Koe liggend onder het bladerdek van een boom 1848 - 1888

Anton Mauve made this graphite drawing, titled "Cow Lying under the Foliage of a Tree," in the Netherlands sometime in the mid-19th century. Mauve’s teacher, Pieter Frederik van Os, a painter of livestock, encouraged him to draw animals. Note that the image depicts a rural scene. By the mid-19th century, the Dutch landscape was rapidly changing due to industrialization. Artists like Mauve were drawn to the countryside. His paintings idealized rural life and provided a sense of nostalgia for a vanishing way of life, but one that conveniently overlooked the often brutal realities of farm labor. Mauve belonged to The Hague School, a group of artists in The Netherlands who were influenced by the French Barbizon School. To fully appreciate this drawing, one can research the social and economic conditions in the Netherlands during the 19th century, examining archival materials and agricultural records to provide additional context.