A Farrier's Shop
1648
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 48.3 x 45.7 cm (19 x 18 in.) framed: 71.12 × 68.58 × 7.62 cm (28 × 27 × 3 in.)
Classification
Painting
Department
CNE-B
Museum
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Credit
Widener Collection
Accession Number
1942.9.52
Art Historical Context
Paulus Potter’s *A Farrier’s Shop* (1648) captures a quiet moment of everyday rural life in the Dutch Republic during its Golden Age. At just twenty-three, Potter had already established himself as a master of animal painting, and this small oil-on-panel work reflects the period’s growing interest in genre scenes that celebrated ordinary trades and the natural world. Farriers—skilled blacksmiths who shod horses—were essential figures in seventeenth-century communities, and Potter’s choice of subject highlights both the economic importance of horses and the dignity of manual labor. Painted wit...
About the Artist
Paulus Potter · 1625–1654
Paulus Potter (1625–1654) was a Dutch Golden Age painter whose short life — he died at just twenty-eight years of age — belied an artistic achievement of remarkable originality and influence. Born in Enkhuizen in 1625, Potter trained under his father, the painter Pieter Potter, and later in Amsterdam and Delft, where he absorbed the technical standards of the flourishing Dutch painting tradition. ...