Landscape with Shepherds and their Flock 1640 - 1705

Adriaen van der Cabel rendered this drawing, "Landscape with Shepherds and their Flock" using pen and brown ink, with gray wash, over black chalk. Cabel was working in the Dutch Golden Age, a period of immense economic growth and social change, that saw an unprecedented rise in paintings for the open market. In this drawing, Cabel depicts an arcadian vision of the Italian countryside, where he spent much of his career. The scene evokes a pastoral fantasy, but it’s impossible to ignore the social dynamics at play. The shepherds and their flock remind us of the laboring classes who often existed on the margins of society, while figures on horseback, recall the landowners who enjoyed the fruits of that labor. How might we consider the place of this drawing in the historical development of landscape art, and the romanticization of rural life? This scene asks us to reflect on the complex relationship between humans and nature, and the social hierarchies that shape our perception of the world.