Horseman on a River Bank

Detail from Aelbert Cuyp Ubbergen Castle ?1655.
©London: National Gallery inv. no NG824
Reproduced under (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)

Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), from a family of artists, born and died in Dordrecht, just SE of Rotterdam. Landscape painter in the newly imported Italian manner, featuring figures in a landscape, often, as here, with their backs to the viewer, and atmospherically side-lit. This painting shows a ruined castle in a lake near Nijmegen. It had been partially destroyed in 1582 by the local inhabitants, who set fire to it to prevent it falling into the hands of the Spaniards. It thus became a symbol of Dutch resistance.

For an image of the whole of this painting, go to the National Gallery website.