Artwork
Hirt mit Rinderherde
Hirt mit Rinderherde is an unspecified painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Adriaen van de Velde. It dates from 1660 and is held in the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The depiction of a shepherd with cattle carries long-standing iconographic associations with rustic simplicity, abundance, and the rhythms of rural life.
Adriaen van de Velde's landscape painting presents a pastoral scene centered on a shepherd tending to a herd of cattle. The composition belongs to the pastoral landscape tradition, in which rural herdsmen and grazing livestock populate an idealized countryside setting, evoking themes of harmony between humans, animals, and nature.
The depiction of a shepherd with cattle carries long-standing iconographic associations with rustic simplicity, abundance, and the rhythms of rural life. Such figures were a hallmark of Dutch Golden Age landscape painting, where herders and their animals served as focal points that humanized expansive natural settings and offered viewers a vision of pastoral tranquility.
Technique & Style
Hirt mit Rinderherde is a landscape painting by Adriaen van de Velde, classified as a painting in the landscape genre. The work is held by the Bavarian State Painting Collections at the Alte Pinakothek. Recorded dimensions are 97.6 cm in height and 130.8 cm in width, giving it a horizontal landscape format.
The painting depicts a shepherd with cattle, consistent with the pastoral subject matter for which van de Velde was known. The available records do not specify the medium, support, technique, handling, condition, or stylistic qualities of the work.
History & Provenance
The painting was created in 1660 by Adriaen van de Velde as a landscape depicting a shepherd with cattle. It entered the collection of the Bavarian State Painting Collections and has been housed in the Alte Pinakothek since its acquisition.
Hirt mit Rinderherde, a 1660 landscape painting by Adriaen van de Velde, belongs to the Bavarian State Painting Collections and is held at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. Its physical dimensions are recorded as 97.6 cm in height by 130.8 cm in width. No specific inventory or accession number is documented in the available sources, and no exhibition history is recorded.
Overview
Created in 1660, this oil painting by Adriaen van de Velde portrays a pastoral scene in which a shepherd leads a herd of cattle across an open landscape. The work is part of the collection of the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and exemplifies the Dutch Golden Age’s interest in rural life.
Context
During the mid‑17th century, Dutch painters frequently depicted bucolic scenes that celebrated agrarian life. Van de Velde’s work fits within this tradition, reflecting contemporary interest in the idealized countryside and the everyday labor of shepherds and herders.
Artist & collection
Artist
Adriaen van de Velde, was a Dutch painter, draughtsman, and print artist. His favorite subjects were landscapes with animals and genre scenes. He also painted beaches, dunes, forests, winter scenes, portraits in…
Shepherdess with Cattle
Keld Skov ved Frederiksborg med en del af det kongelige stutteri. I forgrunden schweizer- og tyrolerkvæg
Keld Skov ved Frederiksborg med en del af det kongelige stutteri. I forgrunden schweizer- og tyrolerkvæg
Kvæg i et landskab
Landscape
Landscape
Kvæg i et landskab
Landscape with Horsemen and Cattle
Landscape
Landscape with shepherds and cattle at a ford
Wooded Country with Cattle- Landschaft mit Vieh und ländlichem Paar