Lot 45
  • 45

Paulus Pietersz. Potter

Estimate
80,000 - 120,000 GBP
Log in to view results
bidding is closed

Description

  • Paulus Pietersz. Potter
  • Two pigs in a sty
  • signed and dated upper left: paulus potter f.1649
  • oil on canvas

Provenance

Probably Seger Tierens;
His deceased sale, The Hague, Boucquet, 23 July 1743, lot 131, for 21 florins;
Probably David Ietsvaart;
His sale, Amsterdam, Beukelaar v. d. Land, 22 April 1749, lot 45, for 14 florins to J. Carré;
The Landgraves of Hessen-Kassel, Kassel, 1783-1806;
Removed by Napoleon's troops to Paris by 1806;
Prince Jérome Napoleon, Paris, 1806;
Capt. James Aston Roberts West, Alscot Park, Warwickshire, 1950-1964;
His sale, London, Christie's, 26 June 1964, lot 126, for 180 guineas to Wetzlar;
Dr. Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam;
Wetzlar sale, 1977, lot 55, for 48,000 florins, where bought back.

Exhibited

Laren, 1966, no. 44;
Dordrecht, Dordrechts Museum, & Leeuwarden, Fries Museum, Meesterlijk vee. Nederlandse veeschilders 1600-1900, 25 September - 20 November 1988 & 3 December 1988 - 29 January 1989;
The Hague, Mauritshuis, Paulus Potter, 8 November 1994 - 5 February 1995, no. 17.

Literature

Die Hochfürstliche Hessiche Gemalde-Sammlung in Kassel, Kassel 1783, no. 52, reproduced plate 179; 
Die Hochfürstliche Hessiche Gemalde-Sammlung in Kassel, Kassel 1799, no. 52, reproduced plate 179;
M. Roberts, Manuscript inventory of the Hessische Sammlungen, 1816, no. 930, as departed, annotated 'Hieronymus [Jerome] Napoleon';
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. IV, London 1912, p. 645, no. 129c;
W. Schulz, Cornelis Saftleven,1607-1681, Leben und Werke, Berlin/New York 1978, p. 219;
C. White, The Dutch pictures in the collection of her Majesty the Queen, London 1982, p. 115;
Voorkeuren, 1985, p. 58, reproduced p. 59;
G. Jansen, in C. Boschma etc., Meesterlijk vee. Nederlandse veeschilders 1600-1900, exhibition catalogue, Zwolle 1988, p. 163, under no. 25;
E. Buijsen, in A. Walsh, E. Buijsen, B. Broos, Paulus Potter. Paintings, drawings and etchings, exhibition catalogue, Zwolle 1995, pp. 105-6, no. 17, reproduced p. 107;
B. Pols, "Dieren zoals wij", in NRC/Handelsblad, 6 May 1997;
R. Zanderink, "Hoeders van het vee", in Origine, no. 2, 1999.

Condition

"The following condition report has been provided by Henry Gentle, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. The canvas has been lined and the paint layer is stable. The canvas edges have been restored and a small damage, lower left, has been repaired. Beneath a very discoloured and degraded varnish can be seen the paint layer which has been affected by earlier abrasive cleaning. The original canvas is moderately coarsely woven and has been 'topped' during the cleaning revealing regular dots of pale ground. This thinness is most notable on the bodies of the pigs and in the foreground but has been reduced by restoration in the background. Much of the paint , particularly in the foreground, is in a good original condition and the texture of the paint is well preserved. There would be a considerable tonal improvement if the varnish were removed. Offered in a cut down carved gilt frame with some damage."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Catalogue Note

Farmyard animals and horses comprise the subject matter of the vast majority of Potter's paintings, drawings and prints.  Perhaps not surprisingly, Potter depicted horses and cattle more often than he did pigs, though he drew a number of working sheets of studies of them. The composition of this picture is adapted from a larger work that he painted two years earlier in 1647, which depicts the same two pigs in a tumbledown sty, with landscape and trees visible beyond (see fig.1).1  In the present work, he has purged his composition of such extraneous detail, concentrating on the beasts themselves.  The reclining pig lollops on the ground, belly drooping, but with ears pricked, while the other, a sow, is caught struggling sleepily to her feet, lop-ears hanging forward, as if surprised by the artist.

Swine often occurred earlier in biblical subjects, principally in the story of the Prodigal Son, but it was not until the 1640s that they become the subject of individual attention in Dutch art.  A direct precursor of the present subject is Simon de Vlieger's etching of Two pigs, from the early 1640s (see fig. 2), and another is Rembrandt's etching of The sow, dated 1643 (see fig. 3).2  Potter would certainly have been familiar with both.

1. Paulus Potter, Two pigs in a sty, signed and dated 1647, oil on panel, 56.5 by 51.5 cm.; Brussels, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, inv. no. 3180.
2. Simon de Vlieger, Two pigs, etching, 133 by 156 mm., signed in monogram; Rembrandt, The sow, etching, 145 by 184 mm., signed and dated 1643.