Hendrik Meijer

Hendrik Meijer specialised in two rather different branches of art: the production of large, pastoral paintings created as part of the elaborate domestic decorations that were so popular in late 18th-century Amsterdam, and very finely executed gouaches and watercolours, similar in theme to the wall-paintings but much more minute in technique. A few of the artist's independent drawings, such as this, are a little more expansive in handling, but still have that sense of completeness which, along with the full signature and date on the verso, marks them out as finished works of art made for sale.

This large, grand late work was made around the time that Meijer moved permanently to London, a city he had previously visited, in 1775, in the company of fellow artist Wybrand Hendricks. Between 1790 and 1792, he exhibited at the Royal Academy. In his late works in particular, the influence of French art in the tradition of François Boucher and his followers such as Jean-Baptiste Huët is strongly evident.