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| Title | Landscape with Cows | |
| Collection | Salford Museum and Art Gallery | |
| Artist | After Potter, Paulus (Dutch painter, 1625-1654) Attributed to Potter, Paulus (Dutch painter, 1625-1654) Previously attributed to Dutch School |
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| Date | 1645 (dated) | |
| Signed | yes | |
| Description | Paulus Potter was the son of the painter Pieter Potter. He worked in his father's studio in Amsterdam during the 1630s and, like him, painted history subjects that showed the strong influence of Claes Moeyaert. By the mid 1640s Paulus Potter had turned almost exclusively from historical narratives to often quite monumental depictions of animals in carefully arranged, flat landscapes and scenes of animals and farmers in the farmyard. As in contemporaneous literature, Potter portrayed the farmer and his animals in a positive light. | |
| Current Accession Number | 1929-27 | |
| Inscription | front ll 'Paulus Potter F. 1645' | |
| Subject | animal (cattle) | |
| Measurements | 24.0 x 32.5 cm cm (estimate) | |
| Material | oil on panel | |
| Acquisition Details | Given by Lady Nina Knowles 1929. | |
| Notes | The painting was originally attributed to Paul Potter, but this was considered unlikely by A.C. Sewter (Manchester University), in 1952. In his correspondence with Salford, Sewter wrote: 'the two cows in the picture are copied from a painting in the Rijksmuseum at Amsterdam, which is no. 89 in Hofstede de Groot's catalogue. The odds against your picture's being genuine are therefore very heavy.' The two cattle lying and the one standing also appear in Farm near The Hague (1647, collection of the Duke of Westminster, Eaton Hall, Chester). Also as in the Amsterdam and Salford works, the painting includes a very similar composition of trees, farmhouse and fence (far left). This is clearly a composition that Potter returned to several times and the Salford work could therefore be another interpretation by Potter of this successful composition (of the three the Salford work is the smallest and has the simplest composition). Constable was so impressed with the Farm near The Hague that he sketched it and wrote on the back 'a recollection of the grand Potter at Lord Grosvenor's.' Descriptive notes taken from Walsh, A. L., 'Paulus (Pietersz) Potter', Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, 17 May 2006, http://www.groveart.com/. | |
| Rights Owner | Salford Museum and Art Gallery | |
| Author | Lisa Howard | |