C. Brett — A Naive, Mid-19th Century, English School Antique Study of a Black and White Cow

An engaging naive oil study of a black-and-white cow, signed C. Brett, English School, circa 1860–1890.

The beast is shown broadside in the manner established by the livestock portraitists of the preceding generation, her pied markings set down with the particularity of a stock record rather than the generalisation of a landscape painter. The modelling is flat and the proportions frankly unorthodox — a deep, barrel-slung body carried on short, spare legs — but it is precisely this directness that gives the picture its considerable charm. The artist's concern is plainly with the animal as an individual: the distribution of black upon white across flank and shoulder is rendered as carefully as a herdbook entry, for these markings were the means by which a particular cow was known and remembered.

Pictures of this kind belong to the great age of British agricultural improvement, when the fat beast was a status symbol, and the commissioned livestock portrait served as part advertisement, part trophy. The accomplished professionals of the genre — Thomas Weaver, John Vine of Colchester, Richard Whitford — worked for the landed estates; beneath them laboured a wide body of provincial and self-taught hands supplying the tenant farmer and the small breeder at country prices. C. Brett belongs to this second tradition, and does not appear in the standard reference literature on British animal painters; the picture is valued, as such works properly are, for the vigour and honesty of the hand rather than for a name.

Housed in a later gilt frame.

Provenance: England. 19th century. The canvas also aids in dating, as does the style of the painting. Verso, the canvas bears a stenciled address of its supplier.

The dating anchor is "LONDON W." London postal districts were only introduced in 1857, so any mark carrying a bare district letter is post-1857. The districts were then subdivided with numbers in 1917 (W.1, W.2, etc.), and colourmen updated their stencils fairly promptly, so a plain unnumbered "W" points to before c.1917.

That gives a working bracket of c.1857–1917, and in practice this particular form — Rowney at 51 Rathbone Place, with the Oxford Street qualifier and the district letter — is most commonly encountered on canvases of roughly 1860–1890. Rowney had been a significant supplier of canvases and panels since the 1820s, but the pre-1857 stencils give the street address with no postal letter at all, which this plainly has.

Worth knowing for the cow: this doesn't date the painting, only the canvas — but a stretched, primed commercial canvas was normally used within a few years of purchase, so it supports a post-1857 execution and would indicate "mid-19th century" to something like c.1860–1890.

Material: Oil on canvas.

Condition: some paint losses and later overpainting, commensurate with age and consistent with a working provincial picture that has remained in domestic use. Presented in a later gilt frame.

Dimensions: Image 17½in (44.5cm) wide x 13½in (34.5cm) high. Including frame 20¼in (51.5cm) wide x 16¼in (41.5cm) high.