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In the foreground of the painting are a cowherd with a calf and a girl milking a cow. On the left side in the background the view opens on a hilly landscape with a walled fortress at the top of a hill.

The cowherd in particular, with his tall dark hat and broad, slightly chubby face, is typical of Almanach. We know this type of peasant boy from Almanach’s drawing Young Seated Carniolan Peasant (once in the Valvasor collection, today in the Grafički kabinet in Zagreb, 13.4 x 7.7 cm, sign. VZ XVII, 229 a) and also from the picture Young Man Feeding a Turkey, 150.5 x 155 cm, private collection, Ljubljana, etc. The cowherd and the cowgirl are dressed in the costume worn by simple people in the 17th century, which was also typical of the area of Slovenia.

The stacks of clouds, the landscape, and above all the light effects indicate a knowledge of 17th century Roman landscape painting. The picture is stylistically close to Young Man Feeding a Turkey and we must probably classify it among Almanach’s mature works painted in Carniola, that is in the last quarter of the 17th century.

Artist Anonymous

Year of creation 2nd half of 17th Century

Technique oil, canvas

Dimensions 145 x 205 cm

Inventory number NG S 849, National Gallery of Slovenia, Ljubljana

Provenance: “Always in Stara Loka” according to a note by Karl Strahl; Eduard Strahl collection until his death in 1884, then in the collection of his son Karl Strahl until his death in 1929; purchased by the Narodna galerija, Ljubljana, in 1930, old Inv. No. 439.
Exhibitions: 1930, Ljubljana, no catalogue; 1989b, Ljubljana, no number.
Lit.: Polec 1930b, p. 119, Cat. No. 32 (anonymous 17C, A Woman Milking a Cow, a Boy Holding a Calf, 136 (!) x 210 (!) cm, always in Stara Loka); Zeri and Rozman 1989, p. 132; Cevc 1989, p. 303, Fig. on p. 196.