The Dutch painter and printmaker Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683) worked mainly in his birthplace of Haarlem following his acceptance into the local painters' guild in 1642. He became particularly well known for Italianate pastoral scenes, in which peasants drive their cattle, or travellers ride their mules, through landscapes of classical ruins. However, it is uncertain whether he actually visited Italy or drew on the work of contemporaries who had done. A trip in 1642 with Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-c1660) and another in the early 1650s have been suggested. Yet, whatever his experience, his work had a considerable influence on such later painters as Thomas Gainsborough and was very popular with English collectors well into the nineteenth century. The beginning of a change of taste is indicated by an anecdote concerning John Constable:
at the end of a lecture, a collector in the audience asked him, 'I suppose I had better sell my Berchems', to which Constable replied, 'No sir, that would only continue the mischief! Burn them!' (Kilian, J, 'Nicholaes Berchem', in Turner, The Dictionary of Art, vol. 3, p. 760)
For Ruskin 's essentially negative opinion of the artist, see his examination of 'Strangeness' in Berchem and Rubens.