Landscape with Sheep
19th century
Think of Eugène Joseph Verboeckhoven as the 19th-century David Attenborough, but with a paintbrush! This Belgian master was obsessed with painting animals, and here he’s captured a surprisingly peaceful moment between a dark, shaggy pony and a flock of curly-horned sheep. The setting is pure Romanticism—grand, rugged hills meeting the sea under a dramatic sky, signed and dated 1838 in the corner. If you squint at the top of the distant hill, you'll spot a tiny cottage puffing out smoke, a clever trick to show just how massive and wild the landscape really is compared to us humans.
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