© Estate of Alfred Cohen 2020

In both drawings and paintings, Cohen was often highly gestural – looking for the curve or bend in a line that best expresses the presence of the subject. The lines of the cow’s hind legs and tail, and those defining the sides of its head, convey the structure of its anatomy; but also catch it twisting round, its tail swishing.
The windmill, church and trees are similar to those in The View from Permeke’s Studio, suggesting that this cow with a French name may in fact be Belgian; another of Cohen’s several homages to the painter Constant Permeke whose earthy compositions of peasant life he admired.