Window with Cows

A window with light-coloured curtains and flowers in terracotta pots frames a landscape. Between the three pot plants, which bear red and white flowers, two cows are grazing on a green meadow outside. The silhouettes of the cows and several trees stand out against a light-coloured lake, and a yellow birch tree bears witness to autumn drawing in. The peaks of the brownish mountains in the distance are shrouded in clouds.

“Window Flowers” was owned by Henrik Lund (1879–1935) and exhibited at Astrup’s solo exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet (artists’ association) in Kristiania (Oslo) in 1911. Lund also loaned the picture to the universal exhibition held in San Francisco in 1915.

In Astrup’s list from 1927 the artist gives it several titles: “Window with Cows, “Cows outside Window” and “Naïve Art”, as well as the comment “childhood mood”. This indicates that the picture may have been inspired by Henri Rousseau (1844–1910), who Astrup rated highly, and that the subject was based on a childhood memory.

According to the artist, this is his only picture from “a particular period”. This is because various others works, which Astrup was probably storing at the studio of Moritz Kaland (1869–1947) in Bergen, were lost in the big city fire in 1916. The photograph of “Window Flowers” that has been preserved was just lying loose in Øystein Loge’s archives. It is not known who brought Loge’s attention to the painting, or when the photograph was taken. The history of the picture after the exhibitions in 1911 and 1915 is therefore unknown.