2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25
Paulus Potter is an outstanding personality. An incredibly talented artist who, despite a very short life, left a huge creative legacy. His works are considered an important acquisition not only for Dutch, but also for world painting.
Biography
Paulus Potter was born into an artist's family in 1625. It is quite obvious that his father became the first art teacher for him. After the young man began to make progress, he was taken as a student by Jacob de Vel, a Dutch painter. Some sources say that Pieter Lastaman and Claes Moyert were also his teachers.
At the age of 21, the young artist becomes a member of the Delft Guild of St. Luke - a workshop of sculptors, painters and printers. For some time, Paulus Potter leaves for The Hague, where he also becomes a member of another guild of artists.
In 1649, having married, he returned to Amsterdam, where he spent his last years of life.
Picture style
In all his works, Paulus Potter used the theme of animals. Such a choice was rather strange for that time, but the author was able to convince the public of the opposite. The Potter paintings are incredibly realistic and wellworked out.
With great precision, the artist depicts not only the animals themselves, but also the environment. One of the researchers of his works, having visited the artist's homeland, was able to recognize many real landscapes in the paintings. The master painted real life, which did not need to be embellished.
Semantic fullness
All the characters in the paintings of Paulus Potter are endowed with psychologism. Animals vividly illustrate the characters of people, and the habits of animals become noticeable in people. So, for example, in the painting "Figures with horses at the stable" in the eyes of each character there is a certain mood - curiosity, boredom.
Another striking example of such subtle psychologization is Paulus Potter's painting "Chained Dog". The work shows us an ordinary dog near the booth, it would seem that there should be nothing special in this topic. However, the work is filled with a mass of valuable details that make it significant in the history of world art. So, only by the dog's coat - sometimes rough, sometimes soft, one can understand that the picture depicts spring, since it is during this period that the dog begins to molt. It is amazing how accurate and believable the picture is written. Also draws attention to itself and the angle from which the hero of the work is depicted - the dog in size almost resembles a large horse. Many critics attribute this to an attempt to elevate the dog in the painting.
But the most important thing here is a look full of hopelessness and disappointment. With what anguish the watchdog looks at the distant andunattainable freedom. How many people could recognize themselves in the image of the animal depicted here.
Most extraordinary work
One of the most famous and most unusual paintings by Paulus Potter is “Hunter's Punishment”. The canvas consists of fourteen fragments, each of which is part of the plot.
The main theme is retribution. Nature punishes the hunter who so mercilessly killed her for many years. The twelve side fragments depict the life of a hunter, i.e. the cause, and the two central fragments depict the effect.
On the right we can see a cheetah lured into a cage, a wolf killed by a horn, a buffalo hunted by dogs. On the left - monkeys caught with glue, an elephant that dogs are trying to tear to pieces, a mountain goat that is about to be shot.
In the upper right corner is a painting depicting the goddess Diana and her nymphs. It was she who turned the insatiable hunter into an animal that was torn to pieces by his own dogs. In the opposite corner, St. Hubert is a hunter who voluntarily gave up cruel hunting when he saw a deer with a cross in its antlers.
And in the center of the picture, nature takes revenge on its tormentor - the dog is hung on a tree, and a fire has already been prepared for the hunter.
Such a deep psychologism in the works of Paulus Potter attracted the attention of many of his contemporaries and opened a new wave of interest in animalism.
Some of the master's works are now in the StateHermitage of St. Petersburg.
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