Sketches of White Cattle from the Maremma

Unknown artist · n.d.

Medium

Black chalk, with graphite, heightened with white gouache, on pale green wove paper

Original size

10.9 × 18.4 cm (4 5/16 × 7 1/4 in.)

Currently held

Art Institute of Chicago

Movement

Neoclassicism

This intimate study of Maremma cattle carries the quiet authority of direct observation — a draughtsman working from life, capturing the weight and stillness of these long-horned white animals with remarkable economy. The Maremma, a marshy coastal region of Tuscany, has been synonymous with its distinctive cattle for centuries, and artists travelling through central Italy frequently documented the herds as part of the broader tradition of animal study. The unknown hand behind these sketches worked in a technique common to academic training: black chalk and graphite lay down the structure, while white gouache lifts the forms off the pale green wove paper, creating a subtle three-dimensionality that sits between drawing and painting. The coloured ground does much of the work, acting as a natural mid-tone that makes both shadow and highlight read with unusual clarity. The Maremmana breed, still raised in Tuscany today, is one of the oldest cattle breeds in Europe and was long prized as a working animal across the Italian peninsula. Our hand-painted oil reproduction translates these chalk and gouache marks into the richer register of oil on canvas, preserving the studied naturalism of the original while giving the composition a presence and depth suited to the wall.