Blacksmith Shoeing a Horse

c. 1652 - c. 1655

Object data

oil on canvas

support: height 61.5 cm × width 54.5 cm
outer size: depth 4.5 cm (support incl. frame)

Inscriptions

signature, with monogram, bottom right (letters of first name ligated): PHiLs W

Technical notes

Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. All tacking edges have been removed. Cusping is visible on all sides.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends up to the current edges of the support. The first, red-brown layer consists of orange, small black and red, and a few white pigment particles. The second, grey layer contains white, fine black and a few yellowish pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the current edges of the support, except for the right edge and part of the bottom edge where a thin strip of ground is apparent; this suggests that the paint did not originally extend over the tacking edges. The composition seems to have been efficiently built up in only one or two layers. For the foreground a thin, semi-transparent brown paint was used, allowing the ground to show through; the lighter areas were executed more opaquely. Cross-sections show that the stable was applied in a single thin layer containing transparent brown and small black pigment particles, and that the blue parts of the sky consist of one layer of opaque paint composed of white and finely ground blue pigment particles. The paint surface is smooth, with some impasto applied with small, loose brushstrokes in the highlights of the clothing and faces.
Ige Verslype, 2022

Scientific examination and reports

paint samples: I. Verslype, RMA, nos. SK-A-478/1-2, 19 October 2007
technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 19 October 2007
infrared photography: I. Verslype, RMA, 2 November 2007

Condition

Fair. The highest parts of the paint of the blue shirt of the man on the right and some of the brownish shaded areas in the foreground have a greyish haze. The varnish has yellowed and is cracked.

Conservation

P. J. Thijs, 1796: revarnished
conservator unknown, 1902: repaired
H.H. Mertens, 1964: cleaned, retouched and revarnished

Provenance

...; from the dealer Zeeger Haasebroek, Leiden, fl. 525, to Allard de la Court (1688-1755), Leiden, 1750;¹ his wife, Catharina Backer (1689-1766), Leiden; her sale, Leiden, sold on the premises, 8 September 1766 sqq., no. 62 (‘Een Landschap; waar in een Smitswinkel, voor dewelke een gelaade waagen staat waar van de paarden zyn uitgespannen, zynde de Smit bezig een derzelve te beslaan; verders een Man te paart en verscheiden beelden en bywerk [...], op doek. 1 voet 11½ duim hoog, 1 voet 8¾ duim breet. [61.4 x 54.2 cm]’), fl. 450, to D.H. Teodatie;² from the dealer Pierre Fouquet Jr, Amsterdam, fl. 1,200, to Gerrit van der Pot (1732-1807), Lord of Groeneveld, Rotterdam, 4 December 1781;³ his sale, Rotterdam (Gebr. Van Ryp), 6 June 1808 sqq., no. 144 (‘Hoog 23, en breed 20½ duim [60 x 53.5 cm]. Dk. In een bergachtig Landschap ziet men op den tweeden grond eene beladen Kar met eene figuur. Voor de Kar een wit ontspannen Paard; daarnevens een bruin Paard, aan den kop vastgehouden wordende door een Smids-Jongen, terwijl een ander een achterbeen bij den schoen opligt, om hetzelve te beslaan. Wat verder ziet men den Smid bezig het hoefijzer te warmen; eene zittende Vrouw daarneven en verder veel bijwerk. Op den rijk versierden voorgrond ligt een rustende Hond. Ter regterzijde op den tweeden grond ziet men eenen Man gezeten op een beladen Paard, vergezeld van twee figuren en een hond. Een rond Gebouw, eene kloeke Rots, eene Brug en Boomen, doen zig liefelijk op, tegen eene meesterlijke lucht [...].’), fl. 1,055, to Johannes Eck & Zoon, for the museum⁴

Object number: SK-A-478

The artist

Philips Wouwerman (Haarlem 1619 - Haarlem 1668)

Philips Wouwerman was baptized in Haarlem on 24 May 1619 as a son of the history painter Pouwels Joostensz, who was probably his teacher. De Bie says that he was a pupil of Frans Hals, although their work has nothing in common. An apprenticeship with Pieter Cornelisz Verbeeck is suspected on stylistic grounds. Another important influence was Pieter van Laer, who was also Haarlem-born and bred. It is known from notes made by the artist Matthias Scheits that Wouwerman, who came from a Reformed family, fled to Hamburg in 1638 in order to marry the Catholic Anna Pietersdr van Broeckhoff. He stayed there for a while, working in the studio of the history painter Evert Decker, but two years later he is again documented in his native Haarlem, where he remained for the rest of his life.

Wouwerman’s earliest dated painting is Military Encampment with Soldiers Gambling of 1639.⁵ He joined the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1640, being elected to the office of warden in 1646, and from 1642 and 1651 he served in the St George Civic Guard. Wouwerman made several history pieces with religious subjects for Catholic patrons. It is clear from various sources that he was a prosperous man. Houbraken mentions that he had important patrons from the very beginning of his career, and was able to give his daughter a dowry of 20,000 guilders. He supplemented his income by speculating on the property market and dealing in art. However, there are also indications that he suffered periods of poverty. For example, he is said to have painted his Miracle of St Hubert in 1660 for the clandestine Sint-Bernarduskerk in Haarlem in thanks for the financial support he had received from the parish priest. He remained productive to the end of his life, with his last dated picture, Grey Standing in a Stable,⁶ being executed in the year of his death. He died on 19 May 1668 and was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk in Haarlem four days later. Paintings by or belonging to him were sold at auction on 7 May 1670, a few months after the decease of his wife.

