European Drawings 2: Catalogue of the Collections

ADRIAEN VAN DE YELDE

1636-1672

log A Cow Grazing

Red chalk; H: 15.2 cm (6'/sin.); W: 14 cm (5'Ain.)

89.06.40

MARKS AND INSCRIPTIONS: (Recto) at bottom left cor-

ner, signed A. V. Veldefc. in red chalk.

PROVENANCE: Sale, Christie's, Amsterdam, December

i, 1986, lot n; art market, London.

EXHIBITIONS: None.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: None.

AS NOTED BY A. HOUBRAKEN, VAN DE VELDE HABIT-

ually ventured into the country to sketch cattle and land-

scapes.^1 No doubt the product of such outings, this

previously unpublished example is among the more

monumental of the artist's numerous studies of cows.

Atypically, he omitted all traces of a natural setting and

depicted the animal from an angle that accentuates its

blocklike form. Its neck, left shoulder, and head catch the

sun directly, while light rakes across its back, revealing

its muscled forequarters and alternately protruding and

sunken hindquarters. As is the case with many of van de

Velde's animal studies, this one was used in later works,

appearing with some changes in the foreground of the

well-known painting The Migration of Jacob of 1663 (Lon-

don, Wallace Collection).^2 The present drawing was re-

versed for use in a second painting, Piping Herdsman, of

1671 (formerly London, Alfred de Rothschild collec-

tion), as noted in the Christie's sale catalogue (1986).

1. De Groóte Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en
   Schilderessen (The Hague, 1721), vol. 3, p. 90.


2. There are two other preparatory drawings for this painting
   (formerly New York, Lester Avnet collection; Amsterdam,
   private collection). See W. W. Robinson, "Preparatory Draw-
   ings by Adriaen van de Velde," Master Drawings 17, no. i
   (Spring 1979), p. 21 , nos. D-2, D-2a.

254 DUTCH SCHOOL • A. VAN DE VELDE