Who painted Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle?

Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle was painted by Adriaen van Ostade in 1645-01-01.

Where can I see Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle?

Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle is held by Hermitage Museum.

What movement is Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle?

Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle is associated with Dutch Golden Age.

Can I buy a print of Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle?

Museum-quality prints of Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle are available made-to-order from Artifact World Gallery.

Artwork

Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle

Adriaen van Ostade , 1645

Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle is an oil painting by the Dutch Golden Age artist Adriaen van Ostade. It dates from 1645 and is held in the collection of the Hermitage Museum.

About this work

Subject & Meaning

5 cm by 33 cm, and it was created in Haarlem as part of the artist's prolific output of rural genre paintings.

The painting shows a pastoral scene featuring a shepherd, cattle and a horse on a rolling hill, embodying the everyday rural life celebrated in Dutch Golden Age landscape art. Its iconography of shepherd and livestock conveys themes of abundance and the harmony between humanity and nature, reflecting van Ostade's interest in humble village occupations. The work was painted in Haarlem in 1645 and later entered the collection of Catherine II of Russia before being acquired by the Hermitage Museum, where it remains on display.

The composition emphasizes the tranquility of the countryside through careful rendering of animals and landscape elements, a common motif in 17th‑century Dutch genre scenes that symbolised moral simplicity and the virtue of rural labor.

The dimensions of the oil on panel work are 25.5 cm by 33 cm, and it was created in Haarlem as part of the artist's prolific output of rural genre paintings.

Technique & Style

Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle is executed in oil paint on a wooden panel, a support combination characteristic of seventeenth-century Dutch cabinet pictures. The modest scale of the work, 25.5 cm in height by 33 cm in width, suits the intimate, small-format handling typical of Adriaen van Ostade's landscape output.

The composition is classified as a landscape painting and depicts shepherds together with cattle, a horse, and a man set against a hilly terrain, reflecting the rustic pastoral subject matter associated with the Ostade brothers' Haarlem workshop. The work was produced in Haarlem in 1645, a period when Adriaen van Ostade, alongside his brother Isaac van Ostade, was active in producing small-scale landscape scenes in oil on panel.

No condition report is provided in the available sources, and no further details of stylistic handling, palette, or surface state are documented.

History & Provenance

Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle was created by Adriaen van Ostade in 1645, painted in oil on panel in Haarlem. According to Wikidata records, the work was produced in 1645 and measures 25.5 by 33 cm.

The painting's early ownership history traces to Antoine Poullain, a Parisian banker and art collector. It subsequently passed into the collection of Catherine II of Russia, the empress whose acquisitions formed the foundation of the Hermitage Museum's holdings. The painting is now held in the Hermitage Museum collection, where it remains as part of the imperial legacy of Catherine's art patronage.

The painting is held in the collection of the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg.

It is inventoried as ГЭ-6771 (GE-6771).

It was previously in the collection of Antoine Poullain before entering the holdings of Catherine II of Russia, from which it entered the Hermitage.

Overview

Adriaen van Ostade’s 1645 oil painting titled Landscape with Shepherds and Cattle presents a tranquil rural tableau. The work is part of the collection of the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It measures a modest size typical of the artist’s landscape output and captures a moment of everyday agrarian life in the Dutch countryside.

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Artist & collection

Artist

Adriaen van Ostade

Adriaen van Ostade (baptized as Adriaen Jansz Hendricx 10 December 1610 – buried 2 May 1685) was a Dutch Golden Age painter of genre works, showing the everyday life of ordinary men and women.