Paulus Potter Biography | Oil Paintings

Paulus Potter first moved in 1628 with his family to Leiden, and in 1631 to Amsterdam, there young Paulus studied painting with his father, the artist Pieter Symonsz Potter, his first painting was done at the age of fifteen in 1640.

Paulus Potter became a member of the Guild of Saint Luke when he lived in Delft in 1646, but three years later, Paulus moved to The Hague, next to Jan van Goyen. Potter married in the Hague and his father-in-law, a successful businessman, introduced him to the Dutch elite.

The famous Dr. Nicolas Tulp, who had spotted the young Rembrandt van Rijn's genius twenty years earlier, saw Paulus Potter artwork and persuaded him to move to Amsterdam in 1652, which he did, and he became Potter's mentor. Potter painted his son, and Dirck Tulp on horseback, using a canvas that he was not able to sell, changing only the face on an earlier work.

Paulus Potter most famous painting is The Young Bull, a life-sized oil painting, composed of drawings Potter made in nature. Though this painting was criticized at the time, it was greatly admired during the nineteenth century as an early example of Romanticism. Before Potter died of tuberculosis at the age of twenty-eight, he had produced about 100 oil paintings. He had a profound influence on the way animals were depicted in European art, making them his picture's focus, not just a backdrop for the human action.

Art Movement: Dutch Golden Age.
Artists Influencing Paulus Potter: Pieter Symonsz Potter.
Artist Biography compiled by Albert L. Mansour at The World's Artist, with text adapted from Wikipedia.