A Pier Overlooking Dordrecht

early 1640s

The van Goyen period: tonal landscapes

Probably in 1640 Cuyp first sees a painting by Jan van Goyen and takes from him straw-yellow and light-brown tones and the broken brushstroke, painting mostly small views of his native Holland with figures and animals. Direct training under van Goyen is not documented.

1641

Paints landscape backgrounds for his father's portraits

The only child of the portraitist Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, from a family of artists (his grandfather Gerrit and uncle Benjamin designed stained glass), Aelbert paints the landscape backgrounds for two of his father's group portraits, distinctly in van Goyen's manner. His father was his first teacher, and they collaborated for many years.

c. 1645

Jan Both's influence: light against the sun

Jan Both, just back in Utrecht from Italy, brings a manner developed in contact with Claude Lorrain: the light moves to a diagonal from the back of the picture, facing the sun contre-jour. Cuyp is one of the first Dutch painters to appreciate it, by some scholars' account through personal contact with Both in Utrecht, and in his short Both-inspired phase makes fuller use than any contemporary of the chromatic range of sunsets and sunrises.

1645–1650

Animals step into the foreground

In some paintings from 1645 to 1650 animals appear in the foreground in a way that does not fit his father's style: Aelbert moves from pure landscape to large forms and foreground figures and makes animals the focus of his pictures, something specific to him. The change is attributed to his interaction with his father.

1651 or 1652

Death of his father and an inheritance

After the death of his father, Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, Aelbert inherits a considerable fortune and becomes one of the most respected citizens of Dordrecht. He spends most of his life in the house “Huis Samson” on the Wijnstraat.