A young shepherdess, oil on canvas, 73.5 x 60 cm, framed

We are grateful to Fred Meijer of the RKD, The Hague, who was able to determine that the painting is the work of Pot.

It was possible only recently to convincingly attribute this picture to Pot. It belongs to a group of paintings, executed by Pieter de Grebber, Petrus Staverenus or Hendrick Gerritsz. Pot, according to information taken from a reference work in the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem. Fred Meijer has now been able to identify the artist of this painting as Pot, thanks to comparisons undertaken with portraits of shepherd securely attributed to Pot. Hendrik Gerritsz.
Pot was one of the first exponents of genre painting in the artistic circle around Frans Hals. He was trained alongside him in the Mannerist tradition under Karel van Mander, although he soon escaped the narrow strictures of this school. Initially, the works of both artists exhibit great similarities, but Pot moved increasingly in the direction of Feinmalerei, without taking on the loose, powerful colour of Frans Hals’s style. In mainly small-format images, he captured the informal gatherings of young cavaliers and elegant ladies in interior spaces, a pictorial motif also featured in the work of Willem Buytewech and Dirck Hals in Haarlem. Pot later turned increasingly towards portrait painting. The painter was a well-respected man. Frans Hals portrayed him twice in hunting pictures and he held the position of dean of the St. Lucas Guild in Haarlem on several occasions. After 1648, Pot settled in Amsterdam. This painting belongs to a series of similar shepherd portraits by Pot, which were mostly conceived as pendant pairs.