Artwork
Landscape with Maid Milking a Cow
Landscape with Maid Milking a Cow is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Aelbert Cuyp. It dates from 1655 and is held in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
Aelbert Cuyp's Landscape with Maid Milking a Cow presents a pastoral scene centered on a milkmaid at work, accompanied by a man and cattle in a sunlit rural setting. The composition draws on the Dutch tradition of pastoral landscape, in which everyday agrarian labor is elevated into an idealized vision of harmony between people, animals, and the land.
The depiction of cattle and a milking maid evokes the long-standing iconographic association of dairy farming with abundance, fertility, and the prosperity of the Dutch countryside. Cuyp's signature golden light transforms this ordinary task into a serene, almost timeless tableau, reinforcing the work's meaning as a celebration of pastoral tranquility and the quiet dignity of rural life.
Technique & Style
The work falls within the landscape genre and depicts a pastoral scene featuring a milkmaid, a man, and cattle, with Rijnsburg Abbey visible in the background.
Created in 1655, Landscape with Maid Milking a Cow is an oil painting executed on a canvas support. The work falls within the landscape genre and depicts a pastoral scene featuring a milkmaid, a man, and cattle, with Rijnsburg Abbey visible in the background. As a product of Aelbert Cuyp's mid-17th-century practice, the piece utilizes oil paint to render its rural subject matter, consistent with the artist's known approach to landscape painting during this period.
History & Provenance
Landscape with Maid Milking a Cow is an oil painting on canvas created by Aelbert Cuyp in 1655. The work depicts a rural scene featuring a milkmaid, a man, cattle, and the architectural form of Rijnsburg Abbey. It is currently held in the collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts in Detroit. The source material identifies the inception of the painting specifically as January 1, 1655.
Landscape with Maid Milking a Cow is held by the Detroit Institute of Arts, which is identified as both its collection and its location. No inventory or accession number is recorded in the available sources.
No exhibition history is documented in the provided sources.
Overview
Aelbert Cuijps 1655 oil painting titled Landscape with Maid Milking a Cow presents a tranquil riverine scene in the Dutch countryside. A milkmaid seated on a grassy bank milks a cow while a man in a dark coat watches from a short distance. Nearby cattle graze, a ruined stone tower rises in the background, and a hazy sky softens the distant hills.
Context
The setting is identified as the grounds of Rijnsburg Abbey, a former monastic site that attracted numerous artists for its picturesque ruins and surrounding fields. By situating the milking episode near the abbey’s stone tower, Cuijps links the everyday labor of the countryside with the historic landscape that inspired many of his contemporaries.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Aelbert Jacobszoon Cuyp or Cuijp (Dutch pronunciation: ; 20 October 1620 – 15 November 1691) was one of the leading Dutch Golden Age painters, producing mainly landscapes.
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