Herdsmen with cattle and sheep in an extensive Italianate landscape

Part of a series of four drawings of similar format and subject, which were etched in reverse (Hollstein XLI, pp. 48-49, nos. 58-61, illustrated). Two other drawings are in the Teyler Museum, Haarlem (Plomp, op. cit., nos. 40-41), and a third is in a Paris private collection (B. Broos, 'Notitie der Teekeningen van Sybrand Feitama', III: de verzameling van Sybrand I Feitama (1620-1701) eb cab Isaac Feitama (1666-1709)', Oud Holland, 101, 1987, p. 185, illustrated. All four drawings were in the collection of the Feitama family between 1690 and 1758, and are known to have remained together at least until the anonymous sale of 1777 (see Provenance). According to Feitama's Notitie der teekeningen, the drawings date from 1659, a date that was also noted by De Winter (Beredeneerde catalogus van alle de prenten van Nicolaes Berchem, vervattende een beknopte doch zeer naauwkeurige beschryving voor al het geene dat na de schilderyen en teekeningen van dien voortreffelyken meester, zo door hen zelven ge-etst als door anderen in't koper gebragt, Amsterdam, 1767, p. 76. under no. 114) and in the Muilman auction catalogue of 1773.