Orpheus with Animals in a Landscape

Aelbert Cuyp composed this Orpheus with Animals in a Landscape around 1640, combining his skill as a landscape painter with the mythological subject of the legendary musician. The composition includes a wide range of both domestic and exotic animals: cattle, horses, a distant elephant, an ostrich, herons, and wildfowl, all gathered peacefully around Orpheus as he plays.

Cuyp (1620-1691) was trained as a landscape painter by his father, Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp. He often used views as platforms for genre scenes, animal portraits, and mythological subjects. This painting is one of at least two different works he made depicting the Orpheus story. Cuyp appears to have stopped painting around 1660, though he lived another thirty years.

The painting measures 113 x 167 cm, a substantial canvas that allowed Cuyp to display his ability to paint almost anything. The variety of animals demonstrates his versatility, from the familiar cattle of Dutch pastures to exotic creatures he likely knew only from illustrations. The work is held at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, having previously been in the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection.