Skitse af landskab med køer 1840 - 1920

This is Theodor Philipsen’s quick sketch of a landscape with cows. Philipsen, who lived from 1840 to 1920, made this drawing with pen and brown ink on paper. Theodor Philipsen, a contemporary of artists like Pissarro and Degas, moved within impressionistic circles. But what does it mean to look at a landscape through the lens of impressionism, especially when that landscape is populated by grazing cows? In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the image of livestock grazing in open fields was deeply intertwined with ideas about rural life and national identity. Philipsen's sketch captures this sentiment, but it also hints at the socio-economic realities of agricultural labor. The loose lines and unfinished quality of the sketch suggest an immediacy, and the scene becomes a personal encounter with the land. It's not just about the cows, it’s about feeling the land.