Studie van een koe 1862 - 1914

This small etching, "Studie van een koe," or "Study of a Cow," was made by the Swiss artist Alphonse Stengelin. The simple image presents a side view of a cow standing in a field. Though unassuming at first glance, such images became newly important at the turn of the 20th century. As rural life was disrupted by modernization, and the rise of industrial capitalism transformed both urban and rural economies, a sense of nostalgia for country life grew in Europe. Images of farm animals took on a powerful ideological charge. They could represent the imagined virtues of the countryside and act as emblems of national identity. The image is understated, almost scientific in its objectivity, in keeping with the kind of unsentimental realism that photography encouraged. In researching Stengelin’s work, one might consider his relation to the Swiss artistic establishment and reflect on the cultural values attached to rural imagery in his time.