(Haarlem 1620–1683 Amsterdam)
Landscape with ruins and a milking shepherdess,
signed and dated lower right: C. P. Berchem 164.,
oil on panel, 60 x 84 cm, framed

We are grateful to Dr Pieter Bisboer for confirming the authenticity of this painting.
Berchem’s career can be only tentatively reconstructed. His first teacher was his father, the Haarlem still life painter Pieter Claesz. He was probably trained under Jan van Goyen, Pieter de Grebber and Nicolaes Moeyaert. In 1642 he joined the Guild of Saint Luke in Haarlem. The present painting dates to the artist’s early maturity and testifies to his refined treatment of light and his ability to create elegant compositions. The paintings Berchem executed after 1655 differ, on grounds of their use of light and southern atmosphere, from earlier ones, which had been produced under the influence of contemporary Netherlandish landscape painting. This suggests that Berchem had indeed spent a relatively long period of time in Italy, probably in 1642/43 and 1653/55. Berchem is considered one of the main representatives of 17th-century Netherlandish landscape painting. He was an extraordinarily productive artist who, besides his Italianate landscapes, created fantastical harbour scenes, winter landscapes, genre paintings and hunting scenes. He also left behind a vast graphic oeuvre consisting of around sixty etchings.

We are grateful to Dr Pieter Bisboer for confirming the authenticity of this painting.
Berchem’s career can be only tentatively recontructed. His first teacher was his father, the Haarlem still life painter Pieter Claesz. He was probably trained und