Van de Velde often reused drawings of animals which he had made from life. The goat also appears in 'A Goat & a Kid' (also in the National Gallery), & in other works, as does the cow which appears in ' Jacob departing from Laban' (London, Wallace Collection) & in at least three versions of the mythological subject of Mercury & Argus. Both animals can also be found in his ' Mercury & Battus' of 1671, (Prague, Národní Galerie).