Artwork
The Artist Painting a Cow in a Meadow
The Artist Painting a Cow in a Meadow is an oil painting by the Barbizon school artist Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen. It dates from 1850 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The careful attire and the contemplative gaze suggest reflection on artistic identity, while the distant river and hills hint at memory of earlier travels.
The painting shows the artist seated on a tree stump in a meadow, palette and brushes in hand, surrounded by sheep, a cow and a horse, while his hat and easel lie nearby. The self-portrait combines a realistic rendering of the Dutch countryside with symbolic references to the artist's profession: the open sketchbook on the lid of his paint box records a previously drawn cow, linking his plein-air practice to studio work. The careful attire and the contemplative gaze suggest reflection on artistic identity, while the distant river and hills hint at memory of earlier travels.
Executed in 1850 for an American collector, the work reflects the nineteenth-century Dutch fascination with plein-air landscape painting and the emerging genre of the self-portrait in nature.
Technique & Style
Created in 1850, this work is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, measuring 73.2 by 96.7 centimeters. The painting depicts the artist seated on a tree stump within a rolling meadow, holding a palette and brushes while working en plein air, though the scene was likely constructed in the studio using earlier sketches. Stylistically, the composition blends realistic portraiture with romantic landscape elements, featuring the artist in a neat suit alongside livestock and a distant river horizon.
A notable formal detail is the inclusion of a preliminary sketch of the cow pinned to the inside of the artist's paintbox lid. The work reflects the mid-nineteenth-century Dutch tradition of combining careful observation of nature with idealized, studio-finished execution.
History & Provenance
The work, titled The Artist Painting a Cow in a Meadow, was commissioned in 1849 by the American collector Charles Sharpless, who requested a portrait of Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen depicted working outdoors; Van de Sande Bakhuyzen sent a pencil sketch and an oil study that year and completed the final oil on panel in 1850. The painting entered the Rijksmuseum collection after being acquired in 1969 from Professor Jacques de Caso of Berkeley for 4,710.73 Dutch guilders. It is catalogued in the museum's holdings as an 1850 oil landscape, measuring 73.2 × 96.7 cm and created in the Netherlands.
Context
Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen positioned himself within the nineteenth-century Dutch tradition of realist-romantic pastoral painting, frequently working en plein air alongside contemporaries influenced by earlier Italian-trained artists such as Antonie Sminck Pitloo and Josephus Augustus Knip. His self-portrait, painted in 1850 for the American collector Charles Sharpless of Philadelphia, reflects this practice by depicting the artist at work in a meadow, though the composition was likely executed in the studio using a mirror and sketches gathered during earlier journeys through the Ardennes, Germany, and an 1841 study trip near Kleef with Willem Roelofs. The work entered the Rijksmuseum collection in 1969, acquired for 4,710.73 guilders from Jacques de Caso of Berkeley, California, and has been discussed in scholarship on nineteenth-century Dutch painting, including M. van Heteren, G. Jansen, and R. de Leeuw's Poëzie der werkelijkheid (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Waanders, 2000).
Overview
Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen, a Dutch landscape artist active during the Romantic era, created The Artist Painting a Cow in a Meadow around 1850. This oil painting depicts the artist himself engaged in outdoor work, capturing a cow within a pastoral setting. The piece exemplifies the Barbizon School's dedication to naturalistic portrayals of rural environments, a movement that significantly influenced European landscape art. It is currently part of the collection at the Rijksmuseum.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Hendrik van de Sande Bakhuyzen
Hendrik (Hendrikus) van de Sande Bakhuyzen (2 January 1795 – 12 December 1860) was a Dutch landscape painter and art teacher.
