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POTTER, PAUL (1625—1654)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 212 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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POTTER, See also:PAUL (1625—1654) , Dutch See also:animal painter, was See also:born at See also:Enkhuizen, See also:Holland. He was instructed In See also:art by his See also:father, See also:Peter Potter, a landscape and figure painter of some merit, and by See also:Nicolas Moeyaert, of See also:Amsterdam. Other masters and influences are mentioned by various writers, but more than any other of his contemporaries he learnt through See also:direct study from nature. By the See also:time he had attained his fifteenth See also:year his productions were already much esteemed. In 1646 he went to See also:Delft, where he became a member of the gild of St See also:Luke. At the See also:age of twenty he settled at the See also:Hague, and there married in 165o. He was patronized by See also:Maurice, See also:prince of See also:Orange, for whom he painted the See also:life-See also:size picture of the " See also:Young See also:Bull," now one of the most celebrated See also:works in the See also:gallery of the Hague. In 1652 he was induced by Burgomaster Tulp of Amsterdam to remove to that See also:city. His constitution seems to have been feeble, and his See also:health suffered from the unremitting See also:diligence with which he pursued his art. He died on the 15th of See also:January 16J4 at the age of twenty-nine. His paintings are generally small; See also:early in life, however, he attempted, but with See also:ill success, to See also:work on a monumental See also:scale, as in the " See also:Bear See also:Hunt " at the Rijks Museum and the " See also:Boar Hunt " of the Carstanjen collection, See also:Berlin. Even the famous "Equestrian Portrait of Tulp" in the Six collection, Amsterdam, is awkward and stiff and hard in handling.

His animals are designed with careful accuracy, while the landscape backgrounds are introduced with spirit and appropriateness. His See also:

colour is clear and transparent, his See also:execution See also:firm and finished without being laboured. His view of nature is purely See also:objective and unemotional; he painted with the greatest directness and simplicity the things he saw before him, and his paintings of horses and See also:cattle are so individualized that they become faithful portraits of the animals. The best among his small portraits of horses are in the Louvre and in the See also:Schwerin Gallery; and certain of his studies are the most brilliant of all. The earliest dated picture of importance is " See also:Abraham Entering Into See also:Canaan " (1642), at the Germanic Museum in See also:Nuremberg, in which he makes the Scriptural subject an excuse for See also:painting the See also:patriarch's herds, just as in his " See also:Orpheus " of 165o (Rijks Museum, Amsterdam) he makes similar use of the See also:Greek myth. Among his finest works on a small scale are a cattle piece (1653) in the Duc d'Arenberg's collection, and a similar, though earlier, picture in the See also:Munich Pinakothek. In spite of his early See also:death Paul Potter produced a See also:great number of works. He worked with feverish application, as though he were aware of the See also:short span of life that was granted him. He executed a See also:series of some twenty etchings, mainly of animals, which are See also:simple and direct in method and handling. Here, as in painting, his precocity was remarkable : his large See also:plate of the " Herdsman," produced when he was only eighteen, and that of the " Shepherd," which See also:dates from the following year, show him at his best as an accomplished See also:master of the point. Potter's works have been engraved by See also:Bartolozzi, Danckerts, Visscher, Le Bas and others. See also:Authentic paintings from his See also:brush command very considerable prices.

At the Stover See also:

sale in 1890 " The See also:Dairy See also:Farm " realized the See also:record See also:price of 6o9o. There are two of his paintings at the See also:National Gallery, three in See also:Buckingham See also:Palace and a few in the See also:duke of See also:Westminster's collection. On the See also:continent of See also:Europe the most numerous and representative examples are to be found at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, the Hermitage in St See also:Petersburg, and the See also:Dresden Gallery. See See also:Paulus Potter, sa See also:vie et ses teuvres, by T. See also:van Westrheene (the Hague, 1867) ; Eaux-f ortes de Paul Potter, by Georges Gratet Duplessis ; and an old but interesting See also:volume, Paul Potter, peintre de l'ecole hollandaise, by C. L. F. Lecarpentier (See also:Rouen, 1818). (P. G.

End of Article: POTTER, PAUL (1625—1654)

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