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A man stands and a woman sits near a herd of seven cows under a light-drenched sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The herd gathers on a grassy rise just beyond some large boulders and twiggy branches. The cows are caramel or copper brown and ivory white. They stand and lie, legs tucked demurely beneath their hulking bodies, facing different directions, their short horns curling like parentheses against the sky. The man stands on our side of the herd with his back to us to the left of center. He holds a tall shepherd’s staff in one hand as he hunches slightly and points with the other, to our right. He wears a high-crowned, wide-brimmed black hat, a crimson-red jacket, black trousers, and black knee-high boots. A knapsack hangs across one shoulder and rests behind his left hip. The woman sits on the far side of the herd so we see her under the man’s raised arm. She looks at him, her face peachy and round under a wide-brimmed straw-colored hat. She wears a white shirt under a robin’s egg-blue dress, and also holds a tall staff upright with both hands. Two more pale-skinned people sit on the ground or on a donkey in the near distance to our right, near the right edge of the canvas. Both wear hats and earth-toned clothing in black, gray, and blue. The donkey stands facing us, its face low, and a pair of baskets are slung across its back. The people and cattle cast long shadows from the setting sun, out of view to our left. The sunset ignites the undersides of the towering, slate-gray clouds with peach and gold against the ice-blue sky. A body of water stretches from beyond the low hill to a distant shore, where stone ruins are outlined on the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. A flock of six birds and another pair dot the sky.

Herdsmen Tending Cattle

Aelbert Cuyp

A man stands and a woman sits near a herd of seven cows under a light-drenched sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The herd gathers on a grassy rise just beyond some large boulders and twiggy branches. The cows are caramel or copper brown and ivory white. They stand and lie, legs tucked demurely beneath their hulking bodies, facing different directions, their short horns curling like parentheses against the sky. The man stands on our side of the herd with his back to us to the left of center. He holds a tall shepherd’s staff in one hand as he hunches slightly and points with the other, to our right. He wears a high-crowned, wide-brimmed black hat, a crimson-red jacket, black trousers, and black knee-high boots. A knapsack hangs across one shoulder and rests behind his left hip. The woman sits on the far side of the herd so we see her under the man’s raised arm. She looks at him, her face peachy and round under a wide-brimmed straw-colored hat. She wears a white shirt under a robin’s egg-blue dress, and also holds a tall staff upright with both hands. Two more pale-skinned people sit on the ground or on a donkey in the near distance to our right, near the right edge of the canvas. Both wear hats and earth-toned clothing in black, gray, and blue. The donkey stands facing us, its face low, and a pair of baskets are slung across its back. The people and cattle cast long shadows from the setting sun, out of view to our left. The sunset ignites the undersides of the towering, slate-gray clouds with peach and gold against the ice-blue sky. A body of water stretches from beyond the low hill to a distant shore, where stone ruins are outlined on the horizon, which comes about a third of the way up the composition. A flock of six birds and another pair dot the sky.

Details
Palette

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Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 66 x 87.6 cm (26 x 34 1/2 in.) framed: 88.9 x 109.9 x 3.8 cm (35 x 43 1/4 x 1 1/2 in.)
Department
CNE-B
Holding institution
National Gallery of Art
Image provider
national-gallery-of-art
License
CC0-1.0
Credit
Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Art Genome Taxonomy

7 tags

Subject Matter

  • Landscapes and Waterscapes Both · 99%

    The image presents a broad outdoor landscape with a grassy rise, distant shore, water, sky, and foreground vegetation; the catalog identifies it as a horizontal landscape painting.

  • Animals Both · 99%

    Cattle occupy the central and right portions of the composition, and the catalog identifies a herd of seven cows; a donkey is also visible at right.

  • Rural Life Both · 98%

    Herdsmen, cattle, a donkey, and a rural setting are central to the image, consistent with the title Herdsmen Tending Cattle and the catalog description.

  • Atmospheric Landscapes Both · 96%

    Towering gray clouds, atmospheric haze, a luminous horizon, and distant forms create a strongly atmospheric landscape.

Visual Qualities

  • Earth Tones Visual · 93%

    Muted greens, browns, ochers, grays, and subdued golds dominate the terrain, cattle, clothing, and sky.

Medium and Techniques

  • Oil Painting Metadata · 99%

    The catalog identifies the medium as oil on canvas.

Time Periods

  • 17th Century Art Metadata · 99%

    The catalog dates the work to 1655/1660, placing it in the seventeenth century.

Source & rights

Aelbert Cuyp. Herdsmen Tending Cattle. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Catalog record ↗ Image source ↗ Image license ↗ Image-use terms ↗ Catalog metadata terms ↗

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