Herman van Swanevelt (c. 1600 - 1655), attribuita - Pecore d'Angora e pastori

Condition: Excellent inking/printing impression, good state of preservation, minimal margins, adhesive flaps on the back, as shown in the photo;
Support: laid paper;
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Provenance: Provenance from private collection;

Herman van Swanevelt (Woerden, 1603 – Paris, 1655) was one of the most important Dutch painters and engravers of the Baroque era. His artistic significance lies in redefining and bringing to his classic phase the genre of the Italianate landscape.

Herman was born in Woerden to a flourishing family of artisans whose ancestors included the famous painter Lucas van Leyden. The identity of Swanevelt's master remains a mystery. A new hypothesis suggests he was a pupil of Willem Buytewech.

He painted his earliest signed and dated works in 1623 in Paris. In 1629 he moved to Rome, where he painted many landscapes and introduced a new type of idyllic landscape with 'contre-jours' illuminated by the sun, reflecting the moments of the day. Swanevelt became a member of the Bentvueghels; his alias was "Heremiet", while he preferred to work alone.

Created and developed by Paul Bril and Cornelis van Poelenburch starting around 1600, the genre of the "Italianate landscape" entered its classical phase in the 1630s with the advent of Swanevelt and his friends and contemporaries Pieter van Laer and Claude Lorrain. His paintings became very popular and the Barberini family, Pope Urban VIII and the Vatican commissioned him, as at the Monte Cassino monastery. Together with Lorrain and others, he also painted landscapes for the new Buen Retiro Palace of Philip IV of Spain in Madrid.

In 1641 he returned to Paris, where he remained except for occasional visits to his birthplace, Woerden. He became a member of the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture in 1651. He helped decorate the Hôtel Lambert and produced numerous drawings and etchings. His patrons in France were Cardinal Richelieu and King Louis XIV. Swanevelt lived on Rue du Temple when he died.