Though he painted other subjects, Aelbert Cuyp is best known as one of the premiere landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age.
His scenes of ships on the waterways of his native Dordrecht are filled with shimmering light effects, illuminated sails and glowing clouds. Even his humble scenes of cows grazing are given a romantic intensity, bathed in the glow of dramatic early morning or late evening light.
Cuyp’s landscapes have something of an Italian influence, even if only second hand through the work of other Dutch painters like Jan Both, who traveled there.
I particularly enjoy Cuyp’s drawings, of which made many, both as preliminary studies for paintings and apparently, like Rembrandt, for their own sake.
In fact I find in his drawings some of the same degree of simple observation, economical rendering and uncannily strong sense of place and atmosphere as I admire in Rembrandt’s drawings.
The best quality images I’ve found for Cuyp’s work on the web are the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Google Art Project, National Gallery, London and the Rijksmuseum. Cuidad de la pintura is a great source for his drawings.
