Landscape

A milkmaid kneels at the centre of this painting, tending her herd of goats and sheep. The brightly-coloured yellow, orange and blue fabric of her clothing and the white scarf wound around her head are typical of seventeenth-century dress and provide an eye-catching visual anchor in this composition. By her side, a metal jug stands ready to take the fresh goat’s milk. Its manmade rounded form and metallic sheen form a striking contrast to the rural landscape in which it sits. A pack donkey stands patiently by the milkmaid, pannier baskets on its back. The ominous grey clouds looming in the left background are beginning to encroach on the blue sky and suggest the imminent approach of stormy weather, perhaps urging the milkmaid to finish her task before the rain comes.

This painting by the Dutch artist Willem Romeyn (c.1624-95 or after) has always been considered to be a pair with another work in Dulwich Picture Gallery’s collection – Classical Landscape (DPG003) – due to their similarities in size and subject matter. A wax seal found on the reverse of the canvas stretcher of this painting can be identified as that of the merchant and mayor of London, Sir John Gayer (1584-1649). This suggests that the painting was in Gayer’s collection, and must have made its way to England before his death in 1649. It must have been painted before Romeyn’s sojourn to Rome, Italy in 1650, making it one of the artist's earliest known works.