The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of September 9, 2026

A horizontally oriented etching depicts a shepherd with a light skin tone playing a pipe on a grassy mound to the right. Sitting beneath a gnarled tree with a dog, they overlook a foreground of resting sheep and rams. To the left, the landscape recedes toward a distant church tower under a cloudy sky. Fine, overlapping lines meticulously define textures throughout the animals, foliage, and rolling earth.

The Shepherd

1644

Paulus Potter

(Dutch, 1625–1654)
Netherlands
etching
Mr. and Mrs. Lewis B. Williams Collection 1943.609
Catalogue raisonné: Hollstein XVII.220.15
Location: Not on view
  • Reverend John Griffith
    Reverend John Griffith
  • Seventeenth Century Dutch Painting. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (February 18-June 8, 1959).
    Dutch Painting, The Golden Age. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 5-February 27, 1955).
  • {{cite web|title=The Shepherd|url=false|author=Paulus Potter|year=1644|access-date=09 September 2026|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.609