dutch painters returning from Italy, such as Jan Both, he bathed river views, cattle in meadows and riders in a warm, golden light. His work was little known outside Dordrecht in his lifetime but was eagerly collected in Britain from the late eighteenth century. _Written by Ochre Editions._ ## Facts - Type: Painting - The artist was about 35 - Real size: about 48 × 68 in (123 × 172 cm). The original is larger than our largest print, 20 × 30 in, so every print is a reduction. - Century: 17th century - Subjects: amusement, portrait, Riding, landscape - Colour: brown - Rights: public domain (CC0 1.0); free to use for any purpose. ## Get it - Free download, full resolution: https://img.ochreeditions.com/m/1332.jpg?dl=1 - Image: https://img.ochreeditions.com/a/1332/1920.jpg - Giclée reproduction on Hahnemühle Photo Rag: 8 × 10 in $28; 11 × 14 in $38; 12 × 16 in $42; 16 × 20 in $56; 18 × 24 in $68; 20 × 30 in $86 - Framed reproduction: 8 × 10 in $78; 11 × 14 in $98; 12 × 16 in $108; 16 × 20 in $138; 18 × 24 in $164; 20 × 30 in $208 - Canvas reproduction: 8 × 10 in $58; 11 × 14 in $72; 12 × 16 in $79; 16 × 20 in $98; 18 × 24 in $118 - Print-ready file: 8 × 10 in $2; 11 × 14 in $2; 12 × 16 in $3; 16 × 20 in $3; 18 × 24 in $3; 20 × 30 in $5 Sizes stop where the museum's file would print below 150 pixels per inch. Everything sold is a reproduction, made to order. [Order a print](https://www.ochreeditions.com/art/lady-and-gentleman-on-horseback-nga-1152).