Cows
Medium
color aquatint and etching
Dimensions
mount: 48.6 × 33.4 cm (19 1/8 × 13 1/8 in.) sheet (trimmed within platemark): 16.2 × 20.4 cm (6 3/8 × 8 1/16 in.)
Classification
Portfolio
Department
CG-E
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Rosenwald Collection
Accession Number
1948.11.273
Art Historical Context
Welcome to the National Gallery of, where Johann Gottlieb Prestel's *ows* (1782–1785) invites you into the serene world of 18th-century life. Created after Austrian engraver Joseph Wagner, this intimate print captures grazing cows in a tranquil landscape, reflecting the era's fascination with nature and rural simplicity amid the Enlightenment's embrace of the everyday. Prestel, a pioneering German printmaker, faithfully reinterprets Wagner's composition on a modest sheet trimmed to just 16.2 × 20.4 cm, mounted elegantly at 48.6 × 33.4 cm. What makes *Cows* stand out is its innovative use of c...