Southern Landscape with Travellers

This beautiful painting by Both, with its scrupulous rendering of Mediterranean light, serene atmosphere, and woods evocative of the Dutch countryside, is representative of the Italian-style landscapes he created for the knowledgeable connoisseurs of Utrecht. In the 1640s, Both emerged as one of the best Italianate landscape artists of the Golden Age of Dutch painting, his many emulators testifying to the success of his work. He was influenced by the painter Claude, whom he befriended in Rome—Both was in fact dubbed the Dutch Lorrain—and his style left its stamp on that of Berchem and Cuyp. It is possible to trace the history of the work back to its original owner, Johan van der Linden van Slingeland, one of the greatest art collectors of his era. In the nineteenth century, the painting was in the collection of Alfred de Rothschild, before it left England for North America.