A shepherdess holding a bird's nest

The subject of the smiling shepherdess enjoyed enormous popularity in the Netherlands throughout the seventeenth century, and particularly in Utrecht, appearing frequently not only in Honthorst's oeuvre but in those of Paulus Moreelse, Jan van Bijlert and Abraham Bloemaert. She is an inhabitant of Arcadia, a pastoral paradise that was much lauded in Dutch seventeenth-century poetry and drama. While Arcadian and pastoral texts had circulated throughout Western Europe in the preceding centuries, they were first published in the Low Countries in the early 1600s. Among the most famous of these was Granida, a play by Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft, which contemplated the duality between idealistic love and blatant eroticism. Often holding doves (associated with Venus), fruit or flowers (recalling the attributes of Pomona), the shepherdess carried invariably licentious connotations of love and lust that would have been instantly recognisable to contemporary audiences.

The present work is an autograph version of the Shepherdess at the Centraalmuseum, Utrecht. We are grateful to Professor Wayne Franits for confirming the attribution to Honthorst after first-hand inspection of the painting.