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Aelbert Cuyp
Aelbert Jacobsz Cuyp (October 20, 1620 - November
15, 1691) was one of the leading Dutch landscape painters of the
17th century. He is especially known for late afternoon and early
morning landscapes of the Dutch countryside. The sunlight in his
paintings rake across the panel accenting small bits of detail in
the golden light. In large panoramic views of the Dutch countryside,
highlights of a small blade of meadow grass, the mane of a tranquil
horse, the horn of a dairy cow reclining by a stream, or the tip
of a peasant's hat are all caught in a frozen atmospheric bath of
yellow ocher light. The paint quality of a Cuyp painting is unmistakably
masterful. The rich varnished medium refracts the light rays like
a jewel as it dissolves into the numerous glazed layers.
Cuyp's drawings reveal him to be a draftsman of
superior quality. Light drenched washes of golden brown ink depict
a distance view of the city of Dordrecht or Utrecht. A Cuyp drawing
may look like he intended it to be a finished work of art but it
was most likely taken back to the studio and used as a reference
for his paintings. Often the same section of a sketch can be found
in several different paintings. Cuyp's landscapes were based half
on reality and half on his own invention of what an enchanting landscape
should be.
Cuyp signed many of his works but rarely dated
them, so that a chronology of his career has not been satisfactorily
reassembled. A phenomenal number of paintings are ascribed to him,
some of which are likely to be by other masters of the golden landscape,
such as Abraham Calraet (1642–1722), whose initials A.C. may
be mistaken for Cuyp's.
The paintings are the excellent portrayal of the events and scenes
that we see around us. The painters are the best cameras of the
world. They reproduce many different types of pictures. They even
draw imaginary pictures that do not exist in this world. We tend
to use both thinned oil paints and dense oil paints. Masterpieces
can be dyed more than once, but each time it may be different from
the existing paintings.h
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