Provenance
Dominique Bertrand Clemens, Ghent; (his sale, Salle de la Confrerie de Saint George, Ghent, 23 September 1777 and days following, no. 49; bought in). his brother, Jacques Clemens, canon of St. Bavo's Cathedral [1713-1779], Ghent; (his sale, Maison Mortuaire, Ghent, 21 June 1779 and days following, no. 212); Neijman, Amsterdam. Johan Philip de Monté, Utrecht; his widow; (her sale, A. Lamme, Rotterdam, 4-5 July 1825, no. 1); (Lambert Jean Nieuwenhuys, Brussels).[1] Comte François-Alexandre-Charles Perregaux [1791-1837], Paris; (his estate sale, Galerie Le Brun, Paris, 8-9 December 1841, no. 26); George. Madame Autran, Marseille, by 1867. (Charles Sedelmeyer, Paris), in 1898. M. Rodolphe Kann [d. 1905], Paris and Marseilles, by 1900; purchased 1907 with the entire Kann collection by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold 1909 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] An annotated copy of the De Monté sale catalogue states that Nieuwenhuys purchased the picture for 7,100 guilders. For a discussion of the sale and L.J. Nieuwenhuys' purchase of the work, see Charles J. Nieuwenhuys, _A Review of the Lives and Works of Some of the Most Eminent Painters_, London, 1834, 186-188.
Accession Number
1942.9.52
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 48.3 x 45.7 cm (19 x 18 in.) | framed: 71.12 × 68.58 × 7.62 cm (28 × 27 × 3 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Widener Collection
Tags
Painting Baroque (1600–1750) Oil Painting Panel Painting Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Paulus Potter (1625-1654) was a Dutch painter known for his animal subjects and rural scenes that combine the precise observation of Dutch genre painting with the landscape tradition of the Dutch Golden Age. A Farrier's Shop from 1648 depicts a farrier (horse-shoer) at work in his shop with the precise observation of animal and human figures that distinguishes Potter's best work. The 1648 date places this in Potter's most productive period, when he was producing the animal subjects and rural scenes that would make him one of the most specialized painters in the Dutch Republic—painting animals with the same seriousness that other painters reserved for human subjects.
Cultural Impact
Potter's A Farrier's Shop is important in the history of Dutch painting because it demonstrates the specialization that characterized the Dutch art market, where painters could build careers on highly specialized subjects. Potter's specialization in animal subjects was unprecedented in Dutch painting—he painted animals with the same seriousness and technical accomplishment that other painters reserved for human subjects—and A Farrier's Shop shows that this specialization could produce paintings of genuine artistic quality.
Why It Matters
A Farrier's Shop is Potter painting animals with Dutch Golden Age seriousness: a farrier at work with horses rendered with the precise observation that other Dutch painters reserved for human subjects. The 1648 painting demonstrates the specialization that characterized the Dutch art market, where a painter could build a career on animal subjects alone.
