Landscape with Shepherds Playing Music

1630 · Private collection

landscape

This landscape, with shepherds playing music together with their herds of goats and sheep, is one of the earliest dated works by Herman Saftleven. It was painted during Saftleven's formative years in Rotterdam, before he settled in Utrecht in 1632. Before 1630 only engravings by Saftleven are known, depicting similar wood edges with horsemen and goats.

About the Artist

Herman Saftleven

1609 – 1685

Herman II Saftleven (1609-1685) and Cornelis Saftleven (1607-1681), Dutch painters, brothers. The best-known members of the family of artists is Cornelis, who was influenced by Brouwer and Teniers, painted genre scenes of peasants and satirical pictures of animals dressed and acting like theologians and jurists. He also did landscapes with sheep and cattle grazing. Herman travelled in Germany and is best known for his highly finished panoramic views of the Moselle and Rhine rivers, done in a distinctive misty blue tonality.

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