Wilhelm Busch (1832 Wiedensahl - 1908 Mechtshausen) At the edge of the forest Painted in a loose, broad, two-dimensional style, this almost impressionistic depiction shows two cows at the edge of a forest on the left-hand side of the picture, while the view to the right opens up over pollarded willows to a slightly hilly, wide landscape with meadows and a cottage under a cloudless sky. Busch, who became particularly famous for his picture stories, was not only active as a draughtsman and poet, but also worked intensively as a painter. From 1851, he studied at the academies in Düsseldorf, Antwerp and Munich, where he joined the "Jung-München" artists' association. His encounter with Old Dutch painting in Antwerp had a formative influence on his painterly oeuvre. One focus of his oeuvre is rural and peasant themes, in particular the so-called "redcoat pictures", which form the motif in more than a quarter of his paintings. He also created numerous landscapes in which he included cows alongside the "redcoats". Oil/paper, mounted on card. L. and signed; old handwritten private collection label verso. 17 cm x 26.5 cm. Frame. Wvz. Gmelin 1060 (supplement). The painting was documented in 2016 by Ms Brunngraber-Malottke of the museum "Wilhelm Busch - Deutsches Museum für Karikatur und Zeichenkunst" in Hanover; it is also currently known to Dr Elisabeth Reich of the same museum. Provenance: Private collection, Hesse; private collection, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Oil on paper, laid down on cardboard. Signed.