Karel Dujardin - part 1

Karel Dujardin 1662

Best known as a painter, draughtsman and etcher of Italianate landscapes during Holland’s Golden Age, Karel Dujardin was a versatile artist whose subject matter included portraits, history scenes, genre scenes, Dutch landscapes and pastoral scenes featuring cattle and other livestock. Baptized in 1626 in Amsterdam, his father was a tradesman. Little is known about his artistic training; his Italianate works have led some writers to speculate that Dujardin travelled to Italy in the 1640s 1640s, but no documentation of such a trip has been found. 

He probably travelled to Paris in 1650, and apparently met his wife, of Flemish descent, in Lyon. By 1652 he and his wife were living in Amsterdam. Some of his pastoral scenes from the 1650s are set in the Dutch countryside, showing the influence of Paulus Potter (1625-1654). Other works from this period are set in Italianate landscapes, often with peasant genre scenes in the foreground, a motif popularised by Pieter van Laer (c1599-1642, known as Il Bamboccio while in Rome), who had returned to Haarlem from Rome by 1638. Dujardin began etching in the 1650s, primarily landscapes and animals; about fifty etchings have been attributed to him. By 1656 he had moved to The Hague, where he was a member of a group of artists known as De Pictura, 

By 1659 Dujardin was living in Amsterdam, where he stayed for the next fifteen years. During this time he executed portraits, religions scenes, allegories and large history paintings in addition to Italianate landscapes. In 1672 he authenticated paintings in a legal proceeding for the father of his friend Joan Reynst, and in 1675 traveled south as far as Tangiers. Dujardin continued to Rome; one of his signed and dated paintings recites it was made in Rome in 1675. He painted in Rome for the three years; his last dated painting is from 1678. He may have been a member of Schildersbent (“band of painters,” also known as the “Bentvueghels” or “birds of a flock”), a society of Dutch and Flemish painters in Rome active from around 1620 until 1720. He was in Venice when he died in 1678. He had achieved prosperity during his life, living in a house on the upscale Herengracht in Amsterdam; the inventory of his goods after his death attested to his affluence.

This is part 1 of a 5-part series on the works of Karel Dujardin:

1643 A Shepherdess Speaking to Her Dog
etching on cream laid paper 18.9 x 22 cm (plate)
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

1646 Two Pigs
etching on paper 11.7 x 14.9 cm (plate)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1650-55 A Woman with Cattle and Sheep in an Italian Landscape
oil on copper 22.6 x 29.4 cm
The National Gallery, London

1650-60 Tale of the Soldier
oil on canvas 86.4 x 78.7 cm
Yale University Art Gallery

1650s Landscape with Cattle
oil on canvas 37 x 43 cm
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

1650s Travellers with donkeys resting at the walls of a town
oil on canvas 43.8 x 37.7 cm

1650s Two horsemen with their horses
oil on canvas 34.3 x 44.4 cm

1650s Woman Milking a Red Cow
oil on canvas 66 x 59 cm
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden

1652 Battlefield with Horseman
etching on paper 17 x 19.6 cm (plate)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1652 Frontispiece with stepped Fountain
etching on paper 15.5 x 14 cm (sheet)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1652 Pallas Athene visits Invidia
oil on wood panel 27 x 21 cm
Akademie der bildenden Künste, Vienna

1652 Three pigs lying on their sides
etching on paper 18.8 x 17.2 cm (sheet)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1652 Trees with uncovered Roots
etching on paper 14.4 x 18.4 cm (sheet)
Louvre, Paris
© Louvre Museum, dist. RMN-Grand Palais

1652 Two Donkeys standing in a grassy Yard
etching on paper 15.5 x 13.8 cm (sheet)
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

1652-53 A Cow and a Calf
etching on paper 15.1 x 13.6 cm (plate)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1652-53 Two Horses
etching on paper 15 x 13.6 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1652-53 Two Mules
etching on paper 15.2 x 13.6 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1652-53 Two Sleeping Hunting-Dogs
etching on paper 14.9 x 13.2 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1652-60 Two Horses
etching on paper 15 x 13.6 cm (plate)
Art Institute of Chicago, IL

c1652-60 A Building with a Square Tower
etching on paper 4.7 x 5.9 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 A Dog and a Cat Sleeping
etching on paper 7.1 x 7.9 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 A Ewe with a Lamb
etching on paper 7.5 x 9.7 cm (plate)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 A Peasant Woman Wading across a Brook with a Packhorse
etching on paper 16.7 x 19.9 cm (plate)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 A Sheep Resting beside a Tree Trunk
etching on paper 7.5 x 9.9 cm (plate)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 A Sheep Resting beside a Wooden Fence
etching on paper 7.6 x 9.9 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 A Woman with a Dog, Sitting on the Ground behind a Pack Horse
etching on paper 4.9 x 6 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 Landscape with a Horse-drawn Wagon in front of an Inn
etching on paper 4.5 x 5.9 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 Landscape with a Shepherd Playing with His Dog
etching on paper 4.8 x 5.9 cm
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 Small Landscape with Two Goats
etching on paper 4.8 x 5.9 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 Study of Heads (Sketch Plate)
etching on paper 5.1 x 6.1 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 Three Cows, a Bull, and a Calf
etching 17 x 22.3 cm (sheet)
Philadelhia Museum of Art, PA

c1652-60 Three Peasants
etching on paper 6.3 x 5.3 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1653 A Herdsman Resting with a Goat and Two Sheep
etching on paper 15 x 13.9 cm (plate)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1653 A Hinny with Little Bells on Its Harness
etching on paper 19.9 x 16.3 cm (sheet)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1653 Italian Landscape with a Donkey Resting beside Two Sheep
etching on paper 16.5 x 22.4 cm (plate)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA

1653 Seated shepherdess and a small dog in a field with a cow and sheep
etching on paper 19 x 22 cm
© The British Museum, London