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“Landscape with shepherds among ruins” attributed to NICOLAES BERCHEM oil on canvas DIMENSIONS 95 X 132 CM Nicolaes Pietersz. Berchem (Haarlem, October 1, 1620 – Amsterdam, February 16, 1683) was a Dutch painter, specializing in pastoral scenes populated by mythological characters or biblical figures. He was born in Haarlem, son of the still life painter Pieter Claesz, who introduced him to the art world and taught him the first rudiments of painting. The surname Berchem, however, derived from his father's birthplace.  According to the reconstruction of various art historians, he deepened his knowledge under the guidance of Jan van Goyen, Jan Wils and Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert.  According to many sources, Berchem traveled to Italy in a period prior to 1642, together with the Dutch painter Hendrick Mommers and Jan Baptist Weenix, who was his cousin and contemporary and with whom he also shared the experience in Moeyaert's workshop.  Around 1642, in fact, his presence in the guild of San Luca of Haarlem is documented. The influence of Moeyaert was evident above all in his younger years, as attested by the Labano of 1643. On October 2, 1646 he married Jan Wils' daughter, Catrijne Claesdr. De Groot. Around 1650 he moved to Westphalia together with Jacob van Ruisdael, and, after a second stay in Italy (1653-1656), he returned to his homeland, to Amsterdam where he worked for Jan de Visscher. In the central period of his career his vast production was mostly focused on harbor views, hunts, ruins in Latin and Roman landscapes, battles and of course pastoral landscapes. In his mature period, in addition to leaning towards more showy colors, he approached Adriaen van de Velde. His artistic production was remarkable, given that his works amount to 850 pieces, including about sixty etchings and numerous important red chalk drawings. His Italian-style landscapes of ideal, hilly, mountainous rural environments were embellished with human and animal figures partly inspired by the works of other artists, such as Allaert van Everdingen, Jan Hackaert, Gerrit Dou, Meindert Hobbema and Willem Schellinks.  Berchem exerted a strong influence on the successive generations of Dutch painters and on various French Rococo painters, such as Jean-Baptiste Pillement and Jean-Baptiste Oudry. Furthermore, his landscape artistic lines will inspire a good number of artists, such as François Boucher, Jean Pillement, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, and among the English, Thomas Gainsborough. His studies on animals were also of a certain importance. He died in Amsterdam in 1683.