Landscape with Cattle

Jan Wijnants ca. 1635 - 1684

Summary

A man drives a small herd of cattle from behind, while another leads the way on horseback. Our high perspective allows us to see that further along the path, they will encounter other people and their dogs. High rocky outcrops on the left sweep down toward a lake, whose far edge is golden in the sunset. A round, Italianate tower nestles among the trees on the lower slopes. The path along which the drovers are heading sweeps in a broad curve around a small hillock, dominated by two tall trees. These lean in opposite directions, catching the dying sun and remaining in shade respectively. The blasted tree in the left foreground, a motif that appears often in Wijnants’ later work, derives from Jacob van Ruisdael. Although this work is distinctly Italianate in style, Wijnants never visited Italy and drew his inspiration from other Dutch painters working in this style. His work is close to the landscapes of Jan Hackaert (c. 1628-c. 1685), such as Landscape with Figures and Cattle (Royal Cornwall Museum, Royal Institution of Cornwall, Truro, inv. no. TRURI: 1939.221).