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Aelbert Cuyp, 'Avenue at Meerdervoort', early 1650s

 


Aelbert Cuyp’s skills in contre-jour painting, or capturing the effects of sunlight, are evident in this harmonious, idyllic country landscape. It is immediately striking to a viewer how balanced the painting is when standing directly before the piece and facing the avenue of trees. As the foliage bends in a slight wind, the viewer is welcomed into the scene, stepping forward to wander down the avenue, to take in the expansive setting and feel the serene sunlight on their backs as they move forward into the picture plane.

The Dutch master, one of the foremost landscapists of the seventeenth century, was clearly well trained and aware of contemporary art of the time, although little is known about his life and career. The fact that his father, Jacob Gerritsz, was a successful painter, has led to implications in scholarship of artistic skill running through Cuyp’s veins as a naturally gifted oil painter. However, it is more likely his father trained him in the Academic, accepted style of the period. Evoking the ideals of a ‘Dutch arcadia’, these idyllic, peaceful, outdoor serene scenes of calmness and contemplation were lapped up by the Dutch market, in an attempt to continue the notions of its artistic and cultural ‘golden age’, which was just coming to a close by the end of the seventeenth century. Although humanity is not the main concern of Cuyp’s landscape here, the artist nevertheless offers a glimpse at well-to-do rural living. Merchants on horseback, perhaps stopping to take a rest on their journey, dot across the avenue of trees, zigzagging to draw the viewer’s eye further into the canvas. Two men are fishing in the river on the right hand side of the peace, staffage figures in the staggering landscape. Before them is a vast pool of water, populated by boats and leading towards a skyline depicting a prospering harbour time with multiple windmills to show industry in action, complemented by a church tower. Religion, industry, man, nature and animals are all harmoniously intertwined in Cuyp’s landscape.

Colour, form, composition and artistic style are equally interconnected in Cuyp’s work. It is a palette of earthy tones of greens and browns, set against the clear skies of midday. The sky as the dominating force in Cuyp’s works was a constant – from seascapes including A View of the Maas at Dordrecht, to his many landscapes featuring nothing but cattle, again with distant towns and cities just visible on the skyline. Within this, there is always careful study of nature, witnessed here along the edges of the avenue, in the way the light catches each individual stalk of grass and its illumination of the buds of flowers along the riverbank. Cuyp has also taken time to depict his monumental trees, feathered brushwork fanning out from sturdy tree trunks to create gaps where the light can filter onto the path, figures and animals below. Although it is peaceful and calm, this is also an active scene, from the swaying trees to the sound of horse's hooves on the gravel path, or the footsteps of the gentleman in red striding out to greet us. Landscapes are often still, distant and unemotive, but Cuyp successfully connects with the viewer and invites them into the scene. The path is literally laid out before their feet.

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