Support The panel consists of three horizontally grained oak planks (21.8, 27.2 and 17.7 cm), approx. 1 cm thick. An oak strip (approx. 2 cm) was glued to the bottom at a later date. The reverse is bevelled on the left and right and has regular saw marks. Dendrochronology has shown that the youngest heartwood ring was formed in 1626. The panel could have been ready for use by 1637, but a date in or after 1643 is more likely.
Preparatory layers The single, thin, somewhat transparent off-white ground extends up to the edges of the support. It contains some fine earth pigments and a few bright orange pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the edges of the support. A loose first lay-in was done with transparent brownish paint to define shapes and tonal values. The composition was efficiently built up from the back to the front, leaving reserves for most of the elements, including almost all the small figures and the animals. The brownish lay-in has remained visible at the edges of some reserves and in the deeply shadowed areas, and shows through in altered areas where it was not precisely followed, such as the flock of sheep and the tower. Even the ground and the panel itself can be glimpsed in some places. The relatively thick and opaque paints were applied wet in wet. The execution is very loose and lively and lacks finer details, as can be seen in the heads of the shepherds, for example, which consist of blobs of colour. The sense of depth was heightened by the thickly and sharply rendered figures and greenery in the foreground. The paint layers are rather smooth, except for the sky, the highlights and the more strongly lit areas, where the underlying paint was vigorously pushed away with the top of the brush.
Willem de Ridder, 2022

M. Spring, ‘Pigments and Color Change in the Paintings of Aelbert Cuyp’, in A.K. Wheelock Jr (ed.), Aelbert Cuyp, exh. cat. Washington (National Gallery of Art)/London (The National Gallery)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001-02, pp. 65-73

Good. The upper join shows up clearly, as it is not perfectly levelled, but appears stable. Some of the retouchings covering it are slightly discoloured. The paint layer shows degradation or whitish efflorescence in most of the greenery in the foreground. The varnish on some of the retouchings has turned matte.

…; collection Johannes Rombouts (1772-1850), Dordrecht;¹¹J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, IX, London 1842, p. 652, no. 11; [P.L. Dubourcq], Beschrijving der schilderijen op 's Rijks Museum te Amsterdam met fac simile der naamteekens,coll. cat. 1870, pp. 222-23, no. XII. his nephew, Leendert Dupper Willemsz (1799-1870), Dordrecht, 1850;²²C. von Lützow, ‘Die vormals Dupper’sche Sammlung’, Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst 5 (1870), pp. 227-30, esp. p. 228. by whom bequeathed to the museum, as Frans Hals, with 63 other paintings, 12 April 1870³³NHA, ARM, IS, inv. 30, nos. 123 (8 March 1870), 132 (25 April 1870, no. 245); NHA, ARM, Kop., inv. 39, pp. 62-63 (11 May 1870).

