1647
oil
panel
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Two Cows and a Young Bull beside a Fence in a Meadow is a 1647 oil by Paulus Potter, a Baroque work, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
You see two cows and a young bull standing beside a fence in a green meadow. The animals are painted in detail, with varied textures and colors. This level of detail likely came from the artist's drawings made from life, which is interesting because it shows how much he cared about getting the animals just right. You can learn more about this style by looking at the technique of chiaroscuro.
Paulus Potter, a prolific painter and etcher during his short life, elevated images of cows, oxen, and other domestic animals to majestic emblems of nature. His lavish attention to the physical appearances of such beasts—the varied texture and coloring of their hair, their characteristic poses, their bulky contours—borders on portraiture and likely derived from drawings he made from life. With Potter, animal painting blossomed into an independent genre in the Dutch Republic.
Probably Dr. Simons, Leiden, by 1763; sold Leyden, Pieter van der Eyk, 29 April 1763, no. 18, “Een Wonder schoon Kunststuk met drie graazende Koeyen in een fraay Landscape uitvoerig en aangenaam geschilderd door den beroemden Paulus Potter 16 x 17 duimen” [according to a note by the Leiden collector Van der Marck in a copy of the Caauw sale catalogue in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris; see Bille, vol. 2, p. 112]. Probably Frans van Mieris the Younger, Leiden, by 1764; sold Leiden, Pieter van der Eyk, 7 May, 1764, no. 82, with the same description as in the preceding sale…
Manchester, Art Treasures of the United Kingdom, 1857, no. 998. London, Royal Academy of Arts, Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School, 1882/83, no. 112. Liverpool, Liverpool School of Art, Exhibition of Works by Dutch Masters of the Seventeenth Century, 22 September - 29 September 1944, no. 13. London, Arts Council of Great Britain, Dutch Paintings of the 17th Century, 1945, no. 24 London, Royal Academy of Arts, Dutch Pictures 1450-1750, 1952/53, no. 415. Manchester, City of Manchester Art Gallery, Art Treasures Centenary. European Old Masters, 30…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Paulus Potter (Dutch pronunciation: ; 20 November 1625 (baptised) – 17 January 1654 (buried)) was a Dutch painter who specialized in landscapes featuring animals, often from a low vantage point.
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