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Karel du Jardin (Amsterdam c.1626-Venice 1678)

A Herdsman with an Ox, an Ass and Sheep in the Campagna 1661-64

Oil on panel | 30.8 x 38.5 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 404808

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  • Born in Amsterdam, du Jardin is thought to have studied with Nicolaes Berchem and, although there is no documentation to prove it, he probably first went to Rome during the late 1640s. In 1650 he was in Paris but returned to Amsterdam in 1652 where he settled for a while, although he spent a few years from 1655 to 1658 in The Hague. In 1675 he returned to Italy in the company of Jan Reynst, the son of the famous Dutch merchant and art collector of the same name. Du Jardin’s nickname was Bokkebaert (Goatee-beard).

    Despite his frequent travelling and ability to amalgamate various influences and styles, Karel du Jardin retained a Dutch flavour in his paintings. In this painting the mountainous background is clearly a reference to the Roman Campagna rather than the artist’s homeland, and the scene is suffused with southern brightness, but his muted palette and careful observation remain typically Dutch. The stillness of this scene is conveyed through the straightforward presentation of the sky, with the strong evening light picking out details such as the individual wooden spikes of the fence and the white fleece of the foreground sheep.

    This landscape is arid; the ground is rough and dry, with a few thin patches of grass, and the trees beyond the fence are sparse. The young herdsman and his dog cut two solitary figures with their backs turned away from the ox, ass and sheep. The boy is absorbed in the task of fixing his boot, his left hand pinching the leather. Du Jardin reworked this detail to ensure that the angle of the boot was in correct perspective, but the original positioning of the foot slightly lower down is clear to the naked eye. The overall pose of the herdsman recalls the figure of ‘Spinario’, a boy with a thorn in his foot, portrayed in classical sculpture.

    Signed: 'K. DV. JARDIN. fe.'
    Provenance

    Purchased by George IV from Sir Thomas Baring as part of a group of 86 Dutch and Flemish paintings, most of which were collected by Sir Thomas’s father, Sir Francis Baring; they arrived at Carlton House on 6 May 1814; recorded in the Bow Room, Ground Floor, at Carlton House in 1819 (no 113); in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace in 1841 (no 110)

  • Medium and techniques

    Oil on panel

    Measurements

    30.8 x 38.5 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)

    45.2 x 52.5 x 5.0 cm (frame, external)