Jan Stobbaerts, To the Stable

by Atelier Liesjes

A narrow village street with a sandy path and tufts of grass on either side. On the right, a reddish-brown cow with a dark head and neck walks through the open door of a white house; the door is a dark opening in the façade, with red shutters beside it. Behind the cow, a man in a white shirt, light-coloured trousers and a cap pushes her into the barn, his arm raised. On the left, a second cow approaches, white with black spots, her head lowered and her horns pointing forwards; behind her, another dark animal. At the end of the street stands a brick house with a red tiled roof and small windows, and to the left, the slender trunks of a few trees rise up. The sky is a damp grey-green; it is early in the morning and the light is soft and shadowless.
The composition is simple and effective: the street runs from left to right, the cows move along with it, and the open door frames the movement. Stobbaerts painted with short, nervous brushstrokes, causing the façades and foliage to shimmer with light. The palette of off-white, brick red, ochre and various shades of green is soft and warm. In this way, an everyday occurrence – bringing the cattle to the barn – becomes an intimate street scene that straddles the line between landscape and genre painting, entirely in the spirit of nineteenth-century realism.
Jan Stobbaerts (Antwerp 1838 – Schaerbeek 1914) painted scenes close to home: the villages and polders around Antwerp, where he worked throughout his life. He trained at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and developed a broad, spontaneous style akin to Impressionism. His work is on display at the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp. A simple, warm piece for a country-style interior.