Three Goats in a Moutainous Landscape 1830 - 1864

Alexandre Calame made this drawing of three goats in a mountainous landscape with graphite on paper. Calame was Swiss, and like other artists of the early 19th century he saw landscape as the mirror of God's creation. The image shows a craggy mountain scene. Three goats are resting on the rocks, seemingly undisturbed by the rugged, vertiginous terrain. Calame’s decision to include goats in this landscape speaks to the cultural context in which the work was made. In rapidly industrializing Europe, farm animals came to represent an idealized simplicity of rural life and a traditional way of life that was fast disappearing. This is in some ways a conservative image. But it asks us to reflect on how our relationship to nature is mediated through economic and institutional change. As art historians, we can look at the ways museums and art schools shaped the production and reception of this image. We can assess its claim to represent a universal or timeless ideal, and we can understand its social and historical contingency.