Smith, John: 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 : a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference the the galleries and private collections in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools (Part 5) (London: Smith and Son, 1834)

PAUL POTTER.

I HE very brief manner in which incidents in the
lives of many eminent painters are recorded by their
contemporaries, affords succeeding writers but scanty
materials to gratify that curiosity which their increased
reputation has excited. A mere sketch or outline is
frequently all that can be given of a character that
well deserves to be fully represented, by a “ glowing
pencil and a master-hand.” A portrait by such a
hand is due to the transcendent talents of the artist,
whose unrivalled representations of domestic animals
are recorded in the following catalogue: a sketch,
however, is all that can be given, and the reader’s
imagination must supply the deficiencies.
Paul Potter was of a respectable family, of con-
siderable repute; some of his ancestors having held
situations under the crown, and others filled civil
offices in the corporation of the town of Enhuysen,
in North Holland, where he was born in 1625. His
father, Peter Potter, was a tolerable painter of objects
of still life; from him he acquired, at a very early
age, a knowledge of the rudiments of the art, and
VOL. V. I