Peasants and Cattle beside a Tower,

ca. 1646

<p>Asselyn depicts an expansive landscape in this modestly scaled painting. Figures and animals animate the scene. In the right foreground is a picturesque tower overgrown with vegetation atop a substructure. At left, beside a man who has set down a basket brimming with vegetables, is a figure bending over to tie his shoe. Beyond, a herdsman descends a hill toward a river with his cattle, and on the other side of the water appears a sunlit hilly terrain. The work bespeaks Asselyn’s time in Rome, where he spent seven years absorbing the Italian Campagna and idyllic southern sunlight before returning to Amsterdam, where he likely painted this work.</p><p>The present painting is one of four versions of the composition. The closest in size and format is a work painted on paper attached to panel at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes. The other two versions are larger and horizontal in format: one is in the Rijksdienst Beeldende Kunst, and the other, whose authenticity has been disputed, appeared at auction at Sotheby’s, London, on December 16, 1999 (lot 115).</p>