Landscape with Cattle

The influential work, Landscape with Cattle, created by possibly Jean François Millet French, 1814-1875, between 1866 and 1867, is a refined example of 19th-century French drawing. This sensitive study was executed using brush and blackish brown ink, applied over graphite on ivory wove paper. This specific medium highlights the dramatic tonal contrasts and textural nuances characteristic of Millet’s mature drawing technique.

Millet was a foundational figure of the Barbizon school, celebrated for depicting the quiet dignity of agrarian life and the natural landscape. Although the artist is primarily recognized for his oil paintings, his large-scale studies and finished drawings are equally important, capturing the immediacy and atmosphere of the pastoral subject matter. This particular composition focuses on a small group of cattle grazing or resting within an expansive, subtly sketched landscape, emphasizing the harmony between the animals and their environment.

The underlying graphite establishes the composition, which Millet then finalized using broad applications of ink. The artist’s distinctive use of short, expressive brushstrokes defines the robust forms of the animals and suggests the texture of the fields, reflecting the earthy realism of the period in France. This commitment to detailing everyday rural scenes made the artist’s work highly sought after, even in study form.

As a significant drawing from the mid-1860s, Landscape with Cattle demonstrates Millet's mastery in translating observational sketches into finished compositional studies. This important piece is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. Because many of Millet's original works have now entered the public domain, art enthusiasts can easily find high-quality prints and reproductions of the artist’s remarkable oeuvre.