Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668)

Travellers at a blacksmith's on a mountain pass

細節
Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668)
Travellers at a blacksmith's on a mountain pass
indistinctly signed lower left PH (linked)
oil on panel
39.8 x 31.9 cm, including two strips of 0.7 cm on both sides
來源
Count Brühl, Dresden
The Hermitage, St. Petersburg, inv. no. 1012
with K.J. Müllenmeister, Solingen, from whom bought by the present owner
出版
A. Somof, Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux, Ermitage, II, 1895, p. 426, no. 1012
A. Somof, Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux, Ermitage, II, 1901, p. 477, no. 1012
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné, etc., II, 1908, p. 296, no. 141

拍品專文

The foremost painter of horses in the Dutch 17th century, Philips Wouwerman was born in Haarlem where he studied with Frans Hals. More important is his presumed contact with Pieter van Laer who had settled in Haarlem after he left Rome at the end of the 1630's. Houbraken relates in his Groote Schouburg that when Van Laer died Wouwerman got his hands on a trunk containing a cache of sketches by Van Laer. The early works of Wouwerman indeed reveal strong influence of the Bambocciesque art of Van Laer: dynamic compositions with low viewpoints populated with bandits, beggars and workmen, usually depicted in caricature with rumpled hats.
The present lot is to be dated circa 1643 when Van Laer's influence is combined with Wouwerman's own developing pictoral personality displayed in strong light and dark contrasts and dramatic sense of depth.
The monogram also points to a date around 1643. See F. Duparc, Oud Holland, CVII, 1993, pp. 257-287.

Sold with a certificate by Dr. Walther Bernt, dated 7 November 1973.

See colour illustration