Who painted Flock of Goats?

Flock of Goats was painted by Jacobus Buys in 1781.

Where can I see Flock of Goats?

Flock of Goats is held by National Gallery of Art.

What movement is Flock of Goats?

Flock of Goats is associated with Romanticism.

Can I buy a print of Flock of Goats?

Museum-quality prints of Flock of Goats are available made-to-order from Artifact World Gallery.

Artwork

Flock of Goats

Jacobus Buys , 1781

Flock of Goats is a chalk print by the Romanticist artist Jacobus Buys. It dates from 1781 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.

About this work

Overview

Flock of Goats is a print created in 1781 by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, executed in chalk manner and aquatint with black ink on laid paper.

Flock of Goats is a print created in 1781 by Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, executed in chalk manner and aquatint with black ink on laid paper. The work captures a pastoral scene featuring a group of goats within a quiet landscape. Its tonal range and delicate texture reflect the artist’s mastery of intaglio techniques, producing a muted, atmospheric effect that distinguishes it from sharper linear prints of the period.

Subject & Meaning

The composition centers on a small herd of goats scattered across a gentle hillside, some standing, others resting. The animals are rendered with careful attention to posture and natural behavior, suggesting an observation of rural life rather than idealized symbolism. The absence of human figures and the quiet setting evoke a contemplative mood, aligning with 18th-century interests in nature’s quiet dignity.

Technique & Style

Ploos van Amstel employed chalk manner and aquatint to achieve subtle gradations of gray, mimicking the softness of chalk drawings. These techniques allowed for a hazy, atmospheric rendering of fur, foliage, and terrain, avoiding hard outlines. The result is a tactile, almost ethereal quality, where form emerges through tone rather than line, reflecting a shift toward expressive printmaking in the late Enlightenment.

History & Provenance

Created in 1781, the print belongs to a series of landscape and animal studies by Ploos van Amstel, a Dutch artist known for his experimental printmaking. Few impressions of this work survive, and its early ownership is undocumented. It was likely produced in small numbers for private collectors interested in naturalistic subjects, rather than for broad commercial distribution.

Context

In the decades before Romanticism fully emerged, artists across Europe began turning to nature for emotional resonance. Ploos van Amstel’s focus on humble animals in unidealized settings reflects this trend, paralleling contemporaneous Dutch and English prints that valued quiet observation over grand narrative. His work sits between Enlightenment empiricism and the coming Romantic sensibility.

Legacy

Though not widely known today, Ploos van Amstel’s prints influenced later Dutch printmakers interested in tonal experimentation. Flock of Goats exemplifies a transitional moment in print culture, where technical innovation served a quiet, observational aesthetic. It remains a modest but significant example of how printmaking expanded beyond reproduction into personal artistic expression.