Landscape with Horse Trainers
Artist: Aelbert Cuyp (Dutch, 1620-1691)
Date: about 1655 or 1660
Dimensions:
46 3/4 x 67 in. (118.7 x 170.2 cm)
Medium: oil on canvas
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number: 1960.2
Label Text:The dying light of evening, casting long shadows and a golden haze over the landscape, was a specialty of Aelbert Cuyp and is particularly striking in this painting. Cuyp combines the low horizon and prominent sky of local Dutch landscapes with aspects of Italian-inspired landscapes, such as the shepherd, broken columns, classical sculpture, and the mountain.
Probably painted for a wealthy family in Dordrecht, the painting shows a school for training horses in the system of precise movements known as dressage, an aristocratic refinement of horsemanship that was first formalized in the 1600s. Under the supervision of the mounted riding master at the right, a horse is being taught the levade, in which the animal rises on its hind legs. It has not quite mastered the maneuver, however, since its front legs should be tucked in close to its body. The horse’s mistake perhaps accounts for the agitation of one of the grooms.
Probably painted for a wealthy family in Dordrecht, the painting shows a school for training horses in the system of precise movements known as dressage, an aristocratic refinement of horsemanship that was first formalized in the 1600s. Under the supervision of the mounted riding master at the right, a horse is being taught the levade, in which the animal rises on its hind legs. It has not quite mastered the maneuver, however, since its front legs should be tucked in close to its body. The horse’s mistake perhaps accounts for the agitation of one of the grooms.
On view
In Collection(s)