Southern Landscape with Shepherds and Sheep; verso: Study of a Sheep's Head (?)

Simon van der Does

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like his father and teacher Jacob van der Does (1623-1673), Simon van der Does painted Italianate landscapes populated by shepherds and their flocks—the kind of pastoral imagery that was popular in the Dutch Republic throughout the seventeenth century, particularly within courtly circles in The Hague. This early drawing (inscribed on the verso with the artist’s initials and a precise date of execution) depicts a shepherd and shepherdess following their sheep through a hilly landscape. A lively application of wash, with increasing dilution of the ink from foreground to background, yields a strong sense of atmospheric perspective. On the verso, in addition to the monogram and date, are a few pen strokes that, when the sheet is turned upside down, look vaguely like the eye and snout of a sheep seen in profile (akin to the oil study of heads of sheep by Van der Does formerly in the I.Q. van Regteren Altena collection, sold at Christie's Amsterdam, December 10, 2014, lot 261).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art