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Four Sheep and a Cow

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem

1652

chalk

paper

From the collection of National Gallery of Art

Baroque Baroque Cattle

Dominant colour

Four Sheep and a Cow is a 1652 chalk by Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem, a Baroque work, depicting Cattle, held at National Gallery of Art.

Who painted this?: Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem
When & what style?: 1652 · Baroque
Where can I see it?: National Gallery of Art

About this work

A brown cow stands in a field with four white sheep. The chalk lines are soft but clear. Grass and dirt are barely sketched in. This isn’t a fancy scene. It’s a study sheet Berchem used to work out shapes and light. The counterproof lets you see the reverse too—faint traces of the same animals flipped. Try looking up Berchem, Nicolaes Pietersz next.

About the artist

Artist

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem

Nicolaes Pieterszoon Berchem (1 October 1620 – 18 February 1683) was a highly esteemed and prolific Dutch Golden Age painter of pastoral landscapes, populated with mythological or biblical figures, but also of a number of allegories and genre pieces.

See the richer artist page