Jan Baptist Kobell

Jan Baptist Kobell (Delfshaven 1778 - 1814 Amsterdam) was Holland's most successful early 19th century painter of cattle [1]. Our painting shows why he deserved that reputation. In it, Kobell has managed to provide an attractive portrayal of animals whilst simultaneously conveying a sense of tranquility in an almost timeless setting.

The painting's focus is centred on the group of animals in the foreground. They are resting near a brook. It consists of a number of differently coloured cows, a goat and a ewe looking after its little lamb. The creatures are peacefully going about their business. In order to achieve a sense of space, Kobell has two of the cows pointing their faces away from the other animals and towards the right of the picture. They seem to have turned their backs directly on the patchwork cow on the left in front of the wicker fence, which is admiring its reflection in the water.The friendly little goat has its head turned and appears to be looking at the lamb. It is a nice touch which underlines the sense of harmony exuded by the painting.

On the right of the painting we can see a woman nursing a child. She is in conversation with a man leaning on a walking stick. As if to underline the closeness between the animals and the humans, another group of cows and a sheep are contentedly hovering nearby.

Kobell has painted this in a very compact, almost dry manner. His brushstrokes are short and precise. The thistles in the foreground on the right, for example, are painted very delicately. And on closer inspection it would appear that some fragments of cowslip might have attached themselves to the goat's fur. The bits of petal could have got stuck to the animal's coat whilst it was sitting in the meadow. It is a simple yet telling detail: by introducing such a tiny hint of realist accuracy in an otherwise imagined setting, Kobell would have shown his insistence on providing a painstakingly depicted slice of nature.

Every detail is thoroughly thought-out in relation to the overall composition. The sky is captured so as to suggest a placid afternoon - probably late spring or early summer. There's not a semblance of a dark cloud anywhere to be seen. The use of a pale green and blue colour scheme with a hue of pink makes for a wholly self-contained idyll.

Kobell's success during his lifetime reached as far as Paris, where he won first prize with his entry for the 1812 Salon. French Emperor Napoleon was so impressed by what he saw, that he even purchased the painting [2]. Napoleon's brother, Louis, who had been made King of Holland by the Emperor in 1806, was also an enthusiastic supporter of Kobell's. He wrote fondly about the artist in his novel, Marie, ou les peines de l'amour, from 1814 [3].

These royal accolades were probably the crown on the career of a man who had had an inauspicious start in life and had grown up in an orphanage. Hailing from a family of artists (his father was a not inconsiderable painter of seascapes), Kobell lost both parents early on. He trained initially in the art of wallpaper decoration for patrician houses, but soon found his niche by switching to the typically Dutch genre of cattle and meadows. In this, he was consciously treading in the footsteps of his great 17th century compatriots. Seeking inspiration from the great 17th Century masters was typical of Dutch artists of Kobell's generation. In his case, he clearly modelled some of his work on the famous Paulus Potter. In our painting, the cow looking at its mirror-image reflected in the stream was directly drawn from one of Potter's paintings, which today forms part of the collection of the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague [4].

From an art historical perspective, Kobell's oeuvre is fascinating. Although his paintings show typically Dutch motifs, he soon became a forgotten man in his own country following his death. As the 19th Century wore on, Dutch artists were seeking out new avenues. The precise style cultivated by Kobell came to be seen as "Un-Dutch" by those who saw Holland's painterly traditions refreshed only by the influences of French realism and subsequently impressionism. However, Kobell's style is evocative of what Dutch artists in early 19th century Holland were aspiring to. Unlike today, when an artist is largely assessed on the originality of his work, the generation around Kobell was intent on making updated and improved versions of what the 17th century had produced. Novelty was not yet the virtue it later became. In this respect, Kobell embodies a wonderful piece of art history.

Towards the very end of his life his mental health unfortunately started to deteriorate. This had an impact on his work. Our painting can be said to be one of the last wonderful paintings made by Kobell before he succumbed to his illness. Happily, today, he is once again recognized for his masterly technique and as emblematic for a style that was so dominant during the early years of 19th century painting.
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1. See the catalogue entry on our painting in Langs velden en wegen. De verbeelding van het landschap in de 18e en 19e eeuw (Amsterdam, 1997), with full-page colour illustration on p.193. The catalogue accompanied the eponymous exhibition in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

2. Its present whereabouts are unknown.

3. See: Op zoek naar de Gouden eeuw. Nederlandse schilderkunst 1800-1850 (Amsterdam, 1986), p. 115.

4. The "spiegelende koetje" or "Cows reflected in the water" (1648). See: Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis. A Summary Catalogue (The Hague, 2004), nr. 137, p. 244. Potter's works were hung in the Paris Louvre following their removal from the Royal collection in The Hague by French troops in 1795. Kobell studied and copied a number of these works during his stay in Paris between 1810-1812.