The astonishing fact is that Berchem never saw this region for himself. In the rolling mists of Holland with its lowering clouds, he imagined a distant, ideal landscape: bright blue skies, golden gleaming sunlight, a natural landscape that required no helping hand. Herdsmen and travellers bring life to the hills and the meadows and draw the viewer into their welcoming universe. And the animals in Berchem’s compositions are equally lively. Until well into the nineteenth century Berchem’s engravings were the most widely used depictions of cattle. By contrast his winter landscapes and nocturnal scenes have always been rarities, which this exhibition all the more of a voyage of discovery for the visitor.