Shepherdess Reading a Sonnet

Artist Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1564-1651)

Place of OriginNetherlands

Date1628

DimensionsPainting: 41 × 29 1/2 in. (104.1 × 74.9 cm)
Frame: 48 × 36 3/4 × 2 1/2 in. (121.9 × 93.3 × 6.4 cm)

MediumOil on canvas

ClassificationPaintings

Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey

Object number

1955.34

On View

Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 23

Label TextBathed in light, a contemplative shepherdess reads a poem: Sylvia, shepherdess, where do you go? Where do you go in the woods alone? Go more slowly and do not flee… I beg you nymph turn back Why do you run so fast… Pastoral subjects with themes of innocent love were common in Renaissance and 17th-century literature, art, and music. Poets and artists in the Netherlands during the 1600s were attracted to this dream of an ideal environment of leisure, romance, and simplicity. Such representations of shepherds were a particular favorite of painters from Utrecht like Abraham Bloemaert, who devoted his attention in the 1620s to pastoral subjects depicted with strong contrasts of light and shadow.Published References"Accessions of American and Canadian Museums," The Art Quarterly, Spring 1957, p. 94.

Lawson, E. P., "Dutch Painters in Italy," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 1, no. 3, Fall 1957, pp. 11-15, repr. p. 14.

Connoisseur, vol. 142, no. 571, Sept. 1958, p. 64, repr. p. 66.

Lauts, J., Holländische Meister aus der Staatlichen Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, 1960, in no. 11.

"Important Recent Acquisitions by United States Museums," The Illustrated London News, January 27, 1962, p. 145, repr.

Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin, vol. LI, no. 2, June 1962.

Wittmann, Otto, "Treasures at Toledo, Ohio," Apollo, vol. LXXXI, no. 35, January 1965, pp. 28-35, repr. p. 34.

Wittmann, Otto, "The Golden Age in the Netherlands," Apollo, vol. 86, no. 70, Dec. 1967, p. 477, repr. (b&w) fig. 28.

Toledo Museum of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, European Paintings, Toledo, 1976, p. 24, pl. 97.

Kettering, Alison McNeil, The Dutch Arcadia, Monclair, 1983, pp. 19-20, 42, 47, 53, 58, 84, 93, repr. fig. 107 and (col.) on dust jacket.

Petraten-Doesschate chu Im Lichte Hollands: -Holländische Malerie des 17. Jahrhunderts aus den Sammlungen des Fürsten von Liechtenstein und aus Schweizer Besitz, Basel, Kunstmuseum, 1987, p. 58, 2b, repr.

Roethlisberger, Marcel, Abraham Bloemart and his sons, Doornspijk, 1993, vol. I, p. 294-295, vol. II, fig. 626.

Bromundt, Jeannine, "Utrechter Malerei als Inspirationsquelle für den japanischen Holzschnittmeister Kitagawa Utamaro," Georges-Bloch-Jaarbuch, bd. 4, 1997, p. 174, abb. 9, p. 115.

Duncan, Sally Anne, Otto Wittmann: Museum Man for All Seasons, Toledo, 2001, cover.

Helmus, Liesbeth M. and Gero Seelig, The Bloemaert Effect: Colour and Composition in the Golden Age, Petersberg, Michael Imhof Verlag, 2011, pp. 156-157, repr. (col.) p. 156.

Klinkert, Christi M. and Yvonne Bleyerveld, eds., Painting Beauty: Caesar van Everdingen, Zwolle, Waanders Uitgevers, 2016, fig. 151, repr. (col.) p. 117.

Exhibition HistoryIndianapolis, John Herron Art Museum, The Young Rembrandt and His Times, 1958, no. 76, repr.

San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, TX. 1958

Raleigh, NC, Carolina Museum of Art; Milwaukee Art Museum; Dayton Art Institute, Sinners and Saints, Darkness and Light: Caravaggio and His Dutch and Flemish Followers, 1998-1999, no. 7, pp. 82-85, repr. p. 82 (col.), p. 85 (det. col.) and p. 211.

Utrecht, Centraal Museum; Staatliches Museum Schwerin, The Bloemaert Effect: Colour and Composition in the Golden Age,, 2011-2012, no. 69, repr. (col.) p. 156.