item details
Paulus Potter; artist
Overview
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 two prints from a series of eight numbered plates showing lions, 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 is the frontispiece of the series, dramatically announcing the regal lion. He emerges from behind a stone slab, inscribed in the style of Roman antiquity with Potter's and De Bye's names and the date - ten years after Potter's death. The tree trunk to the left is angled to give emphasis to the lion's entrance and matches the angle of the ancient fragmented slab.
See: British Museum Collection online, https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/collection_online/collection_object_details/collection_image_gallery.aspx?assetId=161305 5657&objectId=1617318&partId=1
Dr Mark Stocker Curator, Historical International Art April 2019