Travelers in Hilly Countrysidec. 1650
While many Dutch painters focused on depicting the local countryside, others were inspired by the hilly topography, golden sunlight, and picturesque monuments of Italy. More about this work
About this work
While many Dutch painters focused on depicting the local countryside, others were inspired by the hilly topography, golden sunlight, and picturesque monuments of Italy. Although Aelbert Cuyp never visited Italy, this serene and beautifully preserved panel demonstrates his skill in evoking the idyllic qualities of a distant land.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Oil on panel
- Oil paint on prepared wooden boards, usually oak in the north and poplar in Italy. The rigid, smooth surface suits fine detail and thin, glowing glazes.
- 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
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.
Dutch Golden Age
Seventeenth-century painting from the Dutch Republic: still lifes, interiors, portraits and flat, wide skies.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1942.637
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
