Landschaft mit Wasser, auf dem Hügel Hirte und Hirtin mit Vieh 

Nicolaes Berchem made this landscape with water, featuring a shepherd and shepherdess with their livestock on a hill, employing pen and brown ink. Berchem was a leading painter of the Dutch Italianate landscape, a style shaped by the artistic interest in classical antiquity. The traditional, pastoral scenes of shepherds and shepherdesses were romanticized, yet they often masked the harsh realities of rural labor and class divisions within 17th-century Dutch society. Berchem's work highlights the gendered aspects of labor, showing men and women in specific roles, which, in turn, reflect social expectations and norms. In his idyllic scenes, the emotional connection to the land is palpable. This artwork provides a lens through which to examine the intersection of nature, labor, and societal roles, inviting reflection on our contemporary relationship with these themes.