Nicolaes Pietersz Berchem

Claes Berchem, usually called Nicolaes, was the son of the originally Flemish still-life painter Pieter Claesz. Berchem received his first painting lessons from him, but, unlike his father, he did not take well-laid tables with delicacies such as oysters and savoury pies or deluxe porcelain dishes as his subject.

Typical of Berchem are his pastoral landscapes. Shepherds with their cattle – goats, sheep and cows – often populate the foreground in his hilly landscapes. Riding donkeys they drive the animals through a river, or rest by a stream or fountain to refresh themselves.

In his formative years Berchem, in the tradition of artists such as Jan van Goyen and Pieter Molijn, drew with black chalk and brush and grey ink. His early drawings mostly still take the Dutch landscape as their subject.

No trip by Berchem to Italy has been documented, and he probably never travelled there. Nevertheless, he convincingly depicted the Italian landscape and the Mediterranean light. He most likely relied on the work of Italianates such as Jan Asselijn, Pieter van Laer and Jan Both as his models.

Berchem made many design drawings for other printmakers, and was also an etcher in his own right. He produced about 60 prints, mainly depictions of animals. In this way many of Berchem's ideas were disseminated, later copied, and (re)used by other artists.

Berchem drew figure studies in preparation for his paintings and prints. These men and women, whom he portrayed in various poses on paper, resurface in his paintings as shepherds and shepherdesses. The pose of this figure is based on the ancient statue of Hercules Farnese in Rome, which Berchem probably knew from a print.

Nicolaes Berchem initially seems to have aspired to a career as a history painter. A relatively large number of his paintings of biblical and mythological subjects from the 1640s has been preserved.

For many 17th-century artists, the ruins in the surroundings of Haarlem, such as Huis ter Kleef Manor and Brederode Castle, were a popular motif. The same holds true for Berchem, who used them to enliven the background of his drawings and paintings.

Berchem portrayed an actual place only once. The Haarlem city wall – with the Gasthuistoren and the Kleine Houtpoort – is the stage for this winter scene.

By depicting two draughtsmen in the left foreground of this highly elaborate drawing, Berchem creates the impression that he had actually been there – and, like them, recorded his surroundings. However, Berchem probably only imagined the inside of the Colosseum.