Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (24 May 1619 (baptized) – 19 May 1668) was a Dutch

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

of hunting, landscape and battle scenes. He became prolific during the

Dutch Golden Age The Dutch Golden Age ( ) was a period in the history of the Netherlands which roughly lasted from 1588, when the Dutch Republic was established, to 1672, when the '' Rampjaar'' occurred. During this period, Dutch trade, scientific development ...

and joined the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke.

Life and work

Philips Wouwerman was one of the most versatile and prolific artists of the

. Embedded in the artistic environment and tradition of his home town of

Haarlem Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English language, English) is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the Provinces of the Nether ...

, Wouwerman made an important and highly influential contribution to the canon of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. His pictures were in demand during his lifetime, and even more sought after in the 18th century. Throughout Europe, formerly princely art collections like in Dresden and St. Petersburg still bear witness to this widespread admiration of Wouwerman's art. Battle Scene A15920

Born in Haarlem in 1619, the son of a now altogether obscure painter named Pouwels Joostsz Wouwerman, little is known of his artistic schooling. According to Cornelis de Bie, he studied with

Frans Hals Frans Hals the Elder (, ; ; – 26 August 1666) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. He lived and worked in Haarlem, a city in which the local authority of the day frowned on religious painting in places of worship but citizens liked to decorate thei ...

(1581/85–1666), but the particular style of Hals didn't leave a footmark on his oeuvre.Duparc, Frederik J. "Wouwerman, Philips." ''Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online''. Oxford University Press. Retrieved February 23, 2014 Apart from a short stay in Hamburg at the end of the 1630s, Wouwerman seemed to have lived in Haarlem during his whole artistic career and died as a prosperous member of the community at the age of 48. He joined the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke in 1640 and here took on several official posts in the years to come.Philips Wouwerman
in the

RKD The Netherlands Institute for Art History or RKD (Dutch: ), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center in the world. The center specializes in document ...

Wouwerman also worked as an estate agent in his home town, as many documents in Haarlem archives mentioned the artist in this context. Wouwerman started his artistic career with simple depictions of everyday life in the tradition of the ''bamboccianti'' by

Pieter van Laer Pieter Bodding van Laer (christened 14 December 1599, in Haarlem – 1641 or later) was a Dutch Painting, painter and Printmaking, printmaker. He was active in Rome for over a decade and was known for Genre works, genre scenes, animal paintings a ...

(1592/99–after 1642). His paintings of the mid-1640s often feature a diagonal slope of land, a tree which functions as a

repoussoir In two-dimensional works of art, such as painting, printmaking, photography or bas-relief, ''repoussoir'' (, ''pushing back'') is an object along the right or left foreground that directs the viewer's eye into the composition by bracketing (Frami ...

, and figures accompanied by horses. Over the next thirty years he developed an individual style, treating a wide range of subjects from genre and landscape to military and religious scenes (equestrian scenes, hunting and hawking parties, landscapes with travellers, cavalry battles and military encampments, peasants festivities etc.). He is noted for his skill in the depiction of horses of all breeds seen in motion. The art historian Frederik J. Duparc calls Wouwerman "undoubtedly the most accomplished and successful 17th-century Dutch painter of horses". The masterpieces from his best period (around 1650–1660) are of indisputably high quality, beautifully combining imaginary southern landscapes and a typically Dutch atmosphere. Wouwerman's paintings are characterized by subdued colours, a cool atmosphere and a wealth of witty, anecdotal details. He died in Haarlem. The first retrospective exhibition of Philips Wouwerman's work took place in Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, and in The Hague, The Royal Picture Gallers Mauritshuis, 2009/2010.

Family

At an early age, Wouwerman married Anna Pietersz. van Broeckhoff with whom he had ten children. They lived on the Bakenessergracht in a house that was also lived in by Haarlem painters Cornelis Gerritsz Decker and Hendrik de Meijer. Seven of the Wouwerman children survived and, after the death of their mother in 1670, accepted a substantial inheritance.

Output

About 800 pictures were listed in John Smith's ''Catalogue raisonné'' (1829/1842) as the work of Philip Wouwerman. In Hofstede de Groot's enlarged ''Catalogue'' (1908) the number exceeds to 1200. In Birgit Schumacher's recently published ''Catalogue raisonné'' (2006), only about 570 pictures were listed as authentic works, as many of the pictures mentioned by Hofstede de Groot were actually painted by countless followers and imitators all over Europe. Jan and Pieter Wouwerman, the younger brothers of Philips, were often regarded as close followers whose pictures seemed to have been frequently attributed to Philips. De schimmel Rijksmuseum SK-A-1610

The oeuvre of Pieter (1623–1682) clearly manifests the influence of Philips with regard to the range of subjects, but regarding the artistic style, Pieter had quite one of his own. And Jan (1629–1666) was a rather autonomous landscape painter. Out of the countless followers, some of the most gifted artists working in Wouwerman's style are worth mentioning: Jan van Huchtenburgh (1647–1733), the brothers Jan Frans (1683–1750) and

Joseph Joseph is a common male name, derived from the Hebrew (). "Joseph" is used, along with " Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the modern-day Nordic count ...

van Bredael (1688–1739) as well as Carel van Falens (1683–1733). His registered pupils were Johannes van der Bent, Hendrick Berckman, Eduard Dubois, Nicolas Ficke, Barent Gael, Anthony de Haen, Emanuel Murant, Matthias Scheits, Kort Withold, and his brothers.

Selected works

* ''The White Horse'', panel, 43.9 x 37.6 cm, Amsterdam,

Rijksmuseum The Rijksmuseum () is the national museum of the Netherlands dedicated to Dutch arts and history and is located in Amsterdam. The museum is located at the Museum Square in the borough of Amsterdam South, close to the Van Gogh Museum, the S ...

* ''Horse and Dismounted Rider'', panel, 32.3 x 36.2 cm, 1646, Leipzig,

Museum der bildenden Künste The Museum der bildenden Künste (German: "Museum of Fine Arts") is a museum in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany. It covers artworks from the Late Middle Ages to Modernity. History Museum Foundation and First Museum The museum dates back to the f ...

* ''Landscape with River and Bathers'', canvas, 59 x 82 cm, Vaduz-Vienna, The Collections of the Prince of Liechtenstein * ''Festive Peasants in an Extensive Landscape'', canvas, 70 x 112 cm, 1653, Minneapolis, The Minneapolis Institute of Arts * ''Winter Landscape with Wooden Bridge'', panel, 28.5 x 36.5 cm, Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie * ''A Horse Stable'', canvas, 47 x 67 cm, London, The National Gallery * '' The Rider's Halting Place'', panel, 35.4 x 30.7 cm, Antwerp, Royal Museum of Fine Arts * ''The Apple Grey at a Blacksmith'', panel, 34.4. x 38.3 cm, Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister * ''Riding School and Watering Place'', canvas, 82.5 x 127 cm, Vienna,

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien ( "Vienna Museum of art history, Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, i ...

* ''Departure for the Hunt'', panel, 45 x 64 cm, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister * ''Landscape with a Hawking Party'', canvas, 76 x 105 cm, Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado * ''Battle at a Mountainous Fortress'', canvas, 69 x 82 cm, Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister * ''Cavalry at a Sutler's Booth'', panel, 49.5 x 44.4 cm, London, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II., Buckingham Palace * ''Lady and Gentleman at a Harbour'', canvas, 51 x 71.3 cm, St Petersburg, The State Hermitage * ''The Ascension of Christ'', canvas, 85 x 68 cm, Brunswick, Herzog Anton Ulrich-Museum

References

;Attribution *

External links