This exquisite mid to late-19th-century oil painting by Belgian artist Louis Robbe (1806-1887) depicts three finely rendered sheep, a lamb and two goats before a landscape with distant hills. It’s a masterful piece.Louis Robbe was a distinguished Belgian painter, engraver, and lawyer who is regarded as one of the forerunners of realism in animal painting. Prior to Robbe’s influence, animals were often stylised in a romantic manner, imbued with a sense of drama as part of a broader narrative. As one critic put it, “the horse was tolerated, on the condition that it was painted pawing and prancing”. But Robbe was altogether different, he painted what he saw, studying the creatures first-hand, and avoiding contrivance.Aelbert Cuyp (1620-1691), the great Dutch master, seems to be an influence and comparisons were often drawn between the two. The rich artistic history of the low countries was never far from his mind.Early in life, however, it was his father, Dominique Robbe that ...