Berchem (1620-83) was the son and presumably pupil of Pieter Claesz, a Haarlem painter of down-to-earth still lives. He also studied with a variety of artists, including Jan van Goyen, and became a prominent member of the Haarlem artistic community, on one occasion travelling to Germany with fellow townsman, Jacob van Ruisdael. The last decade of his life was spent in Amsterdam. Berchem painted some northern forest landscapes (like the one of the later 1640s in Dulwich Picture Gallery) of a type which this training and milieu might lead one to expect. The majority of his work however is Italianate, either inspired by an undocumented visit to Italy, which can only have occurred between 1651 and 1653, or by exposure to the work of returning Italianates such as Cornelis van Poelenburgh, Pieter van Laer, Jan Both and Jan Asselyn, all of whom were back home by the mid 1640s. This is a fine example of Berchem's work probably dating from c. 1660, though it may be later. Berchem, like most of his fellow Dutch Italianates, specialises in depicting the light and colour of a clear evening sky, in a technique (or rather a quality of observation) learned from Claude Lorrain. The sky is generally bright but with a very subtle gradation from its brightest on the left to the almost imperceptibly duller right hand side, during which transition the colour becomes bluer with similar finesse. Berchem also tries to suggest that light is suspended in dusty misty air which gathers over the mountain peaks like a heat haze. Signed lower left: 'Berchem'