A. CUIJP
Fight between a Turkey and a Cock
His Skill in painting Living Birds.—As for painting living birds he is only equalled by Melchior d' Hondecoeter. It is only necessary to look at his magnificent Fight between a Turkey and a Cock which hangs in the Rijks. The sky has darkened in sympathy, as it were, with this epic combat, where two splendid specimens are using their beaks and claws with the greatest fury, and the brilliant feathers fly in all directions. Splendid in color, furious of action, and beautiful in its arrangement of light and shade, it deserves its great reputation.
The Rijks owns four other pictures: Portrait of a Young Man, Shepherds with their Flocks, Cattle, and View of Dordrecht.
Description of Shepherds with their Flocks.—Shepherds with their Flocks represents an Autumn morning in a meadow, where four grazing cows and a shepherd on a mule occupy the foreground; on the left, a man on an ass and a man on foot wearing a red vest; on the right, two large trees; in the middle distance, some trees, a river, and a tower; and in the background, mountains.
A. CUIJP
Shepherds with their Flocks
Description of Cattle.—This painting represents a great red ox with a white head, standing in profile on the left, occupying half the picture; a little behind is seen a black ox, full face; both stand out from the gray wall of a house. In front of the red ox three lovely pigeons are pecking. On the left, in the middle distance, a brown and a dun-colored ox are lying down. In the background, on the horizon, are trees and the spires and towers of Dordrecht. The sky is superb.
The View of Dordrecht seen from a great expanse of water, marvellously painted, is also a beautiful picture.
Jacob G. Cuijp's Scène Champêtre.—Jacob Gerritsz Cuijp (1594-1651?), father of Aelbert, is a painter whose pictures are very scarce. His Portrait of a Woman is dated 1651; and a very fine Scène Champêtre, which brought no less than 4,000 florins in 1849, represents, according to Immergeel, the family of the painter Cornelis Troost, a gay and large family. The grandmother, father, mother, four boys, and two girls are walking in a landscape where is also seen a chariot drawn by a handsome black horse of the Frisian race that Aelbert Cuijp so often paints.