Karel Dujardin

Karel Dujardin (September 27, 1622 – November 20, 1678) was a Dutch Golden Age painter Although he did a few portraits and a few history paintings of religious subjects, most of his work is small Italianate landscape scenes with animals and peasants, and other genre scenes Dujardin spent two extended periods, at the beginning and end of his career, in Italy, and most of his paintings and landscape etchings have an Italian or Italianate setting

Dujardin worked in a variety of genres In addition to his pastoral landscapes, he also made historical pieces and portraits of Jan Reynst and Jacob de Graeff Renowned is his portrait of Michiel de Ruyter

Karel Dujardin was a Dutch painter and etcher, born in Amsterdam in 1622 Typical of his landscape paintings is Farm Animals in the Shade of a Tree (1656; National Gallery, London) He died in Venice in 1678

Karel grew up at the end of the Kalverstraat, near the Munttoren, in a family of fatty smolters and meat cutters His mother was an Antwerp, his father was born in Middelburg

In 1638 his parents went bankrupt It is not known who he was a student, but his successor was Pieter Nason, Nicolaes Berchem and Paul Potter

After supposedly training with Nicolaes Berchem, the young Dujardin went to Italy, and joined the Bentvueghels group of painters in Rome, among whom he was known as "Barba di Becco", "goat-beard", or Bokkebaart Here he encountered his first artistic successes

In 1649 he lived in Paris, where he married the widow Suzanne van Royen, who also had an Antwerp background The following year he went to Lyon

In 1651 he went to Amsterdam with his wife The couple lived on the Rozengracht, but moved to The Hague in 1656, where he became one of the founders of Confrerie Pictura, The Hague's painter's guild; Dujardin also joined the shooter

In 1660 he returned to Amsterdam, where he made career; His work was highly appreciated by collectors

According to Houbraken, while in Lyon in France, he contracted considerable debts, and married his (older) landlady to free himself of them He went with her to Amsterdam, where his pictures were valued very highly In 1675, he returned to Rome, on an invitation from his friend Joan Reynst and was welcomed by his old friends and admirers Renst and Dujardin went on a Grand Tour to other Italian cities, but when Reynst went back to Amsterdam, Dujardin remained in Italy, and gave him a message for his wife that he would follow soon

He travelled on to Venice but died there unexpectedly in 1678 He moved to Venice where he died after a food poisoning and a short sick bed According to his friend Johannes Glauber, who he had met previously in Rome, he was painting for a Dutch merchant in Venice when he suddenly became unwell Though he seemed to recover, his stomach was too full and he died Though he was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, he was laid to rest in the Catholic manner (wrapped in a white shroud) and was carried to his grave by his friends Govert van der Leeuw and Glauber

According to the RKD, his pupils were Jacob II, son of Jacob van der Does, Martinus Laeckman, and Erick van den Weerelt

Dujardin is represented in the following collections amongst others: Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, UK; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; J Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Louvre Museum, Paris; Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague; Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minnesota; National Gallery, London, UK; Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, California; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Crocker Art Museum, California; Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, UK; Harvard University Art Museums, Massachusetts; Hunterian Museum and Art Gallery, University of Glasgow, Scotland; Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida; Ringling Museum of Art, Florida; Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium; Smart Museum of Art at the University of Chicago; Szépmûvészeti Múzeum, Budapest; The Wallace Collection, London, UK; Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid; Rhode Island School of Design, RI,

Works:
Woman Milking a Red Cow, oil on canvas
The sick kid
Farm Animals in the Shade of a Tree, 1656, London, National Gallery
The Herding boy
Rest at an Italian inn
Hagar and Ishmael in the Wilderness
St Paul healing the cripple at Lystra
Tobias and the angel
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