River Landscape with Riders

Unknown artist

c. 1653 - 1657

oil on canvas

Rijksmuseum

A wide river landscape under a dramatic sky features riders on horseback by the water's edge, with cattle and a distant village. This is a panoramic, sun-drenched river landscape – somewhat hazy in the distance – with sketchily drawn clouds. Two Dutch officers halt at the river, and water their horses next to a herder and his resting cattle. This idyllic scene does not unfold in Italy, but along the Waal between Nijmegen and Cleves, where Cuyp made landscape drawings that he took back to his workshop in Dordrecht.