Adriaen van de Velde Amsterdam 1636 - 1672

Possibly John Davenport, London, before 1800;
Possibly his sale, London, Christie's, May 10, 1800, lot 35, where unsold ('An exquisitely finished landscape with cattle');
Possibly his sale, London, Christie's, February 21, 1801, lot 89 ('A landscape with cattle and figures, exquisitely finished'), where possibly acquired by Peter William Baker;
Peter William Baker, London and Ranston, England, by 1815, and by inheritance to his wife, Jane Baker, on his death in 1815;
Mrs. Peter William Baker, London and Ranston, and by inheritance to Edward Baker on her death in 1816;
Sir Edward Baker, 1st Bart., Ranston, and by inheritance to Edward Baker on his death in 1825;
Sir Edward Baker, 2nd Bart., Ranston, and by inheritance to Talbot Hastings Bendall Baker on his death in 1877;
Rev. Sir Talbot Hastings Bendall Baker, 3rd Bart., Ranston, and by inheritance to Randolf Littlehales Baker on his death in 1900;
Sir Randolf Littlehales Baker, 4th Bart., and by inheritance to Mrs. William Henry Gibson Fleming on his death in 1959;
Major and Mrs. William Henry Gibson Fleming, Ranston;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, March 23, 1960, lot 48, where purchased by J. Paul Getty;
J. Paul Getty, Sutton Place, Surrey, and donated by his estate to the J. Paul Getty Museum in 1978, no. 78.PA.208.

Advertisment for Sotheby's sale (see Provenance) in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CII, no. 684, March 1960, p. xviii;
J.P. Getty, The Joys of Collecting, London 1966, p. 118;
W.O. Robinson, "Catalogue of Preparatory Drawings by Adriaen van de Velde", Master Drawings, vol. XVII, no. 1, Spring 1979, p. 19, no. B-4;
D. Jaffé, Summary Catalogue of European Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 1997, p. 128, reproduced.

Unknown to Hofstede de Groot in 1912, this is an autograph replica of Van de Velde's original of 1663, in the collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein¹ in Vaduz since the early 18th century. Another autograph replica, of 1665, is in the Petit Palais, Paris². Hofstede de Groot lists a third replica, dated 1666, as in the collection of Jules Porges, Paris³. There is a preparatory sketch for this composition in Leiden, Prentenkabinet der Rijksuniversiteit, inv. no. 234 (fig. 1).

Van de Velde was heavily influenced by the group of artists known as the 'Dutch Italianates' whose principal figures were Pieter van Laer and Nicolaes Berchem. Indeed, Van de Velde appears to have adapted both the heifer viewed in profile and the goat in the right foreground from Pieter van Laer's Shepherd and Shepherdess in the Louvre, Paris⁴. Van de Velde probably never went to Italy and his 'Italianate' style therefore relies heavily on his seeing the paintings brought back from Italy by his aforementioned peers. While the lush green landscape of the present painting does not particularly speak of Italy, it is the warm fall of light, and of course the subject matter, that render this work distinctly 'southern' and that distinguishes it, and all his late landscapes, from his early work of the mid 1650s; compare, for example, the present work, with his Two Cows in the Wachtmeister collection, Sweden, of 1656⁵, or the 1650 work offered London, Sotheby's, July 12, 2001, lot 193.

1  See R. Baumstark, Masterpieces from the Collection of the Princes of Liechtenstein, New York 1980, no. 102, reproduced plate 102.
2  See Le Siècle de Rembrandt, exhibition catalogue, Paris 1970, no. 213, reproduced.
3  See C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné..., vol. IV, London 1912, p. 463, no. 21A.
4  See A. Brejon de Lavergnée et al., Catalogue sommaire illustré des peintures du Musée du Louvre. Ecoles flamande et hollandaise, Paris 1979, p. 81, reproduced.
5  See C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. IV, London 1912, pp. 522-23, no. 234.