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artist or maker

Wouwerman, Philips (b.1619, d.1668)

Date

1665-1668

dated stylistically

Place of production

Holland, Netherlands

Medium

oil on canvas

Type of object

paintings

Accession number

2569

Oil painting of a landscape with a riding school. The foreground is taken up by an open space, with a wall and ruin surmounted by foliage on the left, and a row of trees on the right. Mountains, hills, trees and buildings appear in the background. In the centre foreground, there is a servant wearing livery and a red cloak with a dog; the servant holds a white saddled horse. Next to the horse, a man dressed in a feathered hat and grey riding habit bends down to arrange his spurs.

To the left, there is a coach bearing a woman pulled by six grey horses. The coachman raises his whip. A servant rides one of the front horses. On the right, a man dressed in a dark riding habit rides a galloping horse. A man and woman dressed in fine clothes walk next to the line of trees. Near a hitching post in the right foreground, there is a boy and girl playing with a dog. Further off in the distance are more figures standing amongst the trees.

Commentary

Philips Wouwerman excelled at the depiction of horses and painted over twenty works depicting riding schools. His works were much in vogue in 18th-century France and this painting once belonged to an important French collection. An engraving made in 1752 shows that the canvas has been trimmed on the left-hand side.

The painting was a particularly prized work from the collection of the statesman René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, 2nd marquis d' Argenson (1694-1757). The description of the painting in a manuscript catalogue of Voyer's collection shows that the beauty and fiery liveliness of the six grey horses pulling the carriage were much admired. The detail of the nobleman with one knee on the ground who appears to be fastening on his spurs was also greatly appreciated. The work was engraved by Jean Moyreau in 1752 when it was in Voyer's collection with the title 'Cavaliers de Manège'. The engraving shows that about 5cm of the painting has been removed from the left-hand side showing an arch. This decision takes the focus off the six grey horses and gives centre stage to the white horse held by a servant, who looks over his shoulder as if addressing the viewer.

The new focus of the painting highlights Wouwerman's skill at rendering the muscles and skin texture of horses. The human narrative of the gentleman preparing to ride also now takes centre stage. Wouverman's other paintings of riding schools have ruins or rearing or bucking horses; some have specific details of up-to-date horse dressage techniques. A few have carriages, as in this work. This painting contrasts the noble art of riding with the perhaps more frivolous promenading couple and the playing children.

In the 1660s, Wouvermans used stock poses for his figures and horses. They are less integrated into the landscape as in his earlier work. The trees on the right in this painting are painted in a compact manner unlike Wouverman's style. They could have been painted or redesigned by members of his workshop which may have included his brother Pieter.

Phillippa Plock, 2011

Physical description

Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)

612 x 725 - sight

Physical details

about 50mm has been cut off at the left hand side

Signature & date

not signed or dated

History

Provenance

Owned by Willem Lormier (b.1682, d.1758); sold Paris, 27 June 1748 for 150 fl. to René-Louis de Voyer de Paulmy, 2nd marquis d' Argenson (b.1694, d.1757); acquired by Jan Gildemeester Jansz. (b.1744, d.1799) before 1799; bought by Jan Yver (b.1747, d.1814) for Pieter van Winter (b.1745, d.1807) at the Jan Gildemeester Jansz. sale, Amsterdam, 11 ff. June 1800, lot no. 267, for 2175 florins; acquired by Sir Simon Clarke & George Hibbert before 1802; bought by Michael Bryan (b.1757, d.1821) from the Sir Simon Clarke and Geoge Hibbert sale, London, Christie's, 14-15 May 1802, 15 May, lot no. 68, for 340 guineas; acquired by Lady Jane Mildmay (b.Circa 1765, d.1857) before 1829, probably inherited from her husband Sir Henry Paulet St. John Mildmay, 3rd Baronet (b.1764, d.1808); by descent to Henry St. John Mildmay, 5th Baronet (b.1810, d.1902) before 1883; sold by Henry St. John Mildmay, 5th Baronet in or after 1883 to Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (b.1839, d.1898); inherited by his sister Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1957.

Exhibition history

London, British Institution, 1866, no. 15
London, Royal Academy, 1883, no. 253, lent by Sir Henry St. John Mildmay, 5th Baronet

Collection

Waddesdon (National Trust)
Bequest of James de Rothschild, 1957

Bibliography

Jean-Baptiste Descamps; La Vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois; Paris; [n. pub.]; 1753-1763; vol. 2, p. 292; as in marquis de Voyer's collection.
John Smith; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters; 9 vols; London; Smith and Son; 1829-1842; vol. 1, p. 214, no. 38; Describes painting in reverse, gives size as 24 inches x 31 inches (610 x 787 mm).
Cornelis Hofstede de Groot; A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Vols 1-4 [1907-1927]; Bishops Stortford; Chadwick Healey; 1976; vol. 2, no. 62.
Ellis Waterhouse, Anthony Blunt; Paintings: The James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor; Fribourg; Office du Livre, The National Trust; 1967; pp. 180-181, cat. no. 77.
Christopher Wright; Dutch Painting in the Seventeenth Century: Images of a Golden Age in British Collections; Birmingham City Museum and Art Gallery, October 1989 - January 1990; London; Lund Humphries Publishers (London); 1989; p. 269.
♦; Everhard Korthals Altes, The Eighteenth-Century Gentleman Dealer Willem Lormier and the International Dispersal of Seventeenth-Century Dutch Paintings, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, 28, 2000-2001, 251-311; p. 275, fig. 26, p. 300, cat. no. 14.
♦; Ruud Priem, The "Most Excellent Collection" of Lucretia Johanna van Winter: The Years 1809-22, with a Catalogue of the Works Purchased, Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, 25, 1997, 103-196; p. 118; as bought by Pieter van Winter in 1800, and gives provenance as Edmond de Rothschild.
Birgit Schumacher; Philips Wouwerman: The Horse Painter of the Golden Age; Doornspijk; Davaco Publishers; 2006; p. 170, cat. no. A4, pl. 4; dated 1665-1668.
Everhard Korthals Altes; De verovering van de internationale kunstmarkt door de zeventiende-eeuwse schilderkunst: enkele studies over de verspreiding van Hollandse schilderijen in de eerste helft van de achttiende eeuw; Leiden; Primavera Press; 2003; pp. 91-93, fig. 38.

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