Landscape with a cow drinking c. 1650

Rembrandt van Rijn created this etching, “Landscape with a Cow Drinking”, likely in the 1650s when printmaking was growing as a commercial art. Here, Rembrandt presents us with an idyllic rural scene, a seemingly simple image of a cow drinking from a stream. But consider the context: the 17th-century Dutch Republic was a global economic power, built on maritime trade and increasingly urban society. What role, then, does an image like this play? Well, by harking back to the countryside, Rembrandt evokes a sense of nostalgia for a simpler, pre-urban life, perhaps reflecting anxieties about the rapid social and economic changes of his time. The art market was beginning to take shape, and prints like these were more accessible to a broader public than paintings. To understand Rembrandt fully, we must look at the interplay between the image itself, the social context in which it was made, and the institutions that shaped its creation and reception.