Artwork
Milking Time
Milking Time is an oil painting by the Biedermeier artist Jacob van Strij. It dates from 1807 and is held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum.
About this work
Technique & Style
There is no indication in the cited sources of structural damage, restorations, or conservation issues, suggesting the painting remains in stable condition.
Executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, the work measures 73 cm in height and 96.5 cm in width. The composition is characterized by a restrained, naturalistic handling typical of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Dutch interior scenes, with careful attention to the play of light across the milkmaid’s hands and the cow’s flank. The subdued palette and meticulous rendering of textures, wool, linen, and wood, convey a quiet, domestic atmosphere.
There is no indication in the cited sources of structural damage, restorations, or conservation issues, suggesting the painting remains in stable condition.
History & Provenance
Milking Time is an oil-on-panel landscape painting created by Jacob van Strij in 1807. The work measures 73 cm in height and 96.5 cm in width. It is currently held in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, where it is identified as a landscape painting by the artist. The creation date is established as 1807, marking the year of its inception.
Milking Time is an oil painting on panel measuring 73 cm by 96.5 cm, created by Jacob van Strij in 1807. It is part of the Rijksmuseum's collection and is housed at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. The work has been exhibited in museum displays at the Rijksmuseum, including presentations of Dutch landscape painting from the early 19th century.
Context
Jacob van Strij painted Milking Time in 1807, depicting a rural scene characteristic of early nineteenth-century Dutch landscape painting. The work is part of the Rijksmuseum's collection in Amsterdam, where it is classified as an oil painting on panel measuring 73 by 96.5 centimeters. As a genre scene within the landscape tradition, it reflects the artist's focus on everyday pastoral activity, situating it within the broader development of Dutch realism before Romanticism's dominance.
Scholarship on van Strij often places his work at the intersection of empirical observation and classical compositional structure, highlighting his role in bridging 18th-century pastoral conventions with emerging Romantic sensibilities in Dutch art.
Overview
Created in 1807 by Dutch artist Jacob van Strij, Milking Time is an oil painting that illustrates a quiet moment of agricultural labor. The work belongs to the Biedermeier period and is part of the Rijksmuseum’s collection, reflecting the artist’s focus on everyday countryside scenes.
Subject & Meaning
The composition centers on a woman seated on a stool, milking a cow amid a verdant field. Dressed in a long skirt and apron, she engages in a gentle, routine task while additional cattle graze nearby and a stone wall and trees frame the background, emphasizing the dignity of ordinary rural life.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jacob van Strij (2 October 1756 – 4 February 1815) was a Dutch painter, printmaker, and draftsman who was mainly interested in landscape painting, including mountain landscapes, winter landscapes and marines.
