The Cows is a painting by Vincent van Gogh, produced in July 1890 during his stay in Doctor Gachet's home in Auvers-sur-Oise.

It is based on an 1873 Paul van Ryssel etching Gachet owned of Jacob Jordaens's Study of Five Cows, exhibited in the Palais des Beaux-Arts de Lille.

The painting appears in the inventory of the Gachet collection made in 1903 by the German critic Julius Meier-Graefe, which he then referred to as Les Bœufs.

[3] In 1954, when the painting was exhibited at the Musée de l'Orangerie, it sparked a violent controversy over its authenticity led by a passionate van Gogh lover, Louis Anfray, and widely reported by the press.

According to Anne Distel, it is more likely to be accepted for a minor work by van Gogh, perhaps a study for a painting he had in mind, produced in the exceptional circumstances of the end of his life in Auvers.