Two Cows in a Meadow by Heirich von Zugel

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Heinrich was a shepherd’s son and almost all of his paintings reflect his childhood as being one. He drew many paintings about domestic animals plowing or just wandering in green farms. Due to his fascination towards animals in farms, he drew paintings based on the theme for more than 40 years, which are called the ‘heavy works’. This painting is another heavy work of him, plainly displaying two cows in a farm near a narrow water-stream.

To me, this oil-on-canvas painting exemplifies the sheer beauty of animals in natural environment, Fearless and harmless. Not a thing in the scene is man-made. The cows, he wide-spread meadow and the little stream besides all the elements are natural and in their pure conditions. They are not manipulated by tyres, pollution or by the chemicals. We can even feel the air as pure.

Apart from the natural beauty, it also depicts the importance of the domestic animals to their keepers as they lived by selling their milk and fur. Though, in old times, shepherd never saw animals as a productive-object. They raised them with much care and adoration and sometimes they build a tight bond which creates a emotional connection between the animals and their keepers.

Maybe I am going too far from the point. Maybe the artist’s intention to draw this painting was just a memoir of his childhood. But, as always, it’s the viewer eyes and mind which values the art. For some people an art-piece is nothing more than colors brushed on canvas, and for others they find so much emotional value that even paying millions of dollars doesn’t seem costly to them.