Paulus Potter (Enkhuizen 1625 – 1654 Amsterdam)

He was baptized on 20 November 1625 in the Reformed Church in Enkhuizen as the son of Pieter Symonsz Potter (1597/1601-1652) and Aechtie Pouwels (?-?).²²Hoorn, Westfries Archief, DTB Enkhuizen 5, fol. 98v. Through his mother’s side, Paulus was a descendant of the Counts of Egmond and the influential Semeyns family from Enkhuizen. In 1628, the family moved to Leiden and, three years later in 1631, to Amsterdam, where Potter must have spent most of his youth. His father, who was a glass painter and a painter of landscapes, still-lives, history and genre scenes, became a member of the Guild of St Luke shortly thereafter. In the second half of the 1630s, the Potter family was living in the Sint-Anthoniebreestraat, with the art dealer Hendrick Uylenburgh (c. 1587-1661) and Rembrandt (1606-1669) residing nearby.

Potter’s earliest known works can be dated to the beginning of the 1640s. It is likely that he was trained by his father, but soon surpassed him in artistic skill. Although his parents had at least eleven children, none of Paulus’s siblings is known today as an artist. That Potter was aware of his talent and ambition is clear from an inscription on a drawing dated 1641 of a Boar Hunt in the Städel Museum, Frankfurt-am-Main (inv. no. 893 Z),³³A. Walsh et al., Paulus Potter. Schilderijen, tekeningen en etsen, exh. cat. The Hague (Mauritshuis) 1994-95, no. 32. in which he states that he was fourteen years old (‘Paulus Potter f. out. 14, Jaer. a. 1641’).⁴⁴Since Potter turned sixteen in November 1641, it is more likely that he was fifteen years old. He may have made the mistake on purpose to stress his young age, or added the inscription at a later date; cf. B. Broos in ibid. The drawing was part of the famous collection of Sybrand Feitama II (1694-1758), who also recorded this inscription in his notes: ‘Paulus Potter 1 Zwynejagt, geteekend a° 1641, toen (volgens zyn eigen handschrift) oud 14 jaren: gehandeld a° 1739’; B.P.J. Broos, ‘“Notitie der Teekeningen van Sybrand Feitama”, II. “Verkocht, verhandeld, verëerd, geruild en overgedaan”’, Oud Holland 99 (1985), no. 2, p. 147. It is assumed that Potter studied the works of history painters active in Amsterdam at the time, such as Claes Moeyaert (1591-1669), who may have been his teacher.⁵⁵First suggested by C. Hofstede de Groot (ed.), Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragenden holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen 1907-28, IV (1911), p. 611. Like many other artists, Potter focused on biblical and mythological scenes early in his career. Only later on did he dedicated himself to the prominent, realistic and detailed rendering of rural life and animals situated in Dutch landscapes. Potter’s only documented apprenticeship is his training under the Haarlem artist Jacob de Wet (c. 1610-1677/91), who recorded in his administrative notes that Potter paid him 8 pounds for a year of painting lessons in 1642.⁶⁶Haarlem, Noord-Hollands Archief, Kennemer Atlas te Haarlem, inv. no. 53-999002K: ‘jaer 1642 / den 12 may is P potter bij mijn te schilderen gecoomen voor de soma van acht pont int jaer’ (‘year 1642 / P. Potter came to me on 12 May to paint for the sum of 8 pounds per year.’). Since the influence of Haarlem artists, such as Pieter van Laer (1599-1642), Pieter de Molijn (1595-1661) and Gerrit Claesz Bleker (1592/93-1656), can be recognized in his works from 1643 onwards, Potter may have moved to this city.

