Artwork
Driving Cows out of the Cowhouse
Driving Cows out of the Cowhouse is an oil painting by the Realist artist Otto Bache. It dates from 1893 and is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst.
About this work
Technique & Style
Executed in oil on canvas in 1885, the painting employs a fluid handling typical of academic realism, with careful modulation of light and shadow across the animals’ forms to convey volume and movement.
The composition centers on the cattle emerging from the dark cowhouse into bright daylight, where highlights and reflections are applied with a relatively smooth brush, while the surrounding foliage is rendered with looser, broken strokes to suggest foliage and atmosphere.
The palette relies on earthy browns and ochers for the interior and warm greens for the exterior, punctuated by the cows’ varied coat tones, all unified by a consistent, naturalistic illumination.
History & Provenance
Driving Cows out of the Cowhouse is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen.
Driving Cows out of the Cowhouse was created by Otto Bache in 1885, executed in oil paint. The painting is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst, where it is currently located. The available records do not specify a commissioning party, prior owners, or intermediate holdings in the chain of provenance prior to its accession by the museum.
Driving Cows out of the Cowhouse is held in the collection of the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. The work, an oil painting on canvas created in 1885, measures 205.5 cm in height and 315.5 cm in width. While the painting's current location and physical attributes are documented, the provided sources do not contain specific inventory accession numbers or a record of its exhibition history.
Context
Otto Bache painted Driving Cows out of the Cowhouse in 1885, a work that situates him within the Danish artistic tradition of animal painting. His focus on rural domestic scenes aligns with 19th-century genre interests, as evidenced by its inclusion in Statens Museum for Kunst's collection and its classification as oil paint on canvas. The painting's dimensions, recorded as 205.5 cm by 315.5 cm, reflect the scale typical of contemporary Danish pastoral works exhibited at the museum.
Overview
Otto Bache’s 1893 oil painting Driving Cows out of the Cowhouse presents a quiet rural scene in which a man guides a herd of cattle from a barn. The composition is anchored by the movement of the animals toward the right, while the surrounding landscape is rendered with muted, natural tones that emphasize the everyday labor of farm life.
Subject & Meaning
The work captures a moment of agricultural routine: a farmer, dressed in a blue shirt and hat, uses a stick to direct brown‑and‑white cows, some horned, out of the shelter. The barren trees in the background suggest an autumn or early winter setting, underscoring the seasonal cycle of herd management and the modest, unadorned reality of rural work.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Otto Bache (21 August 1839 – 28 June 1927) was a Danish Realist painter best known for his depictions of historical scenes, animal studies, genre compositions, and portraits.
