Aelbert Cuyp - Ubbergen Castle [c.1655]

Aelbert Cuyp - Ubbergen Castle [c.1655], a photo by Gandalf's Gallery on Flickr.

Ubbergen is near Nijmegen in the Province of Gelderland. The castle, which had long been a ruin, was pulled down in 1712. Because of its partial destruction during the Spanish occupation in 1582, the 14th-century castle was seen by the Dutch as a national symbol. Thus Cuyp's luminous depiction of the building may well have evoked patriotic feelings in contemporary viewers. 

Aelbert Cuyp (Dordrecht, October 20, 1620 – Dordrecht , November 15, 1691) was one of the leading Dutch landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. After he married Cornelia Boschman in 1658, the number of works produced by him declined almost to nothing. This may have been because his wife was a very religious woman and a very big patron of the arts. It could also be that he became more active in the church under his wife's guidance.

[Oil on oak, 32.1 x 54.5 cm]