Animalia (Animals): Ram and sheep
Shared by Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa
Nicolaes Berchem (1620-83) was the son and presumably pupil of Pieter Claesz, a Haarlem painter of down-to-earth still lives. He also studied with a variety of artists, including Jan van Goyen, and became a prominent member of the Haarlem artistic community, on one occasion travelling to Germany with his famous fellow townsman, Jacob van Ruisdael. The last decade of his life was spent in Amsterdam. Berchem painted some northern forest landscapes of a type which this training and milieu might lead one to expect. The majority of his work however is Italianate, either inspired by an undocumented visit to Italy, which can only have occurred between 1651 and 1653, or by exposure to the work of returning Italian-influenced artists such as Cornelis van Poelenburgh. In the course of his career, Berchem completed some 500 paintings and 80 etchings. This etching is a reverse copy of a print from Berchem's series known as 'Animalia (Animals)' (British Museum Collection online) and is the third of eight in the set. It depicts a ram with large horns dominating the image, and a sheep sleeping behind him. There are no helpful identifying marks on the plate or sheet, and it seems probable that an artist directly copied an impression of the print onto the copper plate, thus producing this reverse copy in the printing process. It testifies to Berchem's popularity and immense skills as an animal 'portraitist'. Sources: British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1663168&partId=1&searchText= Berchem+animals&page=1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolaes_Pieterszoon_Berchem Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2019
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Details
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Title
Animalia (Animals): Ram and sheep
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Maker
Unknown, Nicolaes Berchem the Elder
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Date made
After mid 17th century
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Subject
Animals, Sheep, Sleeping, ink, paper, prints, etchings, works on paper, etching, Netherlandish, Baroque, Bishop Ditlev Monrad
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Rights
No Known Copyright Restrictions
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Location
Cable Street, Wellington
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Text adapted with permission from Te Papa and Digital NZ
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