This composition is one of Cuyp’s classic evening cattle pieces where all the elements are enveloped in a golden Italian glow, even though Cuyp never seems to have travelled further south than his native Dordrecht.  The artist uses the cows as compositional motifs rather than seeing them in purely picturesque terms.  Recent research has failed to establish Cuyp’s chronology, as he did not normally date his pictures. Once he had achieved maturity, by the mid-1640s, his style developed but little.

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