RKD STUDIES

71 PAUL POTTER.

Through engravings or lithographs, all artists are familiar with Paul Potter's famous Bull, preserved in The Hague Museum [103]. There is much to say about this life-size animal, which we generally regard as the masterpiece of the master, and which the Dutch, with Rembrandt's Night Watch and Van der Helst's Banquet, place above all the productions of their school of painting. A masterpiece indeed, and virtually unique of its kind. In the collection of Mr. Six of Hillegom, we find another rather strange Paul Potter: the life-size equestrian portrait of knight Dederick Tulp [104],¹ brother (from second marriage) of Doctor Tulp from the Anatomy Lesson. The misfortune is that the young painter was not satisfied with these two more or less successful extravagances (1).

His Bear Hunt is far more astonishing than Karel's Regents, and no one in the world would guess its creator if there were not a signature in huge letters on a tree trunk: "PAULUS ...

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... dry, wooden, without truth and with a ridiculous movement". – M. Ducamp, Revue de Paris, Oct. 57.²
(1) There is a fourth painting with life-size figures and animals attributed to him: two cows and two sheep, a shepherd and a shepherdess (height 6 feet 6 inches (1.80 meters); width 8 feet 8 inches (2.5 meters); a painting that was exhibited at the Musée Napoléon and returned to the Kassel gallery in 1815 (now no. 527 of the Kassel cat.). But according to the reliable Smith, this large painting is by Camphuysen, a follower of Paul Potter.³

72 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.

... POTTER F 1649". Two years after the Bull of The Hague, three years before Potter settled in Amsterdam.

In reality, restorations have greatly disfigured the painting and virtually nothing remains of the master. We will let Smith describe this painting and recount its misfortunes:

"This singular production of the artist is composed of a gentleman on horseback, a man on foot, two bears, and six dogs; and the sanguinary conflict is introduced on the foreground of an open country. The bear, excited to fury by the baiting of the dogs, stands erect, hugging with one paw a dog which is gasping in the agonies of death, the other paw is lacerating the back of a dog, which is turning round and biting his enemy's leg; a third dog lies prostrate under his legs, and a fourth is rolling in torture on the ground. At this juncture, a huntsman has gallopped up on a young bay horse, bareheaded, sword in hand, and is looking with an expression of terror at the destructive conflict; the other huntsman is cautiously advancing with a spear from behind a large tree on the left of the picture (1), up which a dog is endeavoring to pursue the second bear. At a considerable distance off are seen three gentlemen on horseback, arriving at full gallop." (...)

"Whatever motive induced this ...

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(1) When Smith speaks of left or right, it always refers to the painting itself. In my descriptions, on the contrary, it is always relative to the viewer.

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Camphuijsen (Dirk Rafaelsz) born in Gorinchem in 1586 and died in 1626, according to Immerzeel.⁴ He could not therefore have imitated Potter born in 1625. He produced landscapes and animals.Was there another Camphuizen? # Yes

To clarify Potter’s style as landscapist:
1: The van Loon landscape, undoubtable, and which is typical⁵
2: The Entry to the Forest Dubus;1646?⁶
3: The small landscape in Arenberg coll.⁷
Another is spoken of in Germany, which would serve as proof.

# This Dirk Rafael, from Gorcum and not Gorinchem,⁸ must be the father of this “Govert Camphuysen, van Gorcom”,⁹ received bourgeois (poorter) of Amst. on 6 March 1650 (Scheltema).¹⁰
It is this Govert who imitated Potter. He is not mentioned in Im. or in Balkema.##

- At Cassel, 233, a landscape attributed to “Theodor Kamphuyzen né à Gorcum 1586”, could well be by Govert.¹¹
No others in German museums.
- The date 1662 of the Portrait of Karel had not been given in the ’58 edition. It is now in that of ’59, with the entire signature K. Du JARDIN f.¹²

## See Rotterdam museum and Un tour en Allemagne.¹³

73 PAUL POTTER.

... distinguished painter to undertake a subject of the above description, for which it is evident his genius by no means fitted him, is not worth inquiring; ambition, or interest, may have equally influenced him, as they have done many others, who, like him, have departed from the sphere in which they were formed to move, and, so doing, sunk to the level of the multitude. To enter into a more critical detail of the picture, in its present state, would be unjust, for although it unquestionably owes its origin to Paul Potter, it has undergone so many changes and mutilations since it left his easel that it requires a discerning eye to discover a vestige of the original work. Its final annihilation took place a few years back (at the period it was removed from the Musée at the Hague),¹⁴ when it was placed in the hands of M. Pieneman – an artist of some note in his own country, – who has in no way shown the same good feeling and respect for the work of so great a painter as many of the profession have done on similar occasions, by absolutely declining to put a pencil on the picture of a superior artist; for in the present instance he appears to have taken a peculiar pleasure in repainting it all over; so that that which the ignorant picture cleaner left, a modern portrait painter has destroyed."¹⁵

And in a note Smith adds, "If an etching on a drinking glass, dated 1656 (only seven ...

74 MUSEUM OF AMSTERDAM.

... years after the picture was painted), now (1834)¹⁶ in the cabinet of M. Moyet a distinguished amateur at Amsterdam, was once a tolerably correct copy of the original composition, it has been most materially changed since it left the painter's hand; for this etching represents the huntsman wearing a handsome cap and feathers, and the dogs are attacking a wild boar; a second huntsman is also introduced, mounted on a spirited horse, aiming a blow with a javelin at the boar."¹⁷

This criticism is very harsh on the painter-restorer, whose son today, like his father, is a portraitist "famous in his country."¹⁸ Another English connoisseur, Mr. Nieuwenhuis, who had seen the Bear Hunt before it was purchased for the Hague Museum (1), claims that it was subsequently lost. In any case, it passed to the Amsterdam Museum after its restoration by the father, Mr. J.W. Pieneman.¹⁹

The Bear Hunt may no longer really count as part of the master's work. But it matters little for the glory of this incomparable artist in his specialty. Holland and England have plenty of his other wonders, so that we are not too sorry for the calamity of this colossal composition, in which he deviated from the subjects for which he was particularly gifted.

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(1) In 1828, at the Van Reenen auction in The Hague, 7,000 guilders.²⁰

75 PAUL POTTER.

It is not in the Amsterdam museum, however, that we encounter Paul Potter at his best. The Hague Museum and some private collections, on the other hand, offer examples of the most exquisite quality.

The Amsterdam Museum has only three Paul Potters after his Bear Hunt: Hilly Landscape with Cattle (no. 218) [105];²¹ - Orpheus Tames Animals with the Sounds of His Lyre (no. 219) [106];²² - A Resting Shepherd and Some Cattle (no. 221) [107].²³ This last small painting is not even catalogued by Smith. It is only 10 inches wide and 6 inches high. The shepherd, herding cows and sheep, sits near a cottage. It is just a kind of excellent sketch, colored like a Cuijp in beautiful shades of red. By the way, the attribution to Paul Potter is questionable, although the painting is signed Potter f 1645. This absence of the first name Paul is not common for the master.²⁴

The Orpheus is a rather capital composition, and very famous for the variety of animals the painter depicted on it. On the left side are small hills crowned with trees; on the right, an entrance to the forest and a view through to the sky. In the foreground a piece of grassland where we see a camel, a wild boar, a cow, a buffalo, a donkey, a ram, a goat, a sheep and in front of it a hare; in the second plan, at the foot of the hill, Orpheus, seated, playing on the Iyre; behind him a dog; in front of him are lying lions, an elephant, a horse, a white unicorn, a wolf ...