拍品专文
The original (signed and dated 1647, on panel and of much smaller dimensions: 48.5 x 37 cm) passed through several well-known Dutch 18th collections, among others that of Gerret Braamcamp, before it was acquired by William Buchanan in 1817 and taken to London. It appeared at two auctions in England in the 1830's and remained in a private collection untill it was sold again in 1942. It is now in the York City Art Gallery, York (on loan from a private collection)
As pointed out by E. Buijsen in the catalogue of the recent Potter exhibition in the Mauritshuis, the artist drew his main inspiration for the composition of the present lot from an etching by Pieter van Laer from 1636 (Hollstein 3) (see A. Walsh a.o., Paulus Potter Schilderijen, Tekeningen en Etsen, exhibition catalogue, 1994, pp. 78/79, no. 8A). He had already used a similar theme of a close-knit group of cattle in a painting from 1644 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel). Compared with the loose grouping of the four cattle in that picture, the group of cattle in the painting from 1647 is much more compact. The artist also paid more attention to the individual character of each animal in this picture. For the characterisation of the animals in his paintings, Potter worked from studies which he had drawn after nature. Buijsen has pointed out that the head of the bull in Potter's masterpiece 'The Bull' from the same year in the Mauritshuis and the head of the bull in the present original were probably done after the same nature study on the basis of the strong similarity between the two heads. The head of the bull in the present lot differs slightly from that in the original and this observation is therefore less striking in the present copy.
The artist of the present lot has enlarged the composition vertically by adding a strip of foliage in the lower foreground. Slight differences are noticable in the group of cows in the lower left background. The two swallows circling above the standing cow in the original have been omitted
See colour illustration
As pointed out by E. Buijsen in the catalogue of the recent Potter exhibition in the Mauritshuis, the artist drew his main inspiration for the composition of the present lot from an etching by Pieter van Laer from 1636 (Hollstein 3) (see A. Walsh a.o., Paulus Potter Schilderijen, Tekeningen en Etsen, exhibition catalogue, 1994, pp. 78/79, no. 8A). He had already used a similar theme of a close-knit group of cattle in a painting from 1644 (Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel). Compared with the loose grouping of the four cattle in that picture, the group of cattle in the painting from 1647 is much more compact. The artist also paid more attention to the individual character of each animal in this picture. For the characterisation of the animals in his paintings, Potter worked from studies which he had drawn after nature. Buijsen has pointed out that the head of the bull in Potter's masterpiece 'The Bull' from the same year in the Mauritshuis and the head of the bull in the present original were probably done after the same nature study on the basis of the strong similarity between the two heads. The head of the bull in the present lot differs slightly from that in the original and this observation is therefore less striking in the present copy.
The artist of the present lot has enlarged the composition vertically by adding a strip of foliage in the lower foreground. Slight differences are noticable in the group of cows in the lower left background. The two swallows circling above the standing cow in the original have been omitted
See colour illustration