View of Heemstede

The Dutch artist Jacob Cats specialized in landscape, often executing paintings and drawings of this subject in meticulous detail. Here he depicted a wooded street in Heemstede, a small village five kilometers south of Haarlem. Cats represents the dappled light coming through the trees on a bright, sunny day to beautiful effect. Humorously, a dapper figure is caught by the artist in the act of relieving himself against a brick wall on the left. Otherwise it is a sleepy afternoon. A pair of shepherds guide a flock of sheep along the road, some laundry dries on a line, and small groups of men gather in the shade to smoke and chat. /// We are grateful to Gajus Scheltema for clarifying the date and provenance of this drawing.