The Bull
A life-size young bull and other cattle in a Dutch meadow, the tower of Rijswijk church on the horizon — Paulus Potter's astonishing animal portrait.
Oude Kerk (Rijswijk)
The painting shows a real, identified place that you can find today. The exact spot the artist worked from is not necessarily known.
The Bull — at a glance
- Artist
- Paulus Potter (1625–1654)
- Year
- 1647
- Movement
- Dutch Golden Age
- Place
- Cattle pasture near The Hague / Rijswijk, the Netherlands
- Viewpoint
- Ordinary polder grazing land, with a village church tower (traditionally Rijswijk's) on the horizon — a general viewpoint
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- c. 236 × 339 cm
- Now at
- Mauritshuis, The Hague
Overview
The Bull is the most famous painting by Paulus Potter, made in 1647 when he was only 21. It shows, at almost life size, a young bull standing in a meadow, with a cow lying behind, a bull-calf and two sheep, and a herdsman leaning on a pollarded willow. Beyond, flat pasture, cattle, farm buildings and a church tower on the horizon; a sky of moving cloud. It is oil on canvas, very large (about 236 by 339 cm), and it hangs in the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
Where was The Bull painted?
Scholarship Potter worked in and around The Hague and Delft, and the setting is the low, wet cattle pasture of that part of Holland. The church tower on the horizon is traditionally identified as that of Rijswijk, a village between The Hague and Delft; Potter is known to have painted there, and a small church with a medieval tower (the Oude Kerk of Rijswijk) survives. Whether or not the exact tower is Rijswijk's, the picture records the ordinary polder grazing land of the region rather than a marked viewpoint.
What is in the painting?
The young bull dominates the right foreground, painted with extreme, almost forensic detail — the hide, the dewlap, the flies, a plant by its hoof. Behind it, a cow lies chewing; a small bull-calf; two sheep, one looking up. At the left, a bearded herdsman rests against a lopped willow, gazing off. The middle distance is flat green meadow with more cattle and a farm; the church tower breaks the low horizon; a big sky above.
Look closely
The forensic hide
The bull's coat, dewlap, eyes and even the flies on it are rendered with microscopic care.
The herdsman
A bearded cowherd leans on a lopped willow at the left, gazing off.
The church tower
A village church tower — traditionally Rijswijk's — breaks the low horizon.
The plant by the hoof
A weed growing at the bull's foot is painted leaf by leaf.
Analysis
Composition and technique
A single life-size animal given the scale and detail of a grand portrait, in an ordinary flat Dutch meadow.
Scholarship Potter treats farm animals with the monumental scale usually reserved for history painting, rendering the bull's hide, eyes and even the insects on it with microscopic care, and setting it against a plain, luminous landscape and a working herdsman. The mix of the heroic and the everyday is exactly what made the picture famous.
History & provenance
The painting has been in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, since the early nineteenth century, having earlier been taken to Paris under Napoleon and then returned.
Sources
- Mauritshuis, The Hague — collection entry for Paulus Potter, ‘The Bull’ (1647)
- Mauritshuis literature on Potter and the Rijswijk identification
