By Permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery
By Permission of the Trustees of Dulwich Picture Gallery
A Farrier and Peasants (oil on canvas, 67.3 x 81.3 cm) was probably painted by Berchem in the late 1650s or early 1660s. It entered Dulwich Gallery in 1811 as part of the Bourgeois Bequest, and could have been seen there by Ruskin on any of his many visits. It was renumbered in the gallery's catalogue in 1892, from No. 132 to No. 88. Cook and Wedderburn include a passage excised from the third edition, in which A Farrier and Peasants is considered as an instance of 'General falsehood of the old masters' in respect to chiaroscuro ( Works, 3.316-317).
Nicolaes Berchem 1620-83
A Farrier and Peasants near Roman Ruins n.d.
Oil on canvas, 68.5x83.1cm
Provenance: Sold in Amsterdam, 21/08/1799 (15*), bt J.P. van der Schley; Bourgeois Bequest, 1811
Collection: Dulwich Picture Gallery, London