PAUL POTTER'S BULL 209 



appear as fresh as if the bull had just licked him- 

 self. Two cows are lazily lying down chewing their 

 cud ; close by are two or three sheep, and in the 

 near foreground there is a yellow-skinned frog, ti^et 

 with his recent visit to the dyke. Leaning over a 

 rail, under a tree, is a man watching the live stock. 

 The atmosphere is moistly hot, and is atmosphere ! 

 Yet fine and dexterous as the picture is, one regrets 

 that a nobler bull has not had his portrait handed 

 down to posterity. I do not mean to affirm that a 

 sleek, highly-bred symmetrical shorthorn would have 

 made so perfect an agricultural idyll. But the mongrel 

 depicted by the great Dutch master, Paul Potter, 

 is possibly a painter's, but certainly not a breeder's 

 bull. James Ward, R.A., painted his great picture, 

 the ' Alderney Bull,' which is now in our National 

 Gallery, to rival the bull of Paul Potter. But the 

 style of each work is so utterly distinct that no one 

 could possibly put them together. How totally 

 different is Paul Potter's bull from the beautiful young 

 shorthorn ' Duke of Connaught,' bred by and sold 

 at the Earl of Dunmore's sale, and bought by Lord 

 Fitzhardinge for 4,500 guineas! Immense benefit 

 has been conferred on the Continent by the exhibi- 

 tions held there of late years. Many of our leading 

 breeders have sent over their cattle, sheep, and pigs, 

 and have invariably come off with flying colours, 

 and have generally sold their exhibits at fairly good 

 prices. When at Vienna I sold my first prize young 

 roan shorthorn bull, ' Royal Geneva,' of the best 

 Bates and Knightley strain of blood, for 1,400 florins 



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