On 6 August 1646, Potter is documented in Delft, where he paid the sum of 12 guilders to the Guild of St Luke – the standard fee paid by artists from outside the town.⁷⁷T. van Westrheene, Paulus Potter: Sa vie et ses oeuvres, The Hague 1867, p. 50 (n. 1). There is no archival evidence that Potter was living there as well, but some topographical details in his paintings point to the area of Delft and The Hague. His life-size masterpiece, The Bull of 1647 in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (inv. no. 136),⁸⁸E. Buijsen in A. Walsh et al., Paulus Potter. Schilderijen, tekeningen en etsen, exh. cat. The Hague (Mauritshuis) 1994-95, no. 8. for example, shows the church of Rijswijk in the background. In 1649, Potter applied for membership in the Guild of St Luke in The Hague,⁹⁹The Hague, Haags Gemeentearchief, 0376-01 Ambachtsgilden en bussen, inv. no. 113, fol. 37v. where his father and family had already moved in 1647. Together with his relatives, Potter lived at Dunne Bierkade 17, in a house owned by the painter and draughtsman Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), who lived next door. The neighbor on the other side was Claes Dircksz van Balckeneynde (1599/1600-1656), who was a contractor and responsible for the building and renovation of several estates and royal residences, such as Hofwijck, Huis Honselaarsdijk and Sorghvliet. According to Houbraken, he introduced Potter to important patrons, such as Johan Maurits, Count and later Prince of Nassau-Siegen (1604-1679), who frequented his studio.¹⁰¹⁰A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 127: ‘Zyn Hoogheid Prins Maurits en meer andere grooten kwamen onzen Paulus Potter dikwerf op zyn schildervertrek bezoeken’. Houbraken also recorded a somewhat dubious anecdote that for Amalia van Solms (1602-1675) Potter painted a large chimney piece for Noordeinde Palace, now believed to be The Farm in the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg (inv. no. 820), which she rejected, because the detail of a pissing cow was not considered a suitable subject.¹¹¹¹Ibid., p. 127: ‘een redelyk groot stuk, (…), voor de oude Princes Emilia van Solms, ’t geen geplaatst zoude worden voor een schoorsteen, op ’t oude Hof: maar (...) “Dat het een al te vuil voorwerp was voor hare Hoogheid, om dagelyks te bespiegelen”. Dit zeggen doelde op de pissende Koe, die daar in verbeeld staat, waar by ’t stuk bekent is.’; cf. E. Buijsen in A. Walsh et al., Paulus Potter. Schilderijen, tekeningen en etsen, exh. cat. The Hague (Mauritshuis) 1994-95, no. 15. Although Potter created several large hunting scenes and monumental paintings, he also continued his production of cabinet paintings on a much smaller scale.

On 3 July 1650, Potter married Balckeneynde’s daughter Adriana (1626-1690).¹²¹²The Hague, Haags Gemeentearchief, DTB 745, fol. 40v. Their first son, Pieter, died shortly after his birth in 1651. According to Houbraken, Potter’s wife recalled that he always carried a sketchbook in his pocket, even when he had an hour to spare to walk outside with her, so that he could make a sketch, whenever he saw something witty.¹³¹³A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 129: ‘dat hy zelf wanneer hy een uur voor haar over had om een wandeling te doen na buiten, altyd een tafelboekje in zyn zak by zig droeg; om als hy iets zag dat geestig was, en in zyn kraam konde dienen, straks dat voorwerp af te schetsen’. Several sheets in black chalk, measuring approximately 100 x 150 mm, have been preserved that could well have been part of such a sketchbook (e.g. inv. no. RP-T-1901-A-4539). Potter also gained popularity as a printmaker, mainly through his series of eight etchings of oxen and cows, called the ‘Bullenboekje’, of 1650,¹⁴¹⁴F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XVII (1976), pp. 212-16, nos. 1-8. followed by a series of five etchings of horses a year later.¹⁵¹⁵Ibid., nos. 9-13.

