Landscape with Herdsman and Cattle 1675 - 1685

Dirck van Bergen painted this landscape with herdsman and cattle with oil on canvas sometime in the late 17th century. The painting, dominated by muted greens and browns, draws us into a pastoral scene where nature and rural life intertwine. The herdsman, positioned slightly off-center, forms a visual bridge between the grazing cattle and the distant landscape, inviting our eyes to wander across the canvas. What’s particularly striking is how van Bergen uses the animals to disrupt any sentimental reading of country life. The bull in the right of the painting is in the act of mounting a cow. This is a direct and unapologetic representation of animal behaviour. The painting's composition destabilizes the common tendency to romanticize nature, instead portraying a world where both beauty and harsh realities coexist. This tension between idealized landscape and raw animalistic energy asks us to reconsider what it means to represent nature, challenging fixed notions of beauty and pastoral harmony.