Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 4, 1912.djvu/644

630 PAULUS POTTER SECT. 96. THE MILKMAID. Sm. Suppl. 26 ; W. 103. In front of a low hut, near a withered tree with scanty foliage, a young woman, wearing a red jacket and a grey skirt, milks a white cow. She spurts the milk in the face of a peasant in a yellow jacket and blue breeches, who sits beside her. An old man stands behind him, laughing. Beside the cow stands a horse. To the right lies another cow. A third cow grazes in the left middle distance on the bank of a stream, beyond which stretches a flat pasture. Above the hut to the right is seen the top of a cottage. The principal group occurs in 97 (Schwerin), but the details are different. Signed in full on the house- wall high up on the right, and dated 1652 ; panel, 12^ inches by 14^ inches. Acquired by the Empress Catherine II. In the Hermitage Palace, St. Petersburg, before 1838. In the Palace, Tsarskoe Selo, from which it was returned to the Hermitage in 1882. In the Hermitage Palace, St. Petersburg, 1901 catalogue, No. 1772. 97. THE MILKMAID. Sm. 68 j W. 74. In a meadow shaded by trees a girl, seen from the back, sits milking a yellowish-red cow, which stands in front of her, facing right. A young peasant bending down on his right knee creeps round the cow from the left towards the girl. She notices him, and makes the milk spurt from the cow's teat into his face. An old peasant standing immediately behind the young man laughs at the jest ; the old man is the model for the man in " The Young Bull " (48). Near him is an old dark horse, facing left j a dog crouches on the ground. To the right, near the first cow, a sheep and a whitish-grey cow lie on the grass ; the cow, facing right, wearily rests its head, which is turned to the front, on the back of the sheep which faces left. Beyond them to the right is a well with a thatched cover. In the extreme right foreground lies an old tree-stump. In the middle distance a bright red cow, facing the spectator, rubs its head against the trunk of a young oak. Beyond it are a low fence made of plaited willows and a long thatched cottage. In the left distance are low bushes. The colour is somewhat hard. [Compare 96. See the old model in 47, 48, 105.] Signed in full below the windlass of the well, and dated 1648 ; panel, 15 inches by 19^ inches. Lithographed by Achilles (Sm.). In the Schloss, Schwerin, 1792 catalogue, p. 42, J. i. 30. In the Schloss, Ludwigslust, 1821 catalogue, No. 38 (Sm. valued it in 1834 at 210). In the Schwerin Museum, 1882 catalogue, No. 237. 97. A Milkmaid. Cattle in a landscape. Sale. Pieter van der Lip, Amsterdam, June 14, 1712 (Hoet, i. 146), No. 9 (96 florins). 97/>. A Milkmaid. Cows, a peasant, and so on. Sale. Gerbrand Pancras, Amsterdam, April 7, 1716 (Hoet, i. 186), No. 9 (240 florins).