Pastoral Landscape

A dominant element of this drawing is the central group of trees in the foreground, which we see emerging from behind the hillside. A corresponding feature is formed by the two women shown climbing the hill, and a herd of cows in the left field of the picture. The women are wrapped in classical robes that ripple in the wind. The uplands upon which a number of older buildings can be seen, and a mountain range whose forms grows indistinct in the atmospheric haze, serve to delineate the painting and effectively relegate the landscape to the background. Rendered with broad, relatively dry brushstrokes, the overall impression given by the sheet is that of a spontaneously captured study of nature. Nevertheless, the work’s visual impact relies in no small part upon the careful construction of its underlying composition.