Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 58.7 cm × width 77.7 cm
outer size: depth 8.2 cm (support incl. frame)
Philips Wouwerman
The Victory of the Peasants
c. 1665
Inscriptions
- signature, with monogram, bottom left (letters of first name ligated): PHils . W
Technical notes
Support The plain-weave canvas has been wax-resin lined. The tacking edges have been preserved at the bottom and on the left and right, though slightly trimmed. The one at the top has been removed, together with a narrow strip of the picture plane, as it extends over the current top tacking edge and ends abruptly there. Cusping is visible at the bottom and on the left and right.
Preparatory layers The double ground extends over the tacking edges at the bottom and on the left and right, and up to the current top edge of the support. The first, yellowish layer consists of chalk with a small addition of minute red and black, and some larger white pigment particles. The second, grey ground contains white and minute black pigment particles with a small addition of yellow pigment particles.
Underdrawing No underdrawing could be detected with the naked eye or infrared photography.
Paint layers The paint extends up to the tacking edges at the bottom and on the left and right, and up to the current top edge of the support. The central figures in the foreground were left in reserve. A cross-section shows that the blue sky was applied in two layers: the first being a thicker greyish blue consisting of white pigment particles and coarsely ground glassy particles, followed by a blue layer containing white and small deep blue pigment particles. The darker areas of the foreground, allowing the ground to show through, were executed in a thin, semi-transparent brown paint composed of yellow and small black and orange pigment particles; a more opaque yellowish brown was used for the lighter areas. The paint layer is smooth, with some slight impasto in highlighted areas.
Ige Verslype, 2022
Scientific examination and reports
- paint samples: I. Verslype, RMA, nos. SK-A-482/1-2, 19 October 2007
- technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 19 October 2007
- infrared photography: I. Verslype, RMA, 2 November 2007
Condition
Fair. The blue saddle of the white horse has a greyish haze, as do some of the blue-brownish shaded areas at lower right. Discoloured retouching is visible in the sky. The varnish is discoloured.
Conservation
- P. J. Thijs, 1796: cleaned
- conservator unknown, 1874: varnish regenerated
- W.A. Hopman, 1880: varnish regenerated
- H. Heijdenrijk, 1906: canvas lined
Provenance
...; ? sale, Isaak van den Blooken (1653-1706, Amsterdam), Amsterdam (auction house not known), 11 May 1707, no. 7 (‘Daer de Boeren Meester zyn over de Soldaeten’), fl. 410;1...; sale, Ewout van Dishoek, Lord of Domburgh, The Hague (auction house not known), 9 June 1745, no. 15 (‘[...] ou les Païsans pillent les Cavaliers [...] haut un pied onse pouces, large de deux pieds & demi pouce [62.3 x 66.3 cm]’), with pendant, no. 14, Ou les Cavaliers pillent les Païsans, fl. 1,400, to the dealer Willem Lormier;2 collection Willem Lormier (1682-1758), The Hague (‘Een Landschap met veel Paarden en Beelde, zynde de Boeren meester van de Militie. br. 2 v. 5 d., h. 2 v. 4 d. [73.2 x 75.9 cm] D.’);3 from whom, fl. 2,362.10, with pendant, De militie meester van de Boeren, to the dealer Gerard Hoet, for Johannes Lubbeling, 26 February 1754;4 from whom, fl. 2,500, to Jan de Neufville (1729-1796), Amsterdam;5 from whom, fl. 2,100, to Gerrit van der Pot (1732-1807), Lord of Groeneveld, Rotterdam, September 1782;6 his sale, Rotterdam (Gebr. Van Ryp), 6 June 1808 sqq., no. 142 (‘Hoog 22⅜, en breed 29⅜ duim [58.4 x 76.7 cm]. Dk. Dit is een der twee bekende en beroemde stukken van dezen grooten Meester. Het stelt voor de Overrompeling en Plundering van een Dorp, doch in ’t welke de Boeren meester zijn en zegepralen over de Militairen. Ingevolge hiervan vertoont zich op den voorgrond een Officier halverlijf geheel uitgekleed, en de handen op den rug gebonden, terwijl een Boer in eene bespottende houding des Officiers Montering aan heeft; benevens hem nog twee snaaksche Boeren. Eenen dood liggenden Officier worden de kleederen uitgetrokken. Hierbij staat een gezadeld wit Paard, en eenige vale en bruine Paarden, van welke laatste kleur er een dood op den grond ligt. Ter zijde van dit alles wordt een Militair, door eenige Boeren, met geweld weggevoerd, en een tweede nog te Paard zittende overmeesterd, enz. Op den tweeden grond, in ’t verschiet ziet men vechtende partijen, en veel bijwerk [...]