Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (24 May 1619 (baptized) – 19 May 1668) was a Dutch painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes.

Life and work

Philips Wouwerman was one of the most versatile and prolific artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Embedded in the artistic environment and tradition of his home town of Haarlem, 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 Cornelis de Bie (10 February 1627 – ) was a Flemish ''rederijker'', poet, jurist and minor politician from Lier. He is the author of about 64 works, mostly comedies. He is known internationally today for his biographical sketches of Flemish a ...

, he studied with Frans Hals (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 The Haarlem Guild of Saint Luke was first a Christian, and later a city Guild for various trades falling under the patron saints Luke the Evangelist and Saint Eligius. History During the lifetime of Geertgen tot Sint Jans, there was probably a ...

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: RKD-Nederlands Instituut voor Kunstgeschiedenis), previously Rijksbureau voor Kunsthistorische Documentatie (RKD), is located in The Hague and is home to the largest art history center i ...

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, Haarlem – 1641 or later) was a Dutch painter and printmaker. He was active in Rome for over a decade and was known for genre scenes, animal paintings and landscapes placed in the environs o ...

(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 ( fra ...

, 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 Cornelis Gerritsz Decker (1618, Haarlem – 1678, Haarlem), was a Dutch Golden Age landscape painter. Life He was possibly a relation of David Decker, who was registered in the Haarlem guild as a pupil of Gerrit Claesz Bleker in Haarlem in ...

and

Hendrik de Meijer Hendrik Meijer (1744–1793) was an 18th-century painter from the Northern Netherlands. Biography Meijer was born in Amsterdam in 1744, though Abraham Jacob van der Aa gave his date of birth as 1737. According to the RKD he was first a memb ...

. 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 Cornelis Hofstede de Groot (9 November 1863 – 14 April 1930), was a Dutch art collector, art historian and museum curator. Life He was born in Dwingeloo and spent some time in Switzerland in his youth due to weak lungs, where he learned Germa ...

'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 Jan, JaN or JAN may refer to: Acronyms * Jackson, Mississippi (Amtrak station), US, Amtrak station code JAN * Jackson-Evers International Airport, Mississippi, US, IATA code * Jabhat al-Nusra (JaN), a Syrian militant group * Japanese Article Num ...

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 given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "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 mo ...

van Bredael (1688–1739) as well as Carel van Falens (1683–1733). His registered pupils were

Johannes van der Bent Johannes van der Bent (–1690), was a Dutch Golden Age painter. Biography According to Houbraken he was a student of Philips Wouwerman and Adriaen van de Velde. His birthdate is uncertain, but he was judged to be about forty when he died of tu ...

, Hendrick Berckman, Eduard Dubois,

Nicolas Ficke Nicolas or Nicolás may refer to: People Given name * Nicolas (given name) Mononym * Nicolas (footballer, born 1999), Brazilian footballer * Nicolas (footballer, born 2000), Brazilian footballer Surname Nicolas * Dafydd Nicolas (c.1705–1774), ...

, Barent Gael,

Anthony de Haen Anthony or Antony is a masculine given name, derived from the ''Antonii'', a '' gens'' ( Roman family name) to which Mark Antony (''Marcus Antonius'') belonged. According to Plutarch, the Antonii gens were Heracleidae, being descendants of Anton ...

, Emanuel Murant, Matthias Scheits, Kort Withold, and his brothers.

Selected works

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

* ''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 The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

* ''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 National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London, England. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The current Director of ...

* '' 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 * ''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 The Prado Museum ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It is widely considered to house one of the world's finest collections of European art, dating from the ...

* ''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 The Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum (HAUM) is an art museum in the German city of Braunschweig, Lower Saxony. History Founded in 1754, the Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum is one of the oldest museums in Europe. The museum has its origins in the art and nat ...

References

;Attribution *

External links