Lot Essay
The prototype, on canvas, 235.5 x 339 cm, signed and dated 1647, is in the Mauritshuis, The Hague (Paulus Potter, exhibition catalogue Mauritshuis, The Hague, 1994/1994, p.74, no8, with ill.). The French took the The Bull in 1795 from the cabinet of stadtholder William V and brought it to Paris where its popularity increased to such an extent that Potter earned the epithet of the Raphael of Dutch cattle. After its triumphant return in Holland in 1815 the painting became a national icon.
See illustration
See illustration