Lady and Gentleman on Horseback
Aelbert Cuyp·c. 1655, reworked 1660/1665
Historical Context
Cuyp's Lady and Gentleman on Horseback from around 1655-1665, now in the National Gallery of Art, depicts an aristocratic riding couple in the English manner — a subject that reflects the influence of Van Dyck's equestrian portraits on Dutch painting and anticipates Cuyp's later enormous popularity with English collectors. After the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, English taste for Dutch painting increased dramatically; Cuyp's equestrian portraits were exactly the kind of work that appealed to English aristocratic clients who combined love of horses with Continental artistic taste. The golden afternoon light and idealized landscape setting give the riders an air of effortless noble ease that both celebrated their status and transcended it.
Technical Analysis
The painting shows evidence of reworking in the layered paint structure. Cuyp's golden atmospheric light suffuses the scene with warm, luminous tones. The horses and riders are rendered with careful attention to costume and equestrian detail, while the landscape recedes into a characteristic hazy, golden distance.
Provenance
(Thomas Emmerson [c. 1776-1855], London) before 1834.[1] purchased through Henry Artaria by Edmund Higginson [1802-1871], Saltmarshe Castle, near Bromyard, Herefordshire, before 1842;[2] (his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 4 June 1846, no. 212, as _The Departure for the Chase_, bought in); (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 16 June 1860, no. 34, as _The Departure for the Chase_); (Charles J. Nieuwenhuys, Brussels and London). Adrian John Hope [1811-1863], London; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 30 June 1894, no. 22, as _Grand Landscape_); (Charles J. Wertheimer, London). (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris); sold 1894 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] John Smith describes the painting as “formerly in the possession of Thomas Emmerson, Esq.” (John Smith, _A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters_, 9 vols., London, 1829–1842: 5[1834]: no. 177). Emmerson was apparently a dealer and collector, and the first auction of paintings in which he was the only seller took place in London in 1829. There were several other sales of paintings in his possession, from the 1830s through the 1850s, but the Gallery’s painting has not been found in any of the catalogues. [2] John Smith, _A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters_, 9 vols., London, 1829–1842: 9(1842):664. [3] Widener Collection records, in NGA curatorial files.
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