Andreas Schelfhout artwork • painting • for sale A shepherdess and her flock in a hilly summer landscape

Schelfhout painted this idyllic mountain landscape at sunset in 1849. The work was probably also shown that same year at the Exhibition of Living Masters in The Hague, where it was given the title 'Landscape in the surroundings of Kassel, at sunset'. When Schelfhout painted this canvas, his landscapes were just as successful as those of Barend Cornelis Koekkoek. His tree-filled landscapes were mainly inspired by the hilly landscape around his hometown of Kleve. Like Koekkoek, Schelfhout painted an idealized, timeless landscape here, bathed in a warm, golden evening light and populated by simple rural folk with cattle. In all probability, the painter was inspired by the 17th-century Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683) for the donkey rider's dressing. Another reference to the Golden Age is Schelfhout's application of the Golden Ratio, a 17th-century proportion on which the compositional structure of this painting is based. As far as we know, this is the largest painting in Schelfhout's oeuvre.