The painting resembles the View of Tivoli, in size, type of support and subject matter. Indeed, the overhanging rock in the foreground beside the fishermen would appear to be inspired by that beneath which the shepherds are located. Moreover, the tree that emerges in the upper left part is similar to the one that stands between the two temples in View of Tivoli. In the 1701 inventory both works, together with the Landscape with Saint Mary Cervelló now attributed to Claude Lorrain (Prado, P3259), are listed many entries ahead of the group of landscapes with hermits or bucolic scenes, which would seem to indicate that they were hung in a different room. The two landscapes continue to be recorded as a pair in subsequent royal inventories.

The X-ray image reveals that the figures and the tree in the foreground are superimposed over the landscape. Although the picture entered the Prado as an anonymous work, it was included in the catalogue of 1843 as an original by Jan Both.

In 1873 this attribution was changed to imitation of Jan Both. Valdivieso (1973) considers it to be an eighteenth-century Spanish work. Barghahn (1986) maintains the attribution to Both. However, although the excessively flat effect of the rocky formations, which display hardly any modelling, could be due to injudicious early restoration work, the handling of the various elements of the landscape and the figures is lacking in quality. Consequently, if the painting formed part of the Buen Retiro commission, it was probably executed by the workshop (or even a follower) of Van Swanevelt or of Both (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado. 2009, p. 333).