Peasant Woman with Cows

Signed and dedicated bottom right: à Rodin / Roll

The painter Alfred Roll was among Rodin’s early supporters. He commissioned a portrait of his wife from the sculptor in 1883 and purchased many of his most beautiful “black drawings.” Roll gave Rodin this signed and dedicated painting, identifiable in period photographs of the Meudon studio. The sculptor, who already owned two large charcoal drawings by Roll, sent him a bronze cast of Eternal Springtime in exchange.
Roll’s painting recalls the naturalistic “plein-air” style of Jules Bastien-Lepage and features the same, almost square format with a very high horizon line. The overhead view of the peasant woman heightens the sense of the figure’s fragility, while the cows are merged into a single block, forming a compact mass. The field, a blend of mud and green grass, is like a painting in its own right.

Locate the artwork in the museum

Musée Rodin - Meudon, villa des Brillants, ground floor

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