Landscape with cattle

Karel Dujardin (1626-1678) was born in Amsterdam and may have trained with the landscape painters Nicolaes Berchem (1620-1683) and Pieter van Lear called Bamboccio (1599-ca.1642), and he may also have worked with Paulus Potter (1625-1654). He travelled to Italy and France from around 1649 and specialised in landscape painting although he also executed few history painting and portrait. He had moved to The Hague by 1656, where he was a founding member of the confraternity Pictura. He was back in Amsterdam in 1660 where he spent the following 15 years as a respected and established artist, sought after by distinguished collectors. He apparently only had two apprentices, Martinus Laeckeman and Erick van der Weerelt or Wilkes (ca. 1648-1715), about whom nearly nothing is known. Around 1675, he left for Italy where he died 3 years later.