Paulus Potter Biography

Paulus Potter was a celebrated Dutch painter of seventeenth century. Trained by his father from a young age, he quickly developed a style of his own and became famous for his works on animals. In fact, animals appear in all his works, sometimes singly, but mostly in groups within a rustic landscape. In fact, he was the first established painter, in whose works animals were depicted as the main subject while human figures and landscapes were relegated to secondary position. Although he started his painting career in Amsterdam under the guidance of his father, his best paintings were created in Delft. Later he shifted to Hague and received royal patronage for a short period before moving back to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, he died at an early age of 28 from tuberculosis. In spite of that, he left more than 100 documented works. Among these works, ‘The Young Bull’ is said to be the most celebrated though not the finest. Instead, critics find his ‘Orpheus Charming the Beasts’ to be aesthetically more fulfilling. Although he did not have any recorded student his works have influenced many later artists.