Paul Potter

Potter, Paul 

(also Paulus Potter). Baptized Nov. 20, 1625, in Enkhuizen, North Holland; buried Jan. 17, 1654, in Amsterdam. Dutch painter and etcher.

Potter studied in Amsterdam with his father, Pieter Potter, and, possibly, with N. Moeyaert. He worked in Delft (from 1645), The Hague (1649–52), and Amsterdam. His early landscapes, executed in the classical style, gave way to realistic scenes of the hunt and representations of farmlands with grazing animals (Young Bull, 1647, Mauritshuis, The Hague). Potter sympathetically re-created the characteristic traits and habits of animals and the minutest details of their natural environment. He made extensive use of transparent shadows to render the effects of diffused sunlight.

REFERENCES

Vipper, B. R. Ocherki gollandskoi zhivopisi epokhi rastsveta (1640–1670). Moscow, 1962. Pages 24–28.
Borenius, T. “Paul Potter.” The Burlington Magazine,” 1942, vol. 81, no. 477, pages 290–94.