The etched work of Potter that has come down to us consists of eighteen plates; not many, considering how prolific he was as a painter, but all the plates are important. Taking them in chronological order, we have first the etching already spoken of, done when the artist was only eighteen, _The Cowherd_ (B. 14). In 1649, six years after its original execution, the plate was reduced in length by Potter and the new date affixed. A reedy hollow, with a pool, was substituted for the group of three cows at the left; and an alteration was also made in the feet of one of the cows descending the hill on the right. The etching, we know, was popular. For, after it had been cut down, it was issued by at least three publishers in turn; by F. de Wit, by P. Schenk, and by an anonymous publisher who effaced the two former names. Probably in the first instance it was issued by Potter himself, as was the series of cattle published in 1650. Full of skill in grouping and knowledge of form as this plate is, it is certainly inferior to the later etchings. Already, by the next year, Potter was able to produce a print, _The Shepherd_ (B. 15) which surpasses it in every way, and which to more sound drawing adds a pastoral atmosphere of lightness and sunshine and repose. Berchem, Potter’s senior by five years, was at Haarlem in 1642, when Potter, as we know, was in De Wet’s studio. We may assume, therefore, that the two met. Perhaps it was in emulation of Berchem’s set of etchings, published in 1644, that Potter produced his _Cowherd_ and _Shepherd_. If so, he succeeded in surpassing them. There now occurs an interval of some years in Potter’s etched work. His next publication, so far as we know, was the series of eight plates (B. 1-8) representing cattle, and beginning with the fine _Bull_ (Fig. 24). This title-piece is dated 1650, so that we may refer the production of the plates to 1649, and possibly the year or two immediately preceding. However, the fact that 1649 is the date of the revised _Cowherd_ seems to point to Potter’s having resumed his interest in etching in that year, and to his having executed the whole set after the re-publication of that plate. [Illustration: _Fig. 25.--Studies of a Dog. By Paul Potter. British Museum._] He would hardly issue an immature work, when he had by him much more triumphant specimens of his skill.