A Goat and a Kid

Painted with Adriaen van de Velde’s usual attention to the detail of texture, the animals in the picture seem almost tangible. The kid turns its head quickly, its eye and coat soft, its pose dainty and alive. The goat stands steady but alert, two long strands of dark hair lying over the pale, shaggy coat of its back. A tiny beard sprouts from beneath its chin and the horns and ears are hard and leathery.Van de Velde frequently reused drawings of animals made from life, and the goat and kid both appear in other works by the artist. It’s possible that the dark, brooding landscape background is by another artist, possibly Frederick de Moucheron (whose work is also in the National Gallery’s collection – for instance, A Landscape with Classical Ruins). The background was certainly painted after the animals, as an unpainted outline around them is visible.