A man on a white horse conversing with a woman and children on a track, a house beyond

Details

Philips Wouwerman (Haarlem 1619-1668)
A man on a white horse conversing with a woman and children on a track, a house beyond
indistinctly signed 'Pw...' (lower right)
oil on panel
32.9 x 25.4 cm.
with a handwritten label by C. Hofstede de Groot stating the picture to be by Philips Wouwerman (31 July 1903) and with three red wax seals (all on reverse)

Provenance

Graf Schönborn-Pommersfelden; his sale, Pillet, Paris, 17 May 1867, lot 137 (7500 FF).
Etienne Le Roy; his sale, Brussels, 27 April 1903, lot 106.
with Frederick Muller and Co., Amsterdam, 1903.
Anonymous sale; Sedelmeyer, Paris, 25 May 1907, lot 27.
Henry Blank, Newark, New Jersey, 1926.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 21 January 1981, lot 145.

Literature

C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis, etc., Esslingen, Stuttgart and Paris, 1908, II, p. 341, no. 313.

Exhibited

Detroit, Institute of Arts, Loan Exhibition of Dutch Art, 1929, no. 80.

Special notice

Christie's charge a premium to the buyer on the final bid price of each lot sold at the following rates: 23.8% of the final bid price of each lot sold up to and including €150,000 and 14.28% of any amount in excess of €150,000. Buyers' premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

Sale room notice

Please note the additional provenance:
Lothar Franz Elector of Schönborn, Pommersfelden, 1719, and by descent to Graf Schönborn-Pommersfelden.

Please note additional literature:
R. Bys, Fürtrefflicher Gemähld. und Bilder-Schatz...des Khurfürstl. Pommersfeldlichen...Privat-Schloss, Bamberg, 1719, no. 57.
K. Bott, Die Gemäldesammlung des Lothar Franz von Schönborn in Pommersfelden, Weimar, 1997, p. 106, no. 360.

Lot Essay

Philips Wouwerman was born in Haarlem where he studied with Frans Hals. More important for his later development was his presumed contact with Pieter van Laer who had settled in Haarlem after he left Rome at the end of the 1630s. Houbraken relates in his Groote Schouburg that when Van Laer died, Wouwerman came into possession of a trunk containing a cache of his sketches. Many works of Wouwerman, including the present lot, reveal indeed the strong influence of the Bamboccesque art of Van Laer, with his typical Italianate landscapes with travellers, beggers and peasants.

We are grateful to Dr. Birgit Schumacher for confirming the attribution after inspection of the original (verbal communication, 2 February 2006).

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