1856
oil
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
Dominant colour
The Cowherd is a 1856 oil by Barthélemy Menn, a Realism work, held at Victoria and Albert Museum.
A cow stands in a green field under a stormy sky. Soft light touches its back while dark clouds gather. The brushwork is thick in places, thin in others—you can see the artist’s hand. Menn painted this slowly, over 25 years. He kept changing small parts, never quite happy. It shows how artists could take their time back then. This makes you wonder what else changed in art between then and now. Look up Menn, Barthélemy.
The painting depicts a cowherd on horseback guiding cattle across a stream at sunset, rendered in oil on millboard. It reflects Menn’s later style, influenced by the Barbizon School and Corot, emphasizing a freer approach to nature. The work was likely created between the 1850s and 1868, when it entered the collection of Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend. The composition aligns with 17th-century Dutch pastoral themes while embodying the Realist movement’s focus on direct observation.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Barthélemy Menn (20 May 1815 – 10 October 1893) was a Swiss painter and draughtsman who introduced the principles of plein-air painting and the paysage intime into Swiss art.
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