Object number: SK-A-77

Credit line: Dupper Wzn. Bequest, Dordrecht

This is probably one of the earliest landscapes in which Aelbert Cuyp combined the golden blaze of the evening with a bright blue sky and employed the device of backlighting. The sun is shining across the scene from the left background at an angle, turning the foreground figures almost into silhouettes and casting the long shadows of the middle ground shepherds and their sheep to the right. It is considered to be a transitional work in which Cuyp allowed himself to be influenced by Jan Both and abandoned his earlier manner, which was modelled on Jan van Goyen.⁹⁹C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, pp. 116-17, no. 406 (as a transition from the early to the late style); W. Stechow, ‘Significant Dates on Some Seventeenth Century Dutch Landscape Paintings’, Oud Holland 75 (1960), pp. 79-92, esp. p. 88 (beginning of Both’s influence); S. Reiss, Aelbert Cuyp, London 1975, p. 70, no. 37 (c. 1645); De Groot in J.G. van Gelder et al., Aelbert Cuyp en zijn familie: Schilders te Dordrecht, exh. cat. Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum) 1977-78, p. 76, no. 24 (1647 or a little later). It is usually placed between 1645 and 1650 for that reason,¹⁰¹⁰A work that is comparable to some extent, but with more monumental figures, is Landscape with Musical Shepherds, dated 1646, present whereabouts unknown; illustrated in W. Stechow, ‘Significant Dates on Some Seventeenth Century Dutch Landscape Paintings’, Oud Holland 75 (1960), pp. 79-92, esp. p. 87. but a slightly earlier origin would be more logical, for the scene lacks the clarity that is a feature of Cuyp’s later paintings, and the staffage is really very small indeed. It is inconceivable that it postdates the well-known Herdsman with Cattle in London, which is considered to be from around 1645.¹¹¹¹Dulwich Picture Gallery; illustrated in A.K. Wheelock Jr (ed.), Aelbert Cuyp, exh. cat. Washington (National Gallery of Art)/London (The National Gallery)/Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 2001-02, p. 121. See also Huys Janssen in P. Huys Janssen and P.C. Sutton, The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Dutch Landscapes, exh. cat. The Hague (Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder) 1991, p. 62, who places it around 1646. The composition of that picture is less forced and the figures are monumental. The panel in the Rijksmuseum is closer to the View of Rhenen with Travellers, which is almost exactly the same size at 67.5 x 90.5 cm and has a rather similar design and colour scheme.¹²¹²Private collection; illustrated in P. Huys Janssen and P.C. Sutton, The Hoogsteder Exhibition of Dutch Landscapes, exh. cat. The Hague (Hoogsteder & Hoogsteder) 1991, p. 63. Both were probably made at roughly the same time.

Cuyp borrowed both the atmosphere created by the setting sun and the landscape itself from the Dutch Italianates. Chong has stated that towards the background it derives directly from Jan Both.¹³¹³A. Chong, Aelbert Cuyp and the Meaning of Landscape, diss. New York University 1992, p. 320, no. 75. It can also be compared with Both’s Italian Landscape with a View of a Harbour, SK-A-49. New motifs that Cuyp introduced in the Rijksmuseum picture include the ruins and the sheltered seating area, but the steep cliffs and herdsmen with their animals are already familiar from work of the period 1639-40.¹⁴¹⁴Compare, for example, River Landscape with Herdsmen and Livestock, 1639, private collection; illustrated in P. Marijnissen et al. (eds.), De zichtbaere werelt: Schilderkunst uit de Gouden Eeuw in Hollands oudste stad, exh. cat. Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum) 1992-93, p. 118. And Shepherds in a Rocky Landscape, 1640, private collection; illustrated in A. Chong, ‘New Dated Works from Aelbert Cuyp’s Early Career’, The Burlington Magazine 133 (1991), pp. 606-12, esp. p. 608. The way in which the present painting is framed, with a dark strip of land in the foreground that lightens as it follows the sandy path as far as the trees by the ruin, is still closely related to the compositions from the very beginning of Cuyp’s career. The earliest possible date is around 1642-43, when Jan Both had returned from Italy and was first in a position to influence Cuyp. This is confirmed by the dendrochronology, which indicates that the panel would probably have been ready for use in or after 1643.¹⁵¹⁵See Technical notes.

Erlend de Groot, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, IX, London 1842, p. 652, no. 11; C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, pp. 116-17, no. 406; W. Stechow, ‘Significant Dates on Some Seventeenth Century Dutch Landscape Paintings’, Oud Holland 75 (1960), pp. 79-92, esp. pp. 87-88; S. Reiss, Aelbert Cuyp, London 1975, p. 70, no. 37; De Groot in J.G. van Gelder et al., Aelbert Cuyp en zijn familie: Schilders te Dordrecht, exh. cat. Dordrecht (Dordrechts Museum) 1977-78, pp. 76-77, no. 24; A. Chong, Aelbert Cuyp and the Meaning of Landscape, diss. New York University 1992, p. 320, no. 75, with earlier literature

1885, p. 10, no. 63; 1903, p. 78, no. 744; 1934, p. 77, no. 744; 1960, p. 79, no. 744; 1976, p. 183, no. A 77

Erlend de Groot, 2022, 'Aelbert Cuyp, Mountainous Landscape with the Ruins of a Castle, c. 1642 - c. 1645', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027735