Kop van een koe 1805 - 1844

Ignace-Joseph de Claussin made this etching, Head of a Cow, sometime in the first half of the 19th century. It presents a cow’s head in a landscape. The image speaks to the changing status of animals in Western culture and the shifting relationship between urban and rural life. This etching revives the Dutch Golden Age tradition of animal portraiture. The earlier masters, such as Paulus Potter, elevated farm animals to the status of noble subjects. Claussin’s work appropriates those visual codes, but the Industrial Revolution, then underway, dramatically changed the social understanding of animals and their place in the landscape. Agricultural reforms concentrated land ownership. The growth of cities created a market for meat and dairy products that transformed animal husbandry into a form of industrial production. Further research into agricultural history and the archives of rural communities would provide a deeper understanding of this artwork. The meaning of art is contingent on its social and institutional context.