# Pastoral Scene with a Shepherdess Milking a Goat

- By: Nicolaes Berchem (Dutch, 1621/22-1683)
- Date: c. 1665–c. 1670
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Classification: Painting
- Dimensions: 24.8 × 31.1 cm (9 1/4 × 12 1/4 in.); Framed: 40 × 46.7 × 4.5 cm (15 3/4 × 18 3/8 × 1 3/4 in.)
- Culture: Netherlands
- Credit line: Purchased with funds provided by Donald and Carol Asher; gift in part from Scott, Lynda, Jonathan, and Lindsey Canel; and purchased with funds provided by Patrick G. and Shirley W. Ryan in honor of Marlene Welsh Phillips
- Museum: [Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/artworks/214269)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://invisiblenetwork.ai/thumbs/web/497147d24de402f6f93f2eb2979b7884.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

One of the most prolific Dutch landscape painters, Nicolas Pietersz. Berchem executed scenes of the Italian campagna (countryside) for cosmopolitan collectors who appreciated foreign views. Against the muddy palette used for the livestock, Berchem highlighted the shepherdess’s skirt with a vibrant blue, a color that attracts the eye of the viewer and of the young shepherd nearby. Alongside paintings of the flat but fertile Dutch landscape, collectors enjoyed fanciful depictions of Italy for their hilly terrain and playful peasants.

Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0