One of the founding fathers of animal painting, his Young Bull is almost life-sized and ranked alongside Rembrandt’s work, but he died at the age of only 28.
Potter
Washerwoman below stairs, a kitchen maid, haggling in the market, selling fish door-to-door, pouring milk, farming families, and drinking.
In Gérôme’s early success The Cock Fight, Rembrandt’s Night Watch, Murillo’s Adoration of the Shepherds, and many farmyard paintings.
Early explorations in the landscapes of Aelbert Cuyp, tortoises from Brazil, the first dedicated animal painter in Paulus Potter, and a concert of birds by Melchior d’Hondecoeter.
In 1579, 7 of the more northerly provinces in the Low Countries formed the Dutch Republic. That soon prospered from its international trade, and saw the creation of millions of paintings that changed European art.
From Dürer’s groundbreaking hare to the fable of the hare and the tortoise, a hidden hare in a well-known Turner and a white rabbit for the first of the month?
Fourteen major painters whose anniversaries I’ll celebrate or commemorate during this New Year, from George Bellows to Jacques-Louis David.
They drew carts and ploughs, in preference to horses where power rather than speed was needed. Also for milk, beef and their hides processed into leather.
In Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, animals charmed by Orpheus, the story of Rebecca and Eliezer, and accompanying the three Magi to the Nativity.
From Hannibal crossing the Alps with his war elephants, through the temptation of St Anthony, to the circus and an imaginary India.
The Eclectic Light Company 