around 1597/1600 -1652 · Enkhuizen, Leiden, Amsterdam and The Hague

Portrait, vanity, guard and landscape reveal in Pieter Potter a versatile Dutch painter, attentive to the signs of identity as well as those of time.

Pieter Symonsz Potter was born in Enkhuizen around 1597 -1600 and died in Amsterdam in 1652. First trained as a glass painter, in 1622 he married Aechtje Bartsius, sister of the painter Willem Bartsius. He lived in Leiden from 1628 to 1631, during which time he began painting easel paintings, then moved to Amsterdam. He stayed in The Hague from 1646 to 1649 before returning to Amsterdam. Potter practiced guard scenes, landscapes, still lifes, vanities, stories and portraits with rare diversity. In Leiden, the example of David Bailly and Jan Davidsz de Heem nourished his attention to objects and their moral significance with rare diversity. His scenes of soldiers brought him closer to Pieter Codde and Willem Duyster, while his activity also extended, at the end of the 1630s, to painting on gilded leather. Portrait of the artist in a breastplate and wearing a feathered beret depicts this ability to combine observation and social role. The breastplate, the pen and the gaze compose less a simple physical survey than an artist identity assumed through military costume. Elsewhere, skull, books, music and fragile objects recall less the brevity of life in his vanities. Elsewhere, skull, books, music and fragile objects recall the brevity of life in his vanities. Elsewhere, skull, books, music and fragile objects recall the brevity of life in his vanities. Father and probable first master of the animal painter Paulus Potter, he transmits a studio environment open to several genres. His work is therefore not limited to one specialty: it shows how an artist dutch could move between urban market, decor, portrait and moral meditation. The "Pieter Potter" selection notably compares Portrait of the Artist in a Breastplate. His reading favors atmosphere.

Pieter Potter changes genre without losing his gaze: armor, skull, landscape or guardhouse always become signs to read as much as things to see.