A Horseman with a Cowherd and Two Boys in a Meadow, and Seven Cows

In the Dutch Republic of the 1650s, cattle meant wealth. Herds grazed on damp land reclaimed from the water, breeds and feed were improving, and butter and cheese had become exports as well as everyday food. Cuyp was known for painting cows convincingly, and he reused their poses from one picture to the next. The heads of two cows standing side by side here return, almost mirrored, in his Large Dort, a view of Dordrecht also in the National Gallery. It is a warm afternoon. A horseman in a broad hat talks with a cowherd leaning on his staff, and a boy has fallen asleep on the bank, a figure Cuyp first worked out on a sheet of studies now in Amsterdam. The painting once belonged to Sir Robert Peel, the prime minister, and came to the Gallery with his collection in 1871.