Sakamoto Hanjiro was fascinated by horses and of ten painted them. In his youth, he also sometimes depicted cows. In this unique color experiment, the cow and oak tree are monochromatic. By showing this work, Sakamoto was announcing his objective of expressing, in oil paintings, a distinctively Oriental world of subtle profundity and that painting would be his life work. So it was received, he recalled late in life. He sketched this cow in a pasture near Ikebukuro, where he was living, then finished the painting at home. This painting, which took two years to finish, was the culmination of his labors before studying in France.