Paulus Potter, 'A Landscape with Cows, Sheep and Horses by a Barn', 1651

Paulus Potter worked for barely a decade – he died when he was 29 – but he was famous in his lifetime for his scenes of rural life and landscapes populated with domestic animals. In the 1640s and 50s, this was a new genre of Dutch painting and Potter was one of its pioneers. He made his name in 1649 with a monumental life-size painting of a farmer and his bull (now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague).

The smaller scene of rural tranquillity we see here is more typical of the general run of his work. Men and animals work in harmony and there’s a warmth in the air, suggested by the golden light and the long shadows of a summer afternoon. This was a fashionable atmospheric effect, characteristic of Italianate art, which had recently been introduced to Holland by Dutch painters who had visited Rome. The hilly terrain also has an idealised, Italianate feel: it is certainly not the landscape of the dykes and level pastures around Amsterdam and Delft, where Potter was based.

But while the light and landscape may be reminiscent of Italy, these are most definitely Dutch cows. Potter has observed them with great care: look at the way the closest to us closes its eyes while it chews the cud and, just behind, another tenses its body as it urinates. Other details contribute to a sense of peace and plenty: the cows’ udders are full, ready for evening milking, the hay barn is stacked to the rafters and in the field beyond the corn has been cut and gathered into stooks. Meanwhile the animals, sky and landscape – in harmonious greens, browns and blues – are all touched by the golden glow of the late afternoon sun.

What was the appeal of such scenes in seventeenth-century Holland? Most of Potter’s customers probably lived in busy, bustling cities and bought such paintings to hang in their town houses, so the peace and quiet of rural scenes may have had a sentimental appeal. But farming and livestock were also vital to the national economy. While the Dutch Republic was a collection of great mercantile cities which traded all over the world, its fortunes were also rooted in the land. Improvements in breeding stock and husbandry had seen a boom in livestock farming, especially cattle, and cheese and butter were not only national staples, but key exports. This painting isn’t just an evocation of rural tranquillity – it’s celebrating a vital source of national wealth and prosperity.

Potter’s influence was a lasting one. He worked in Delft, The Hague and Amsterdam and seems to have directly influenced other landscape artists, including Karel Dujardin, who was active in Haarlem, and the Amsterdam painter Adriaen van de Velde. His etchings and paintings must also have been a formative influence on Aelbert Cuyp, who was to become even more famous for his pastoral landscapes and paintings of cattle – like A Distant View of Dordrecht, with a Milkmaid and Four Cows, and Other Figures (‘The Large Dort’).