POTTER, Paulus
(b. 1625, Enkhuizen, d. 1654, Amsterdam)

Resting Herd

1652
Oil on oak, 36 x 47 cm
Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

Paulus Potter's singular contribution to Dutch 17th-century art was that he painted portraits of animals, making them the focus of his pictures, rather than as a backdrop for human action. His career spanned only twelve years, from which barely four dozen pictures, most of them painted between 1646 and 1653, have come down to us, and his early death in his thirtieth year robbed Dutch painting of one of its greatest talents.




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