Peasants with Cattle fording a Stream

This picture has a very distinguished provenance, having been in the collections of Randon de Boisset and the Duc de Praslin in France in the 18th century and in that of Sir Robert Peel in England in the 19th century. In the 18th century it was said to have had a pendant, 'Landscape with a Woman milking a Cow'. It has been suggested that the painting dates from the last year of the artist's life, 1672. However, a copy is said to have been signed and dated 1662 and so this may be the approximate date of the National Gallery's picture.