Paulus Potter

Paulus Potter was the great Dutch painter of cattle. He painted cows, bulls, sheep and horses in open meadows, often seen from a low viewpoint so the animals stand large against a wide sky, with every hide, horn and hoof observed from life.

Born in Enkhuizen and trained by his father Pieter Potter, he worked in Delft, The Hague and Amsterdam. His life-size The Young Bull (1647), in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, is one of the most famous Dutch paintings of its time. He produced around a hundred paintings before his death in Amsterdam at the age of 28.

Cows Reflected in the Water shows his calm, sunlit farmland and the quiet realism that later animal painters admired.