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Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem

kjs on 27th May 2022

His Early Life

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1620-1683) was a highly esteemed Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes. He is famous for painting mythological and biblical figures. Berchem also painted a number of allegories and genre art pieces. He was born in Haarlem, the Netherlands in 1620. Berchem’s father, Pieter Claesz, was a prominent still-life painter. His name is assumed to have come from his father’s hometown of Berchem, Antwerp. Berchem received instructions on painting from his father besides a numerous others like Jan Van Goyen, Pieter de Grebber, Jan Wils, etc. Though Berchem tried his hand at several subjects, he is not known to have painted still-lifes for which his father was famous. Berchem’s speciality was Italianate pastoral landscape.

His Travel to Italy and Italianate Influence on his Art

Berchem entered the Saint Luke’s Guild in Haarlem in 1642 and immediately took on three pupils to teach them the art of painting. In 1645, he became a member of the Dutch reformed church and married the daughter of the painter Jan Wils the year after. Jan Wils had kept him on a short allowance. In order to finance his collection of prints, he borrowed money from his pupils and colleagues and paid them back from the sale proceeds of his paintings. Berchem had an association with a Dutch artist, Jacob van Ruisdael and together they made a trip to the area around Bentheim, near the German border. They collaborated o several paintings in 1652 and 1653. Experts feel that painter Van Laer was instrumental in large part in formulating Berchem’s treatment of figures. However, it was the Italianate artist who had the most lasting impact on is landscapes, in particular, his harbour scenes, was Asselijn.

A Great Teacher and aHuge Source of Inspiration

According to the art experts, it was quite unlikely that Berchem had ever travelled to Italy during or before the year 1653. He traveled to Italy between 1653 and 1656 and became one of the most sensitive interpreters of both the pastoral and the exotic character qualities of Italy. Thereafter, Berchem moved permanently to Amsterdam in 1677. After his study in Italy, he produced many landscapes in warm colours and Italian style. He also painted cityscapes and winter and pastoral land scenes, all in the tradition of Dutch naturalism in vivid colors and glowing light. Beerchem had many pupils throughout his painting career who either emulated his style of painting or copied his works. Berchem was valued as one of the foremost seventeenth-century Dutch painters. Many laterday painters like the French Rococo painter, Jean-Baptiste Pillement and the Dutch landscape painter Barend Cornelis Koekkoek were influenced by his style of painting.

His Well-known Works of Art

Bercherm produced an enormous number of paintings, which some experts estimate at around 850. However, if one allows for the probable misattributed paintings, around 80 etchings and 500 drawings of Berchem were in great demand. Famous painters of that period like Gainsborough and Watteau admired Berchem’s works. His well-known paintings are at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Hermitage, St. Petersburg. His famous paintings include ‘Rest’ (1644), ‘Landscape with a Shepherd and His Flock’, ‘Peasants and Animals Crossing a Ford’, ‘A country Gathering by a Bridge’, ‘Landscape with Cattle’, ‘Travelling Peasants’, ‘Coastal Scene with Crab-Catchers’, ‘Pastoral Scene with figures and Animals’, etc.