Landscape with Cattle

Artist Willem Maris (The Hague, Netherlands, 1844 - 1910)

Mediumoil on canvas

ClassificationsPaintings And Drawings

DimensionsOverall: Height: 120.9 cm, Width: 81.9 cm
Frame: Height: 171.4 cm, Width: 132.2 cm

AcquisitionBequeathed in 1951 by Dr J E Crombie.

CopyrightOut of copyright - CC0

LocationView by Appointment - Aberdeen Treasure Hub

Object numberABDAG004480

Keywords

About MeWillem Maris, one of three artist brothers, was born in 1844 in The Hague. His first lessons in drawing were from his brothers Jacob and Matthijs. For a while he followed evening classes at the Hague Academy and later continued his studies with the cattle painter Stortenbeker. In the Mauritshuis in The Hague, Willem copied the work of the seventeenth-century animal painter Paulus Potter. From an early age Willem went outdoors to sketch the countryside. In 1901 he wrote in a letter: 'As far as I can remember, even before I was twelve ... I was out in the pastures drawing cows ... I have nearly always worked outside, summers in the fields and winters in the barns'. Maris painted many Dutch landscapes with animals, especially cows and ducks.

In 1862 Willem Maris established himself as an independent painter. In the same year his friendship with the painter Anton Mauve began. They had met in the Gelderland village of Oosterbeek, where the Maris brothers often stayed during the summer, in the company of other painters. Like Mauve, Willem Maris was considered part of the Hague School, because it was particularly the atmosphere and mood of a landscape which he tried to capture. He portrayed his subjects with increasingly free brush-strokes. However his sun-filled pastures are much more colourful than the greyer landscapes of other painters of the Hague School.

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This Dutch artist wrote "even before I was twelve […] I was out in pastures drawing [...] I nearly always worked outside, in summers in the fields and winters in the barns".