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

The Farm 1649 Oil on panel, 81 x 116 cm The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

Potter's career was short. He died a few months after his twenty-eighth birthday. His early works show the influence of his father, the painter Pieter Symonsz Potter (c. 1595/1601-1652) and Moeyaert who painted cattle in his biblical and mythological pictures. He is documented as a pupil of Jacob de Wet, a Rembrandt follower, and probably also knew the innovative prints done in the thirties by Moeyaert, Gerrit Bleker (active c. 1625-56), and Pieter van Laer, which prominently feature cattle, horses, and other livestock; he himself made etchings of animals.

Potter tried his hand at a few subject paintings, but the bulk of his work is devoted to horses and to scenes of cows, goats, sheep, and pigs, which show an extraordinary sensitivity to the various ways in which farmyard animals behave at different times of the day as well as to the different quality of light in the morning or at dusk in landscapes that almost invariably make country life appear idyllic. <P> <TABLE ALIGN=LEFT CELLPADDING=5 BORDER=1 WIDTH=320 BGCOLOR="#99CCCC"> <TR VALIGN=MIDDLE><TD><IMG SRC="/support/gif/listen.gif" BORDER=0 VALIGN=MIDDLE> Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 26 minutes):<BR><A HREF="#" onClick="w=window.open ('/music1/bach/bach_bwv_212.html', 'newWin', 'scrollbars=yes,status=no,dependent=yes,screenX=0,screenY=0,width=350,height=350');w.opener=this;w.focus();return true"><B>Johann Sebastian Bach: Cantata BWV 212 (Bauernkantate)</B></A> </TD></TR></TABLE>

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Author: POTTER, Paulus Title: The Farm Time-line: 1601-1650 School: Dutch Form: painting