Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 60.4 cm × width 79.1 cm × thickness 3.9 cm
outer size: depth 10.2 cm (support incl. frame)
Philips Wouwerman
Landscape with Sandy Path beside a River
c. 1655
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. All tacking edges have been removed. Cusping is clearly visible on the left and right, and less so at the bottom.
Preparatory layers The thin double ground extends up to the current edges of the support. The first, grey layer consists of white pigment with a minute addition of small ochre-coloured and black pigment particles. The second, slightly lighter grey ground has the same composition, but is more finely ground.
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. The composition was built up from dark to light. For the dark areas rather transparent paints were used, while the lighter ones are more opaque. A cross-section shows that the light blue sky was applied directly on top of the ground in one layer containing finely ground white pigment with a small addition of fine black and blue pigment particles. The shaded area in the water consists of a fine, brown layer composed of predominately black pigment with some blue, red and a few white pigment particles. The paint layers were thinly applied with dabbed brushstrokes.
Anna Krekeler, 2022
Scientific examination and reports
- paint samples: I. Verslype, RMA, nos. SK-C-273/1-2, 13 March 2008
- infrared photography: A. Krekeler, RMA, 13 March 2008
- technical report: A. Krekeler, RMA, 13 March 2008
Condition
Good. There are several somewhat discoloured retouchings along the edges and small, slightly matte retouchings throughout.
Conservation
- conservator unknown, 1965: complete restoration; old glue-paste lining removed; canvas relined and attached to a new stretcher
Provenance
...; collection Charles Ferdinand (1778-1820), Duc de Berry, Paris;1 his wife, Maria-Carolina de Bourbon (1798-1870), Duchesse de Berry, Paris; purchased for £560 (fl. 6,804) at an exhibition of the paintings in the De Berry collection, London, by Adriaan van der Hoop (1778-1854), Amsterdam, April 1834;2 by whom bequeathed to the City of Amsterdam, with 223 other paintings, 1854;3 on loan from the City of Amsterdam to the museum since 30 June 18854
Object number: SK-C-273
Credit line: On loan from the City of Amsterdam (A. van der Hoop Bequest)
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 1639.5 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
It was above all in the first half of the 1650s that landscape began playing an important part in Philips Wouwerman’s oeuvre.7 Like many of his generation he favoured panoramas with a southern European look, and since he never went to Italy himself he must have drawn his inspiration from other artists like Jan Both and Jan Asselijn.8 This scene was clearly composed in the studio. It can be divided into two halves, with a dune area and a sandy path on the left and a watery zone with rocks on the right, with hills in the distance. The combination looks a little unrealistic, an effect which is heightened by the almost fairytale use of colour.
The monogram is less assured than usual, but there are no indications that it is a later addition, nor is there any reason to doubt the authenticity of the work, for the way in which the setting and figures are rendered is completely in accord with Wouwerman’s manner. The landscape is loosely related to a river scene of 1652.9 The present painting has to be dated a little later because of the cool palette with predominantly grey and blue tints. The many figures scattered seemingly at random across the picture surface also argue against an early year of execution. Schumacher’s suggestion of the mid-1650s is plausible.10 A river view in London has a comparable use of colour.11 There is a documented copy of this Landscape with Sandy Path beside a River that supposedly bore the monogram of Wouwerman’s younger brother Jan.12
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, IX, London 1842, pp. 153-54, no. 45; C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, II, Esslingen/Paris 1908, p. 596, no. 1045; B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668): The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, I, Doornspijk 2006, pp. 358-59, no. A476
Collection catalogues
1887, p. 191, no. 1657; 1903, p. 304, no. 2719; 1934, p. 325, no. 2719; 1960, p. 348, no. 2719; 1976, p. 615, no. C 273
Citation
Gerdien Wuestman, 2022, 'Philips Wouwerman, Landscape with Sandy Path beside a River, 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.6596
(accessed 28 December 2024 02:27:28).