The Bull
1650
Medium
Etching on cream laid paper
Dimensions
Plate: 10.8 × 14.7 cm (4 5/16 × 5 13/16 in.); Sheet: 11.5 × 15.2 cm (4 9/16 × 6 in.)
Classification
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
72
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Paulus Potter was the preeminent animal artist of the Dutch Republic. His paintings and prints of monumentalized bulls for sophisticated court patrons in particular epitomize the beasts of the Dutch farmland. His slightly caricatured style betrayed a wry and occasionally earthy wit, which he sometimes used for political allegory. By his early death at age 29 he had created his own market niche of animal portraiture, leading the way for 18th-century artists such as George Stubbs, who would paint ...
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. ...