Dutch or French school of the 18th century.

Dutch or French school of the 18th century.
"Landscape."
Oil on canvas.
Frame ca.1830.
Measurements: 37 x 47 cm; 56 x 64 x 7 cm (frame).

The painting in tender is inscribed in the tradition of the eighteenth-century Arcadian and pastoral landscape, merging the naturalistic observation with an idealized vision of the countryside. The scene presents a foreground dominated by cattle treated with a soft and meticulous workmanship, typical of the eighteenth-century taste for animals integrated in a harmonious environment, while the background displays a broad horizon with mills and boats, common elements in Dutch painting, and at the same time compatible with the serene spirit of the French school.

The brushstroke is fine, restrained and polished, coherent with an artistic moment in which the pastoral landscape is conceived as a space of visual repose and as an idealization of rural life, very much in line with the tendencies of the late rococo and enlightened naturalism.