Le Berger et son troupeau

A shepherd in a broad-brimmed hat rests at the foot of a bare tree on a sunny Italianate plain, his dog curled beside him, while his flock grazes around a white cow standing at the centre of the composition with goats and further cattle lying in the shade behind it; a villa crowns the mountain that closes the view. Johannes Lingelbach, born in Frankfurt and trained in Amsterdam, travelled to Italy in his youth, and the sunlit landscapes with herds and travellers that he painted on his return made him one of the most gifted of the Dutch Italianate masters; this canvas of the later 1660s shows his crisp, airy handling at its most assured. The painting is held in the Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris.