Born at Sèvres, Troyon was destined to become a decorator of porcelain, but chose instead to devote himself to painting landscapes and animal subjects. During the early 1840s, Troyon was a frequent visitor to the Fontainebleau forest where he befriended artists Théodore Rousseau and Jules Dupré. Following a trip to the Netherlands in 1847, where he discovered the works of the Dutch 17th-century master, Aelbert Cuyp, he, too, decided to specialize in animal genre painting. Modest and unassuming, Troyon was much admired by his contemporaries. What wondrous sympathy with the various aspects of nature is evident in every canvas of Troyon, who seems the peer of the greatest, if not the first poet of rustic nature France has produced! –S. G. W. Benjamin, Contemporary Art in Europe, 1877