Hendrik Gerritsz Pot

Hendrik Gerritsz Pot (c. 1580 – 15 October 1657 (buried)) was a Dutch Golden Age painter, who lived and painted in Haarlem, where he was an officer of the militia, or schutterij.

A Merry Company at Table was set in a brothel, a popular theme in Dutch genre painting.

The latter piece also contains a common theme addressed in Pot’s works; beauty, age and death.

This theme culminates in his well-known piece Allegory of Vanitas, usually referred to simply as Vanity, and which also contains motifs and symbols of sensual love.

Other well-known Pot works are A Startling Introduction, The Coin Collector and Flora’s Wagon of Fools (shown), in which he poked fun at the fledgling tulip trade in Haarlem, where for a short while, the flower bulbs were sold by weight.