Ruysdael's sombre tone befits the man who struggled with poverty all his life, and died in a hospital penniless.

Cuyp is always sunny.

In his pictures, cattle browse at their ease, and shepherds lounge contented on the grass.

He was a painter of portraits and of figure subjects as well as of landscapes, and his little groups of men and cattle are always beautifully drawn.
Ruysdael, Hobbema, and many others were landscape painters only, and some had their figures put in by other artists.

Often they did without them, but in the landscapes of Cuyp, cows generally occupy the prominent position.