Two Horses in a Meadow near a Gate, 1649 Paulus Potter (1625-1654)

We create our paintings with museum quality and covering the highest academic standards. Once we get your order, it will be entirely hand-painted with oil on canvas. All the materials we use are the highest level, being totally artist graded painting materials and linen canvas.

We will add 1.6" (4 cm) additional blank canvas all over the painting for stretching.

High quality and detailing in every inch are time consuming. The reproduction of Paulus Potter also needs time to dry in order to be completely ready for shipping, as this is crucial to not be damaged during transportation.
Based on the size, level of detail and complexity we need 8-9 weeks to complete the process.

In case the delivery date needs to be extended in time, or we are overloaded with requests, there will be an email sent to you sharing the new timelines of production and delivery.

TOPofART wants to remind you to keep patient, in order to get you the highest quality, being our mission to fulfill your expectations.

We not stretch and frame our oil paintings due to several reasons:
Painting reproduction is a high quality expensive product, which we cannot risk to damage by sending it being stretched.
Also, there are postal restrictions, regarding the size of the shipment.
Additionally, due to the dimensions of the stretched canvas, the shipment price may exceed the price of the product itself.

You can stretch and frame your painting in your local frame-shop.

Once the painting Two Horses in a Meadow near a Gate is ready and dry, it will be shipped to your delivery address. The canvas will be rolled-up in a secure postal tube.

We offer free shipping as well as paid express transportation services.

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The paintings we create are only of museum quality. Our academy graduated artists will never allow a compromise in the quality and detail of the ordered painting. TOPofART do not work, and will never allow ourselves to work with low quality studios from the Far East. We are based in Europe, and quality is our highest priority.

Paulus Potter's "Two Horses in a Meadow near a Gate," created in 1649, captures a timeless tension between serenity and vitality. At first glance, it is a seemingly simple pastoral scene, but closer inspection reveals Potter's meticulous attention to atmosphere and life, embedding the horses into a broader narrative of nature’s rhythms.

The composition presents two horses poised against a sweeping Dutch landscape. The chestnut horse dominates the foreground, its muscular build and sleek coat rendered with astonishing precision. It stands near a weathered wooden gate, inscribed with the artist’s signature - a subtle claim of mastery. Behind it, a grey horse lingers in partial shadow, blending into the dense foliage of the tree line. The meadow stretches into the horizon, dotted with grazing cattle and faint spires of Delft, a delicate reminder of human presence in an otherwise untamed expanse.

Potter’s color palette breathes life into the canvas. The chestnut horse, framed by pale clouds, is warm and robust, its earthy tones contrasting sharply with the cool whites of the grey horse. The backdrop oscillates between lush greens and muted browns, evoking the dampness of the Dutch countryside under unsettled skies. The low-lying clouds, tinged with soft grays and blues, suggest a raw, windswept day - a mood heightened by the flickering tails and windswept manes of the horses.

Potter’s technique is a quiet marvel. His brushwork seamlessly shifts between the precise, almost photographic detailing of the horses’ musculature to the looser strokes of the landscape. The texture of the animals’ coats is tangible, almost tactile, while the fields and sky are softer, their indistinctness suggesting motion and weather. This duality underscores Potter’s ability to balance naturalistic detail with atmospheric suggestion.

The composition itself is strikingly dynamic. The visual contrast between the horses and their backgrounds - dark against light and light against dark - creates a rhythmic interplay, directing the viewer's gaze back and forth. The diagonal line of the gate and the sloping terrain naturally lead the eye toward the distance, inviting contemplation of the vast, unspoiled countryside.

In 17th-century Holland, a nation enamored with its agrarian identity, Potter’s work was both a celebration and a subtle reflection of this cultural pride. Yet, what makes this painting endure is its immediacy. It feels less like a historical artifact and more like a window into a fleeting moment, alive with the pulse of wind, movement, and life. Potter’s genius lies in capturing not just what is seen but what is felt - the essence of a blustery day in the Dutch lowlands.