Cattle by a fence in a water meadow

Most of Adriaen van de Velde’s landscape drawings were made from imagination in the artist's studio, but a small number of them, showing the Dutch countryside, are an exception to this. In these, the artist carefully rendered the tranquil landscapes with grainy and carefully applied black chalk which he worked up with grey wash to infuse the scenes with light and shadow. The present view must be one of these sheets drawn en plein air and it can be compared to drawings in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (inv. RP-T-1886-A-622), the Graphische Sammlung München (inv. 2034 Z) and the Amsterdam Museum (inv. 10349) (see M. Schapelhouman, in Adriaen van de Velde. Dutch Master of Landscape, exhib. cat., Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum and London, Dulwich Picture Gallery, 2016, no. 43, ill., figs. 161-162).