One of the best known of the 17th-Century Dutch landscape painters, Aelbert Cuyp especially focused on panoramic late evening or early morning countryside scenes with much emphasis on atmospherics and bright lighting juxtaposed with darkness. Often placid looking cattle were depicted in these landscapes, and the overall mood was calm and serene.

He is credited as having superior drawing skills, and frequently he used the same drawing in parts of several paintings. He was also noted for using quality paint and rich varnishes. Other subjects were marine and upper-class genre scenes. It is thought that many of his paintings came from extensive travel around the rivers of Holland, and he...