Nicolaes Berchem Figures round a fire with Roman ruins before 1683 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
Nicolaes Berchem View of the ruins of the Colosseum before 1683 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
"Berchem's most impressive drawing is View of the ruins of the Colosseum. The composition will have been borrowed from one of the numerous prints and drawings of the Colosseum that were in circulation. Berchem may have drawn on his own collection of prints and drawings, which was auctioned after his death on 30 November 1683. The picture shows two artists on the left, who sit on the ground drawing, a herdsman with goats, and on the right two women wringing out the washing in a stream – an unlikely motif for the Colosseum. Berchem constructed the capitaale ordonnantie – as the drawing was described in 1793 at the sale of the collection of Hendrik van Maarseveen – in three planes: the sunlit tribunes in the background, the ruined buildings in the shaded middle ground, and figures and animals in the foreground. . . . There are similar drawings of the Colosseum by Berchem's pupil Willem Romeyn, who went to Rome in the early 1650s, although they are not as large. Romeyn often used them as sources for later drawings. Berchem may have been familiar with them and taken his inspiration from them. . . . More and more drawings were made in response to a growing interest in drawings as collectible objects. Berchem was a productive and sought-after draughtsman who continued to produce drawings in considerable numbers, alongside paintings and etchings, throughout his life."
– Peter Schatborn, from the catalogue of a 2001 exhibition at the Rijksmuseum, published in English as Drawn to Warmth: 17th-century Dutch artists in Italy, translated by Lynne Richards
Nicolaes Berchem Italian scene with man and pack-ass approaching a fountain before 1683 drawing (possibly a title-page design) British Museum |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian peasants before ruins of a classical building 1651 drawing British Museum |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian landscape with fountain 1675 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian scene with fountain 1653 drawing British Museum |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian scene with fountain 1653 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian scene with herdsmen and cattle near a fountain before 1683 drawing National Galleries of Scotland |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian scene with herdsmen and ruins before 1683 drawing Teylers Museum, Haarlem |
Nicolaes Berchem Shepherd in wooded landscape with ruins ca. 1665-75 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
attributed to Nicolaes Berchem Horseman with shepherdesses in a classical landscape before 1683 drawing Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam |
Nicolaes Berchem Italianate landscape with ruins of Brederode Castle before 1683 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian scene - Return from the chase before 1683 drawing British Museum |
Nicolaes Berchem Italian peasants drinking at an inn before 1683 drawing British Museum |