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

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

who specialized in animals within landscapes, usually with a low vantage point. Before Potter died of

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...

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 Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, where young Paulus studied painting with his father,

Pieter Symonsz Potter Pieter Symonsz Potter (1597 in Enkhuizen – 1652 in Amsterdam), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography According to Houbraken he was the city secretary of Enkhuizen, he was married to the daughter of Paulus Bertius and the father of the pain ...

.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, also living in the fancy Sint Antoniesbreestraat. For some time his father was a manufacturer of gilded

leather Leather is a strong, flexible and durable material obtained from the tanning (leather), tanning, or chemical treatment, of animal skins and hides to prevent decay. The most common leathers come from cattle, sheep, goats, equine animals, buffal ...

hangings outside the city walls. Potter became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke in

Delft Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...

, but by 1649, he moved to

The Hague The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...

, next to Jan van Goyen. 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 Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (31 August 1602 – 8 September 1675) was Princess of Orange by marriage to Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. She acted as the political adviser of her spouse during his reign, and acted as his de facto deputy and regent ...

, a member of the stadholder'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, who owned a number of his paintings. Tulp was impressed by his civilized behavior and politeness and had Potter paint his son, Dirck Tulp, as a noble equestrian.Equestrian portrait of Dirk (Diederik) Tulp (1624-1682)
at the

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

Potter composed a will in January of 1653 and died a year later of

, two months after his 28th birthday. Paulus painted a self-portrait which was at Hackwood Park, Hampshire until 1998.

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 The Mauritshuis (, ; ) is an art museum in The Hague, Netherlands. The museum houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 854 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings. The collection contains works by Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt van ...

. Though this painting was criticized, it was greatly admired during the 19th century as an early example of

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

. ''The Young Bull'' features as the canvas being studied in

Mark Tansey Mark Tansey (born 1949) is an American painter. Early life and education Mark Tansey was born in San Jose, California to Richard G. Tansey, an art historian, and Luraine Tansey, a slide librarian who invented one of the first computerized sl ...

'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 Dutch painters of animals Dutch genre painters Dutch Golden Age painters Dog artists Equine artists Dutch male painters Painters from Delft People from Enkhuizen Painters from North Holland 17th-century deaths from tuberculosis Tuberculosis deaths in the Netherlands