Gerrit Benner (1897-1981)

Acquired directly from the artist by the father of the present owners in 1961

Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 150 jaar Nederlandse Kunst, 1963, no. 208

paint shrinkish mainly in the dark green part of the painting in three places; lower right corner, left top corner and in the middle above the left cow, otherwise in good condition
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Surveying the development of Benner's art from the fifties until the seventies, a number of closely connected components can be distinguished, despite his changing occupation with form and content. Firstly the disappearance of romantic symbolism and the last remnants of nostalgia, longing and dreams. Furthermore, it is replaced by a more elementary, earthly and jubilant exploration of nature, far removed from traditional landscapes, a union with nature which almost materialises in the painting. His Frisian landscapes are even more concentrated in the pure elements of space, colour and earthly presence, a synthesis in which all things lose their separateness.

In Landscape with Cows Gerrit Benner has forged symbol, image, form, composition, colour, space, light and darkness, landscape and painting into a new unity. Landscape with Cows can be seen as a fine example of Dutch landscape painting. Among the leading artists of the Post War era, Gerrit Benner can be regarded as very inspired and visionary, a master in the language of rich simplicity.