081

  • Woman Sewing Amongst Cows

  • Mid-19th century France
  • Attributed to Barbizon School (follower of Camille Corot [French 1796-1875])
  • Oil on linen
  • 39.3 x 53.5 cm., 15-1/2 x 21-1/8"
  • Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts Purchase with Gift of Mr. Dan Churchill, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2004.12

Essay by Brian Allured, Class of 2005 and Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

Woman Sewing Amongst Cows is a beautiful nineteenth-century landscape scene with all the necessary elements. From the babbling brook to the background filled with an open field, the artist clearly knew how to construct a pleasing piece. This painting originated from the French Barbizon school, which bridged the Romantic Movement with Realism.

The Barbizon was the first major organized group of nineteenth-century landscape painters, centered in the village of Barbizon, located within the verdant Forest of Fountainebleau. The woods around Barbizon were kept in their pristine condition for the pleasure of the king, since they surrounded the Palace of Fountainebleau, the hunting palace for French royalty. This area thus provided artists with unspoiled natural scenery to inspire them with subjects for their artwork.

At first glance, viewers might note the deep shade that the trees cast over the foreground, enveloping the woman and the cows. She sits peacefully as she quietly works, presumably sewing, while tending the herd. Barbizon artists were often called Romantic Realists, to acknowledge that although like Realists, they focused on everyday observed reality, they often included a slight interpretive sense of Romantic grace. As in many of Camille Corot's paintings, the cows are given more attention than the woman.

This is not a work of history or mythology, but instead, represents the present in a prosaic manner. There is no great action or moral, simply a normal day in everyday modern life. In the distance, the light rakes across the field, revealing more cattle as well as buildings. The style of brushwork is lively, yet gentle. This is consistent with nineteenth-century Barbizon landscapes by Corot, who generally did not reveal every detail, yet managed to communicate the story of his figures within their environment. The cows here appear to be comfortable with the woman's proximity as they graze, and one meanders to the creek. The artist might be painting something with which he was familiar and had directly observed from life, undoubtedly in the Barbizon environs.