Landscape with Cattle (A Young Sheperd with his Flock) by Sir Peter Francis Bourgeois

This landscape brings together all the hallmarks of the Dutch Italianate tradition – the golden glow of Italian sunlight, distant mountain vistas, rocky outcrops and verdant trees, docile animals and a shepherd or two. Here, the artist Peter Francis Bourgeois (1756-1811) has paid homage to one of the masters of this style: Aelbert Cuyp (1620-91). A great admirer, and imitator, of Cuyp, Bourgeois’s interpretation is designed to appeal to the eighteenth-century collector, recalling the countryside of the Mediterranean and alluding to classical styles that were favoured by young aristocrats and artists returning to Britain from the Grand Tour – a cultural trip through Europe. The young shepherd’s pose evokes an ancient Roman bronze, the ‘Spinario’, showing a boy removing a thorn from his foot, which would have been familiar to those who had passed through Rome. Yet, while Bourgeois was conjuring the golden light of Italy, the overall yellow tone of the painting is as a result of historic varnish which has darkened over time.

In producing this work Bourgeois may not only have been indulging his own tastes but also responding to the insatiable demand for Dutch Italianate works in late Georgian Britain. An inscription even shows the remains of a false Cuyp signature on the painting (possibly added by Bourgeois). In addition to a career as an artist, Bourgeois was an art dealer and his path crossed that of King Stanislaw Augustus of Poland (1732-98), becoming the Polish king’s royal painter. Along with his benefactor and business partner, Noel Desenfans (1741-1807), Bourgeois was commissioned by the king to source a substantial number of historic paintings to create a royal collection, which, after Stanislaw’s fortunes changed, became the foundation for Dulwich Picture Gallery.