Rugendas painted the cowherd and gaucho in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile. Two engravings after 'sketches' by Rugendas (C. Sartorius, Mexico, Landscapes and Popular sketches by Moritz Rugendas, London, 1855, 'View of the Coast on the Road from Veracruz to Ialapa' and 'The Bull Hunting - El Vaquero echando el Lazo (Mexico)') show cowherds lassooing bulls in Mexico and he painted similar subjects earlier in Brazil (J.M. Rugendas, Voyage Pittoresque dans Le Brésil, Paris 1835, I, plate 5) and in Argentina in 1846 ('Sein Hauptinteresse gehörte den Menschen des Volkes, den Menschen der Pampas, und wie in Mendoza und San Luis nahm er sich eifrigst die Typen des Karrenführers, des Maultiertreibers, des Gaucho ...' G. Richert, Johann Moritz Rugendas, Berlin, 1959, p. 60).

However, the large scale and more studied handling of the present picture distinguish it from the small and fluidly painted oils produced by Rugendas in Central and South America and suggest it might be identified with the larger and more composed pictures worked up from sketches after his return to Germany in 1847. It more closely resembles the larger canvas 'Gauchos rescuing a Hostage' dated 1848 sold at Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 4 May 1979 and the same subject titled 'Frauenraub bei argentinischen Indianern', G. Richert, op. cit., p. 127, and the two canvases of similar size (58.5 x 91.5cm.) sold at Sotheby's Belgravia, 11 May 1976, lots 195 ('Gauchos lassoeing a steer') and 196 ('Gauchos catching Rhea birds with bolases'), the latter signed and dated 1848