Goats: Plate 8: A billy goat resting in a landscape

The Dutch printmaker Marcus de Bye (also de Bije/ de Bie) is little-known in relation to his talent and prolificness. He was born in The Hague in 1639 and died after 1688.  He became a pupil of Jacob van der Does in 1658. Better known as an engraver and etcher than a painter, he engraved several series of animal studies after Paulus Potter and also produced a number of original engravings.

Te Papa has a near complete set (seven out of eight plates) from the Goats and he-goats series, based on designs by the brilliant but sadly short-lived animal artist Paulus Potter (1625-1654), and subsequently published by Nicolaes Visscher the Elder. The prints were presented to the Colonial Museum in 1869 by Bishop Ditlev Monrad. This etching, plate 8 and therefore the final in the series, shows a billy goat looking backwards. It probably struck De Bye as being the perfect complement to the title page (Te Papa 1869-0001-50), where the goat concerned - probably a nanny goat from the relatively short horns - looked forward. From Alpha to Omega, first to last, the beginning to the end (to paraphrase a well-known text), goats rule!

See: British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details.aspx?objectId=1617089&partId=1&searchText=De+B ye+goat&page=1

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    April 2019