Recorded (number 127) in The Account Book of Thomas H. Hinckley, with title as above, size 30 x 40 (Hinckley often mis-recorded the sizes of his paintings), as sold to Charles R. Green of New York for $125.00. Signed and dated lower right: “T.H.HINCKLEY / 1850”. The 3 1/2 inch liner to the original frame is incorporated in the scoop gold frame.

In this painting Hinckley places a group of large cattle before a landscape that could have been painted by Asher B. Durand. Hinckley has also pointed out, in his title, the genre group in the doorway and yard of the farmhouse that has a direct relationship to contemporary genre painters such as William Sidney Mount and George Caleb Bingham. The Newfoundland dog is credited with being the most popular breed of 1850 in the Northeast of the United States.