Jacob van Strij

For a long time some of Jacob van Strij's paintings went under another name. He worked in Dordrecht, the home town of Aelbert Cuyp, the 17th-century master of cattle in golden evening light, and he could paint in Cuyp's manner so closely that their pictures were confused. At the end of the 18th century Cuyp was much sought after, above all by English collectors, and van Strij left 11 copies after him when he died. A landscape with cattle in the Metropolitan Museum in New York was long attributed to Cuyp. The art historian Wolfgang Stechow questioned it in 1954, and it is now catalogued as van Strij's.

He was born in Dordrecht in 1756 and trained in the workshop of his father, Leendert, alongside his elder brother Abraham, before two years at the Antwerp academy. Back home he joined Pictura, the town's drawing society, and lectured there on the old masters. He painted winters, river views and hilly landscapes with Italian ruins, although he never went to Italy. He died in Dordrecht in 1815, and his son Hendrik also became a painter.