Cows and Herdsman by a River

Cuyp's Cows and Herdsman by a River (c. 1663), now in the Frick Collection, exemplifies his mature pastoral style — cattle bathed in golden, Italian-inflected light beside a placid river, a herdsman attending them with unhurried ease. Cuyp never traveled to Italy but absorbed the warm luminosity of Claude Lorrain and the Italianate Dutch painters who had. His innovation was to bring this Mediterranean light to the Dutch pastures and waterways, creating a vision of Holland as a golden land of agricultural plenty. The Frick canvas is one of his finest late works, the light particularly saturated and the overall effect supremely harmonious.

The signature Cuyp golden light suffuses the scene from low on the horizon, creating long shadows and warm highlights on the cattle's flanks. The river reflects this light in broad, horizontal strokes. Cuyp builds his atmosphere through transparent glazes that give the warm tones their depth and richness.