Karel Dujardin

1622, Amsterdam–1678, Venice

Landscapes by the Dutch painter Karel Dujardin focus on village life, the pastoral character of which is underlined by the almost idyllic coexistence of humans and animals and a sunny palette that the painter adopted during a visit to Italy (to which he would return and spend the rest of his life). Curiously, in Landscape with Cattle and Ploughing Peasants humans occupy a modest place by the side of the beautiful, strong, and gentle animals that are the main focal point of the painting. Even in Dujardin’s time, the idea of humans living in harmony with other species and the environment was colored by a nostalgic longing for a true connection with Nature, which was rooted in the Antique idyll and anticipated later “returns to nature,” from Jean-Jacques Rousseau to contemporary neo-Luddites.

In 1780, Russian Empress Catherine the Great bought this painting for the collection of the Hermitage Museum. In the late 1920s or early 1930s, like many other paintings from the museum, it was sold in Europe by the young Soviet state in order to raise foreign currency. In 1932, an industrialist from southern Germany purchased the painting at Galerie van Diemen in Berlin. It was later sold by his heirs and recently returned to Russia.