A Landscape with Cows, Sheep and Horses by a Barn
- Artist: Paulus Potter
- Date: 1651
- Medium: oil on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
Listen to the free audio guide
About this artwork
This is "A Landscape with Cows, Sheep and Horses by a Barn" painted in the Netherlands. The artist was Paulus Potter, famous for his paintings of domestic animals. He observed them with great care: look at the way the closest to us closes its eyes while it chews the cud and, just behind, another tenses its body as it urinates.
The hilly terrain and summer light are reminiscent of Italy but these are Dutch cows. The golden glow of the late afternoon sun touches the animals, sky, and landscape in harmonious greens, browns, and blues. Other details contribute to a sense of peace and plenty: the cows' udders are full, ready for evening milking, the hay barn is stacked to the rafters, and in the field beyond the corn has been cut and gathered into stooks.
Potter worked for barely a decade but was famous in his lifetime for his scenes of rural life and landscapes populated with domestic animals. This smaller scene of rural tranquillity is more typical of the general run of his work. The painting isn't just an evocation of peace, it's celebrating a vital source of national wealth and prosperity: farming and livestock were crucial to the Dutch economy in the 17th century.
Potter's influence was lasting; he directly influenced other landscape artists like Karel Dujardin and Adriaen van de Velde. This painting is dated 1651, painted in oil on wood.
See it in person
A Landscape with Cows, Sheep and Horses by a Barn hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
