A Herdsman with Cattle and Sheep

<p>Pieter van Bloemen, whose two brothers were also painters, belonged to the third generation of northern artists who traveled to Rome for artistic inspiration. He is thought to have lived there between about 1685 and 1694, in which year he was back in Antwerp. A prolific artist, Bloemen most frequently painted animals, figures, and landscape views evocative of the Italian Campagna. He applied his lively colors with a heavily loaded brush. The almost portrait-like character of the horned cow facing the viewer, the inclusion of a prominent backside of an animal (here, a bull), and the two goats in close proximity to one another are found in many of his paintings.</p>