In 1652, Potter was again living in Amsterdam. Houbraken reported that the surgeon and burgomaster Nicolaes Tulp (1593-1674) persuaded him to return, promising that his works would be appreciated there more than in The Hague, and that better commissions would come his way.¹⁶¹⁶A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), p. 129. In 1653, Potter painted the monumental and life-size equestrian portrait of Tulp’s son, Dirk Tulp (1624-1682), now in the Six Collection in Amsterdam. A year after the birth of his daughter Dingenom, Potter died at the young age of twenty-eight, probably of tuberculosis, and was buried in the Nieuwezijds Kapel in Amsterdam on 23 January 1654.¹⁷¹⁷T. van Westrheene, Paulus Potter: Sa Vie et ses oeuvres, The Hague 1867, p. 72. In memory of her husband, Adriana commissioned Bartholomeus van der Helst (1613-1670) to paint Potter’s posthumous portrait (The Hague, Mauritshuis, inv. no. 54).¹⁸¹⁸B. Broos and A. van Suchtelen et al., Portraits in the Mauritshuis, coll. cat. The Hague 2004, no. 27. Adriana and Dingenom returned to The Hague, where the four-year-old girl died in 1657. The artist Marcus de Bye (1639-c. 1690) produced some sixty etchings after Potter’s death and based himself on a small number of designs by the deceased artist, possibly turned over to him by Potter’s widow in order to increase her husband’s posthumous reputation. In 1661 Adriana married Dirck Jansz van Reenen (1628-1705), and their son, Nicolaes van Reenen (1662-1728), was an important source for Houbraken’s account of the painter’s life.¹⁹¹⁹Cf. Q. Buvelot, ‘A Newly Discovered Letter to Arnold Houbraken on the Life of Paulus Potter’, Burlington Magazine 147 (2015), no. 2, pp. 92-96.

Milou Goverde, 2020

References

A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, 3 vols., Amsterdam 1718-21, II (1719), pp. 125-30; T. van Westrheene, Paulus Potter: Sa Vie et ses oeuvres, The Hague 1867; F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis, 7 vols., Rotterdam 1877-90, II (1880), pp. 139-40; III (1881), p. 263; A. Bredius, ‘Pieter Symonsz. Potter. Glaseschrijver, ooc schilder’, Oud Holland 11 (1893), no. 1, pp. 34-46; C. Hofstede de Groot (ed.), Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragenden holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 10 vols., Esslingen 1907-28, IV (1911), pp. 609-98; R. von Arps-Aubert, Die Entwicklung des reinen Tierbildes in der Kunst des Paulus Potters, Halle 1932 (PhD diss., Halle-Wittenberg University 1931); U. Thieme and F. Becker, Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler: Von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 37 vols., Leipzig 1907-50, XXVII (1933), pp. 306-7 (entry by R. von Arps-Aubert); E.L. Allhusen, ‘The Etchings of Paul Potter’, The Print Collector’s Quarterly 26 (1939), pp. 209-23; E.L. Allhusen, ‘Catalogue of the Etchings of Paul Potter: Compiled from the Catalogues of Bartsch, Duplessis and Dutuit’, The Print Collector’s Quarterly 26 (1939), pp. 335-47; F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, c. 1450-1700, 72 vols., Amsterdam and elsewhere 1947-2010, XVII (1976), pp. 211-24; A. Walsh, Paulus Potter: His Works and their Meaning, 2 vols., Ann Arbor 1991 (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1985), pp. 17-50; A. Walsh et al., Paulus Potter. Schilderijen, tekeningen en etsen, exh. cat. The Hague (Mauritshuis) 1994-95; E. Buijsen (ed.), Haagse schilders in de Gouden Eeuw. Het Hoogsteder Lexicon van alle schilders werkzaam in Den Haag, 1600-1700, Zwolle 1998, pp. 224-29, 338; Q. Buvelot, ‘A Newly Discovered Letter to Arnold Houbraken on the Life of Paulus Potter’, Burlington Magazine 147 (2015), no. 2, pp. 92-96