Paulus Potter, 'Cattle and Sheep in a Stormy Landscape', 1647

Cattle and Sheep in a Stormy Landscape

Paulus Potter

Not on display

About the work

Overview

A bull stands silhouetted against a threatening sky. It seems energised and alert, aware of the presence of the viewer – it makes direct eye contact with us – and of the storm. A strong wind bends the willow trees and a sheet of rain sweeps across the middle distance. Two cows and a pair of sheep remain calmly feeding or resting – images of fortitude and dependability, watched over by the protective bull. There’s a strong sense of independence here, too: there’s no sign of a herdsman, nor other human interference.

Why would Potter cast cattle as heroes? From an economic point of view, cheese and butter were national staples and key exports at a time when the Dutch Republic was on the verge of becoming a fully independent nation. Cows were a dependable source of prosperity, and Potter may have been intending to convey a symbolic message about national resilience and identity.

In-depth

This is only a small painting, probably made for a domestic reception room, but it casts its subject in a heroic light. A bull stands silhouetted against the brightest patch of a threatening sky. It seems energised and alert, as though aware of the presence of the viewer, making direct eye contact with us, and of the storm. We can sense the threat too. A strong wind bends the willow trees – silvery leaves catch the sunlight streaming through a brief gap in the clouds – and buffets a pair of seagulls mid-flight. A sheet of rain sweeps across the middle distance.

But two cows and a pair of sheep remain calmly feeding or resting, images of fortitude and dependability, watched over by the protective presence of the bull. There’s a strong sense of independence here too: there’s no sign of a herdsman or other human interference, nor buildings or towns in the distance.

Potter evokes the power of nature but is interested in its subtler side too. In the shelter of the foreground he has painted a patch of wildflowers clustered around a fallen log. It’s a moment of quietness in an otherwise turbulent scene, and it also gives greater depth to the composition, setting the cattle – the heroes of the painting – at a slightly greater distance.

In the same year as he painted this, when he was just 22, Potter made his name with another painting which treated cattle in a heroic light, and on a much grander scale. The life-size painting of a bull standing with its owner and other sheep and cows now hangs in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, and is one of the most famous images of Dutch art of the Golden Age.

So why would a painter like Potter cast cattle as heroes? At the time, there was certainly a market for images of rural life in which cows often featured prominently. They would often focus on more serene, farmyard scenes, suffused with a golden light, a fashionable effect which had recently come to Holland through the work of landscape painters who had been to Italy (look at A Landscape with Cows, Sheep and Horses by a Barn). Potter was one of the most successful pioneers of the genre.

No doubt they would have been of sentimental appeal to city dwellers, but from an economic point of view, cows were also an important national success story. In recent decades, flooded land had been reclaimed to produce pasture, and there had been improvements in breeding stock and husbandry. Cheese and butter were now key exports at a time when the Dutch Republic was on the verge of winning independence from Spain.

Cattle represented an important and dependable source of wealth, prosperity and plenty. By emphasising these perceived qualities at what was a turning point in Dutch history, Potter may have intended to convey a more symbolic message about national strength and fortitude in the face of adversity.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Cattle and Sheep in a Stormy Landscape
Artist: Paulus Potter
Artist dates: 1625 - 1654
Date made: 1647
Medium and support: oil on wood
Dimensions: 46.3 × 37.8 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Salting Bequest, 1910
Inventory number: NG2583
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: George Salting

Provenance

In the collection of Jan and Pieter Bisschop of Rotterdam by 1752, and bought with that collection by Adriaen and John Hope of Amsterdam in 1771. John Hope’s sons, Thomas Henry and Henry Philip Hope, settled in England c. 1796; No. 2583 was lent to the BI, 1815, by Henry Philip Hope; after his death in 1839 it passed to his nephew, Henry Thomas Hope of Deepdene, who exhibited it at the BI in 1843 and 1850, and in Manchester in 1857. Exhibited at the RA, 1881, lent by Mrs Henry Thomas Hope, who bequeathed it in 1887 with the rest of the Hope collection to her grandson, Lord Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope; exhibited at the South Kensington (now Victoria and Albert) Museum, 1891–7, with the Hope collection, a part of which was sold by Lord Francis to Asher Wertheimer, London, in 1898. In the collection of George Salting, London; Salting Bequest, 1910.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2014

Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance

The National Gallery (London)

19 February 2014 - 11 May 2014

Bibliography

1752

G. Hoet, Catalogus of Naamlyst van Schilderyen met derzelver pryzen. Zedert een langen reeks van Jaaren zoo in Holland als op andere Plaatzen in het openbaar verkogt […], vol. 1, The Hague 1752
1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1898

The Hope collection of Pictures of the Dutch and Flemish Schools, with Descriptions Reprinted from the Catalogue Published in 1891 by the Science and Art Department of the South Kensington Museum, London 1898
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1981

J.W. Niemeijer, 'Kunstverzameling van John Hope (1737-1784)', Nederlands Kunsthistorisch Jaarboek, XXXII, 1981, pp. 127-232
1990

B.P.J. Broos (ed.), Great Dutch Paintings from America (exh. cat. Mauritshuis, 28 September 1990 - 13 January 1991; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 16 February 1991 - 5 May 1991), Zwolle 1990
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
1994

A. Walsh, Paulus Potter: Paintings, Drawings and Etchings (exh. cat. Mauritshuis, 8 November 1994 - 5 February 1995), The Hague 1994
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2001

R. Baarsen et al., Vermeer and the Delft School, New Haven 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

More works by Paulus Potter

A Landscape with Cows, Sheep and Horses by a Barn

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This scene of rural tranquillity is typical of the work of Paulus Potter, who was famous in his lifetime for his paintings of domestic animals. The hilly terrain and summer light are more reminiscent of Italy than Holland, but these are most definitely Dutch cows. Potter has observed them with gr...

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Landscape with Cattle and a Woman by a Stream

Paulus Potter

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Paulus Potter, 'Cattle and Sheep in a Stormy Landscape', 1647

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Paulus Potter