Untitled (five cows in pasture)

Edward Mitchell Bannister's untitled pastoral of five cows grazing is characteristic of his mature Barbizon-influenced practice, in which the quiet observation of animals in landscape substituted for the dramatic subjects of academic painting. Bannister was drawn to such subjects throughout his career, finding in pastoral simplicity both a pictorial tradition he could work within and a philosophical statement about the value of unhurried natural observation. His handling of grazing cattle connects to a tradition running from Constable through Troyon to the Hague School painters.

Bannister renders the cows with solid, three-dimensional conviction, their brown and white forms placed against a gently lit pasture. The brushwork is confident and tonalist in character, with the grass rendered through broad strokes of green and grey-brown.