A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock
- Artist: Peter Paul Rubens
- Date: about 1638
- Medium: oil on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is "A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock" by Peter Paul Rubens. Painted in the late style of this Flemish master, it's one of several landscapes he created during his final years.
Notice how the elevated viewpoint draws you into gazing out across the landscape. The strong diagonal lines of the river, road, clouds, and light from the low sun all work together to create a sense of depth and distance. The shepherd watching over his flock is the central point of interest in the foreground, but your eye is soon drawn back out to take in the rolling hills and patchwork fields.
Rubens was known for painting landscapes that weren't just beautiful views, but also conveyed ideas about rural bliss derived from classical authors like Horace and Virgil. This painting's peaceful scene evokes a poetic yearning for a simple life free from city stresses. The piping shepherd even echoes the Greek god Pan, adding to the idyllic atmosphere.
The sun breaking through the clouds just above the horizon adds to the sense of tranquility, but it's not clear if this represents dawn or sunset. The hat worn by the shepherd is an unusually stylish one for a man of modest means, and some art historians have even suggested that Rubens might be identifying with the shepherd himself.
This painting is thought to date back to about 1638, towards the end of Rubens's life. He was still painting mostly for his own pleasure at this point, rather than as commercial commissions.
See it in person
A Landscape with a Shepherd and his Flock hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
