Lot 1028 D α

It is assumed that Karel Dujardin studied under the Haarlem landscape painter Nicolaes Berchem and, according to Arnold Houbraken, became his most talented pupil. He may have travelled to Italy shortly afterwards. In any case, he was there in the mid-1670s after joining the Bentveughels, a group of mostly Dutch and Flemish painters working in Rome, where he was nicknamed Bokkebaart (‘goatee’) because of his facial hair. Around 1650, possibly on his return journey from Italy, he is mentioned in Lyon and Paris before arriving back in Amsterdam in 1651. He was a versatile artist who created portraits, history paintings and above all Italian genre scenes, which brought him lasting fame.
Jennifer Kilian was only aware of this painting through a description by the art collector François-Xavier de Burtin from 1808. She included it as such in her catalogue raisonné of Karel Dujardin. De Burtin describes the painting as one of the artist's best works. It bears witness to Dujardin's outstanding ability to capture atmospheric moods. It evokes the shimmering southern light of Italy, which settles on the group of figures gathered in the shadow of a wall. Dujardin has sensitively and distinctively characterised the lazy sheep dozing in the heat. A dating of the work to the first half of the 1650s has been suggested (see H. Grape-Albers, Hanover, 2000, p. 141).