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Overview
During his lifetime, Rembrandt's extraordinary skills as a printmaker were the main source of his international fame. Unlike his oil paintings, prints travelled light and were relatively cheap. For this reason, they soon became very popular with collectors not only within, but also beyond the borders of the Netherlands. It also explains why, two centuries later, they were affordable for Bishop Ditlev Monrad, who donated this example to the Colonial Museum in 1869.
Even though Rembrandt indulges in flights of fantasy and imagination in his etched landscapes of the 1650s, his realism means that he keeps one foot firmly on the ground in direct observation of the native Dutch landscape. If we cover the panorama of hills and the rocky cliff seen in the background, Landscape with a Cow Drinking becomes a fairly conventional Dutch farm landscape. The cow drinks from the river where a bent-over man busies himself in his moored boat. The atmosphere conveyed in this landscape is serene. Rembrandt economically conveys the reflective surface of the water and reflections of the lakeside shrubbery. Note the intricate cross-hatching applied to the cottage.
This impression is the third of five states. It dates from after 1767, when the major French art connoisseur and patron - and also an accomplished etcher in his own right - Claude-Henri Watelet (1718-86) - acquired 53 of Rembrandt's etching plates (he later owned probably over 80), which he proceded to 'revitalise'. This is evident in, for example, new hatching and foliage on top of the right-hand tree next to the cottage. Watelet's signature is added on the lower left, although it is hard to discern.
References: New Hollstein Dutch 251, 3rd of 5 states; Hollstein Dutch 237, undescribed state
See: Old Towne Gallery, http://oldtownegallery.com/category-item.php?itemId=809346&title=Landscape+with+Cow&category=Masters&medium=Original+Etching&o ffset=12
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art September 2017