Two Cows and a Young Bull beside a Fence in a Meadow

Two cows — one lying, one standing — and a young bull graze placidly beside a wooden fence in a flat Dutch meadow, their hides rendered with the close attention to hair, colour and pose that bordered on portraiture. Paulus Potter, who elevated the cattle piece into an independent genre in the Dutch Republic, signed and dated the small panel 1647 on the fence, and its clear northern light and unhurried stillness made it one of the most celebrated of his studies of domestic animals. The picture descended through British collections — catalogued by John Smith in 1834 and by Waagen in the collections of the Manchester Exhibition of 1857 — before reaching the Art Institute in memory of Harold T. Martin with the Worcester Collection and the Lacy Armour Endowment. The painting is held in the Art Institute of Chicago.