Paulus Potter (; 20 November 1625 (baptised) – 17 January 1654 (buried)) was a Dutch

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

who specialized in animals within landscapes, usually with a low vantage point. Before Potter died of tuberculosis at the age of 28 he succeeded in producing about 100 paintings, working continuously.

Life

Paulus Potter was born in Enkhuizen. He was baptized on 20 November 1625. In 1628 his family moved to Leiden, and in 1631 to Amsterdam, where young Paulus studied painting with his father, Pieter Symonsz Potter.Liedtke, Walter A., Michiel Plomp, and Axel Rüger. 2001. ''Vermeer and the Delft school''. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. p. 332. After his mother died, his father started an affair with the wife of

Pieter Codde Pieter Jacobsz Codde (December 11, 1599 – October 12, 1678) was a Dutch painter of genre works, guardroom scenes and portraits. Life Codde was a technically skilled painter. He is said to have studied with Frans Hals, but it is more likely ...

, also living in the fancy

Sint Antoniesbreestraat The Sint Antoniesbreestraat ("St. Anthony's Broad Street") is a street in the centre of Amsterdam in the Netherlands. The street runs south from Nieuwmarkt square to the Sint Antoniesluis sluice gates, where it continues as the Jodenbreestraat. ...

. For some time his father was a manufacturer of gilded leather hangings outside the city walls. Potter became a member of the

Guild of Saint Luke The Guild of Saint Luke was the most common name for a city guild for painters and other artists in early modern Europe, especially in the Low Countries. They were named in honor of the Evangelist Luke, the patron saint of artists, who was ident ...

Delft Delft () is a city and municipality in the province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, and The Hague, to the northwest. Together with them, it is part of both the Rotterdam–The Hague metropolitan ...

, but by 1649, he moved to The Hague, next to

Jan van Goyen Jan Josephszoon van Goyen (; 13 January 1596 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch landscape painter. The scope of his landscape subjects was very broad as he painted forest landscapesm marines, river landscapes, beach scenes, winter landscape, cityscap ...

. In July 1650, Potter married Adriana van Balckeneynde (1627-1690). His father-in-law was a leading building contractor in the Hague and introduced him to the Dutch elite. Amalia of Solms-Braunfels, a member of the

stadholder In the Low Countries, ''stadtholder'' ( nl, stadhouder ) was an office of steward, designated a medieval official and then a national leader. The ''stadtholder'' was the replacement of the duke or count of a province during the Burgundian and H ...

's family and an art-lover, bought one of Potter's paintings, ''The Farmyard'', but some court ladies seemed to have advised against it. In May 1652, he returned to Amsterdam on invitation of

Nicolaes Tulp Nicolaes Tulp (9 October 1593 – 12 September 1674) was a Dutch surgeon and mayor of Amsterdam. Tulp was well known for his upstanding moral character and as the subject of Rembrandt's famous painting '' The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp' ...

, who owned a number of his paintings. Tulp was impressed by his civilized behavior and politeness and had Potter paint his son,

Dirck Tulp Dirck or Diederik Tulp (1624–1682) was the son of the surgeon professor Nicolaes Tulp and involved in the Dutch East India Company and the Civic guard. Dirck Tulp visited Moscovia with his father-in-law; he was painted in 1653 by Paulus Potte ...

, as a noble equestrian.Equestrian portrait of Dirk (Diederik) Tulp (1624-1682)
at the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center ...

Potter composed a will in January of 1653 and died a year later of tuberculosis, two months after his 28th birthday. Paulus painted a self-portrait which was at Hackwood Park, Hampshire until 1998. It is now at Elibank House, Buckinghamshire.

Paintings

Potter's most famous painting is ''The Young Bull'' (circa 1647), and is not to be confused with his work ''The Bull''. ''The Young Bull'' was composed after drawings Potter made in nature, and is now located in Mauritshuis in The Hague. Though this painting was criticized, it was greatly admired during the 19th century as an early example of Romanticism. ''The Young Bull'' features as the canvas being studied in

Mark Tansey Mark Tansey (born 1949) is an American painter. Life Tansey had an early introduction to art. These early childhood experiences had a profound effect on Tansey's painting style from the inception of his career as an artist. Many of Tansey's pa ...

's 1981 monochromatic oil on canvas ''The Innocent Eye Test''. File:Paulus Potter - Punishment of a Hunter.jpg, ''Punishment of a Hunter''
( 1647) File:Potter A shepherd with cows.jpg, ''Shepherd Boy with Cows'' (1647) File:Paulus Potter - Figures with Horses by a Stable - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Figures with Horses by a Stable'' (1647) File:Twee paarden in de wei bij een hek Rijksmuseum SK-C-205.jpeg, ''Two Horses in a Meadow near a Gate'' (1649) File:The Farmyard 1649 Paulus Potter.jpg, ''The Farmyard'', 1649, formerly known as ''The Pissing Cow'' from the collection of Amalia van Solms (1649) File:Paulus Potter - Two Pigs in a Sty - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Two Pigs in a Sty'' (1649) File:Potter, Paulus - Cattle and Sheep - Google Art Project.jpg, ''Cattle and Sheep''
(after 1650) File:Paulus Potter - Animals Resting in the Pasture.jpg, ''Cows Animals Resting in the Pasture'' (1650) File:Paulus Potter - Wolf-Hound - WGA18220.jpg, ''Wolf-Hound'' ( 1650–1652) File:The Piebald Horse - Paulus Potter - Dutch, about 1650 - 1654.jpg, ''The Piebald Horse'' ( 1650–1654) File:Paulus Potter - Vier koeien in de wei.jpg, ''Four Cows in a Meadow'' (1651) File:Cattle in a Meadow by Paulus Potter Mauritshuis 138.jpg, ''Cattle in a Meadow by Paulus Potter'' (1652) File:Paulus Potter - Four Bulls - WGA18208.jpg, ''Four Bulls'' (unknown) File:'Cattle in a Meadow' by Paulus Potter, 1652, oil on wood.JPG, ''Cattle in a Meadow'' (1652) File:Paulus Potter 002.jpg, ''Resting Herd'' (1652) File:Een patrijshond Rijksmuseum SK-C-279.jpeg, ''A spaniel'' (1653)

Memorials

Statue of Palus Potter at the Drommedaris in Enkhuizen

A statue of Potter (sketching a distant statue of a goat) was erected at the Drommedaris in Enkhuizen in 1991.

References

External links

Artcyclopedia; Paulus Potter

Works and literature
at PubHist
Vermeer and The Delft School
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Paulus Potter
Dutch and Flemish paintings from the Hermitage
an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (available online as PDF), which contains material on Paulus Potter (cat. no. 21) {{DEFAULTSORT:Potter, Paulus 1625 births 1654 deaths Animal artists Dutch genre painters Dutch Golden Age painters Dutch male painters Painters from Delft People from Enkhuizen 17th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in the Netherlands