. De wedergade van dit tafereel, waarin de Militairen meester zijn, is, zoo wij ons wel herinneren, in ’t Kabinet van den Heere van Lankeren te Antwerpen.’), fl. 3,625, to J.M. Jorissen, for the museum;7 on loan to Beeckesteijn Estate, Velsen, 1969-82
Object number: SK-A-482
Copyright: Public domain
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 1639.8 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,9 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
Several of Philips Wouwerman’s paintings from the 1650s and ’60s show pillaging and murderous soldiers oppressing the civil population. It was a genre that was brought to fruition in the Dutch Republic by artists like Esaias van de Velde.10 In the present picture, though, the roles have been reversed and it is the peasants who have triumphed. Standing in the left of centre in the foreground is a soldier who has been half-stripped and is glaring at his captors, one of whom is pulling faces as he parades in the victim’s uniform, to the delight of his companions. To the right of them another peasant is tearing off the clothes of a dead soldier lying on the ground. Fighting is going on at several places in the background, and to the right of centre a man is being hanged from a tree. In no other known painting by Wouwerman the civilians have the upper hand as decisively as they do here.11
In the eighteenth century this canvas had a companion piece showing soldiers dragging off villagers against the backdrop of a burning town as women beg for mercy (fig. a).12 This places the two paintings in the tradition of ‘peasant joys and peasant sorrows’.13 The pendant is also horizontal and is almost the same size. However, the dimensions given in old sources suggest that both works were originally almost square.14 Technical examination has revealed that the one in the Rijksmuseum has indeed been cut down at the top.15 The trimming was probably done in the second half of the eighteenth century.16
The composition, with the figures arranged along the bottom edge of the picture and without any convincing connection with what is going on in the middle ground and background, is typical of Wouwerman’s late work.17 A date around the mid-1660s as proposed by Schumacher is likely. There are insufficient grounds, though, to support the assumption that the sketchy and rather monochrome figures in the background, as well as the landscape, were painted by assistants in Wouwerman’s studio.18
Gerdien Wuestman, 2022
See Key to abbreviations, Rijksmuseum painting catalogues and Acknowledgements
Literature
J.B. Descamps, La vie des peintres flamands, allemands et hollandois: Avec des portraits gravés en taille-douce, une indication de leurs principaux ouvrages, & des réflexions sur leurs différentes manières, II, Paris 1754, p. 294; J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, I, London 1829, p. 269, no. 246; C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, p. 505, no. 794; B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668): The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, I, Doornspijk 2006, p. 278, no. A269
Collection catalogues
1809, pp. 85-86, no. 361; 1843, p. 70, no. A 358 (‘the sky and the background partly overpainted’); 1853, p. 31, no. 330 (fl. 20,000); 1858, p. 167, no. 370; 1880, pp. 348-49, no. 407; 1887, p. 193, no. 1646; 1903, p. 303, no. 2708; 1976, p. 614, no. A 482; 1992, p. 94, no. A 482
Citation
Gerdien Wuestman, 2022, 'Philips Wouwerman, The Victory of the Peasants, c. 1665', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6600
(accessed 28 December 2024 06:22:25).