Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 4, 1912.djvu/596

SECTION XVI PAULUS POTTER PAULUS POTTER was born at Enkhuizen in November 1625, and was buried at Amsterdam on January 17, 1654. He was a son of Pieter Potter, a versatile painter, whose works, including Biblical subjects, pastoral scenes, pictures of cavalry rights and guard-rooms, still-life, and single figure-pieces, are very unequal in merit. Pieter was also a glass- painter, and for a time was a partner in a gilt-leather factory. Soon after the birth of his son Pieter went to Ley den, where he can be traced between 1628 and 1631, and then to Amsterdam. It was here that young Paulus apparently received his first lessons, first of all, no doubt, from his father, and afterwards, probably, from Nicolaes Moeyaert, an artist whose temperament was akin to that of Pieter Potter, but who was more talented and even more versatile. The earliest pictures by Paulus, dating from about 1640, such as "Abraham setting out for Canaan" at Niirnberg (i), show distinctly the influence of Moeyaert. On May 2, 1642, Paulus Potter is said to have gone as a pupil to Jacob de Wet at Haarlem. This generally accepted statement rests upon an entry in a note-book of De Wet's, which was quoted by Van Eynden and Van der Willigen (1840, vol. iv. p. 152), and which was at a later date in the possession of A. van der Willigen, the nephew of the author. The younger Van der Willigen, however, does not mention this entry (Les Artistes de Haarlem, p. 325), although he translates the contents of the note-book and introduces the translation with the words "En voici le con ten u " ("These are the contents"). As the note-book seems to have disappeared, it is no longer possible to investigate the matter. Have Van Eynden and Van der Willigen misread the manuscript ? Did the entry, which came at the end of the note-book and not in its proper place in chronological order, seem suspicious to the younger Van der Willigen, and did he for that reason leave it out of his translation ? We do not know, and can only say that, so long as the note- book does not come to light and the entry is quoted as extant and genuine, we attach no value to this statement. There is no affinity what- ever in style between the very mediocre Jacob de Wet and Paulus Potter, and on May 2, 1642, the date of the alleged entry, Paulus was already a 582