Landscape with a Hunt

Aelbert Cuyp is the Dutch painter of golden light. His best pictures show cows standing in shallow water, riders and herdsmen on riverbanks, and the broad River Maas near Dordrecht, all bathed in the warm glow of early morning or late afternoon. He was born in Dordrecht in 1620, the son of the portrait painter Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, who trained him. He learned tone from Jan van Goyen and the golden, Italianate light from Jan Both, and combined them in his own calm, sunlit landscapes. He painted little after marrying in 1658, and spent the rest of his life in Dordrecht. British collectors of the eighteenth century loved him, which is why so many of his best works are in Britain, at the National Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery and elsewhere. Cows in the Water and Evening Landscape with Horsemen and Shepherds show him at his best. Look at the long shadows and the haze on the horizon.