Wouwerman gained fame as a painter of horses, and specialized in landscapes with riders, ranging from battle scenes and army camps to hunting parties, horse fairs and stables. He also supplied the figures in landscapes by other Haarlem artists like Jacob van Ruisdael, Jan Wijnants and Cornelis Decker. His many pupils included Nicolaes Ficke (c. 1620/23-before 1702), Emanuel Murant (1622-c. 1700), Simon Dubois (1632-1708) and Anthonie de Haen (1640/41-in or before 1675). He may also have taught his younger brothers Pieter (1623-1682) and Jan (1629-1666). Wouwerman’s work, which in the eighteenth century fetched some of the highest prices for paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, was imitated by countless others.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2022

References
T. Schrevelius, Harlemias, Haarlem 1648, p. 384; C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermarste schilders, architecte, beldthowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuw, Antwerp 1662, pp. 281-82; A. Houbraken, De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche konstschilders en schilderessen, II, Amsterdam 1719, pp. 70-75, 102; R. van Eynden and A. van der Willigen, Geschiedenis der vaderlandsche schilderkunst, sedert de helft der XVIII eeuw, I, Haarlem 1816, pp. 404-06; A. van der Willigen, Geschiedkundige aanteekeningen over Haarlemsche schilders en andere beoefenaren van de beeldende kunsten, voorafgegaan door eene korte geschiedenis van het schilders- of St. Lucas Gild aldaar, Haarlem 1866, pp. 241-44; C.J. Gonnet, ‘De schilders Pouwels, Pieter en Steven Wouwerman’, in F.D.O. Obreen, Archief voor Nederlandsche kunstgeschiedenis: Verzameling van meerendeels onuitgegeven berichten en mededeelingen betreffende Nederlandsche schilders, plaatsnijders, beeldhouwers, bouwmeesters, juweliers, goud- en zilverdrijvers [enz.], VII, Rotterdam 1888-90, pp. 118-26; C. Hofstede de Groot, ‘Die Malerfamilie Wouwerman’, Kunstchronik, N.S. 2 (1890-91), cols. 1-5; A. Lichtwark, Matthias Scheits, als Schilderer des Hamburger Lebens, 1650-1700, Hamburg 1899, pp. 43-44; S. Kalff, ‘De gebroeders Wouwerman’, Elsevier’s Geïllustreerd Maandschrift 30 (1920), pp. 96-103; U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds.), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, XXXVI, Leipzig 1947, pp. 265-68; H. Miedema, De archiefbescheiden van het St. Lucasgilde te Haarlem, 1497-1798, II, Alphen aan den Rijn 1980, p. 1211; F.J. Duparc, ‘Philips Wouwerman, 1619-1668’, Oud Holland 107 (1993), pp. 257-86; B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668): The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, I, Doornspijk 2006, pp. 13-21, 25-38; I. van Thiel-Stroman, ‘Biographies 15th-17th Century’, in P. Biesboer et al., Painting in Haarlem 1500-1850: The Collection of the Frans Hals Museum, coll. cat. Haarlem 2006, pp. 99-363, esp. pp. 357-61

Entry

Blacksmiths form the centrepiece of many of Philips Wouwerman’s paintings, and as often is the case the inspiration probably came from Pieter van Laer, although the motif was employed by other Italianate artists as well.⁷ One of the best-known prototypes is Van Laer’s Blacksmith, which Wouwerman undoubtedly knew from a print by the Haarlem engraver Cornelis Visscher.⁸

The composition of the Rijksmuseum picture, with the steep hill leading up to a house on the right, is close to Wouwerman’s Shoeing a Horse in London, which also has a vertical format but is much smaller.⁹ It too has a group of figures to the right of the smith, including a seated mother with a child. The high, narrow bridge standing out against the sky in the Amsterdam version is a recurrent motif in the artist’s oeuvre.¹⁰ Schumacher, who has noted that it starts appearing more frequently around the mid-1650s,¹¹ placed the Rijksmuseum painting around 1655.¹² However, the palette, which does not yet have the brightness and refinement of Wouwerman’s work from the second half of the 1650s, does not rule out a slightly earlier date.

Gerdien Wuestman, 2022

See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements

Literature

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, I, London 1829, p. 333, no. 452; C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, p. 287, no. 116; B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668): The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, I, Doornspijk 2006, p. 178, no. A22

Collection catalogues

1809, p. 84, no. 358; 1843, p. 69, no. 356 (‘the canvas severely cracked’); 1853, p. 31, no. 328 (fl. 5,000); 1858, p. 165, no. 366; 1880, pp. 352-53, no. 414; 1887, p. 193, no. 1653; 1903, p. 304, no. 2715; 1934, p. 324, no. 2715; 1960, p. 347, no. 2715; 1976, p. 615, no. A 478

Citation

Gerdien Wuestman, 2022, 'Philips Wouwerman, Blacksmith Shoeing a Horse, c. 1652 - c. 1655', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6593

(accessed 26 November 2024 12:36:27).