- 18
Philips Wouwerman Haarlem 1619 - 1668
bidding is closed
Description
- Philips Wouwerman
- horsemen and other figures halted by on a riverbank next to ruins, bathers in the river
- signed in monogram lower right PHLs W
- oil on panel
Provenance
Baron Jean Gisbert Verstolk van Soelen, Minister of State, The Hague, until his death in 1846;
Bought with other pictures from his collection by Thomas Baring, M.P.;
By inheritance with his entire collection to his nephew, Thomas, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826-1904);
Given by him in 1881 in exchange for another picture to Baron Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918);
By inheritance to his nephew, Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942), Exbury, Hampshire;
His son, Edmund de Rothschild (b. 1916), Exbury, Hampshire;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 December 1992, lot 83;
Bought by the late owner in 1992.
Bought with other pictures from his collection by Thomas Baring, M.P.;
By inheritance with his entire collection to his nephew, Thomas, 1st Earl of Northbrook (1826-1904);
Given by him in 1881 in exchange for another picture to Baron Alfred de Rothschild (1842-1918);
By inheritance to his nephew, Lionel de Rothschild (1882-1942), Exbury, Hampshire;
His son, Edmund de Rothschild (b. 1916), Exbury, Hampshire;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 December 1992, lot 83;
Bought by the late owner in 1992.
Literature
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. IX (Supplement), London 1842, p. 212, no. 217 ("Painted in the latter time of the artist: clear and beautiful in tone");
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. II, London 1854, p. 86 ("This beautiful picture unites the power and depth of his first manner with the more delicate execution of his second");
C. Davis, A Description of the Works of Art forming the Collection of Alfred de Rothschild, London 1884, vol. I, no. 40, reproduced;
W.H.J. Wheale & J.P. Richter, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, London & Sydney 1889, pp. 208-9, no. 90;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol II, London 1909, p. 391, no. 467.
G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, vol. II, London 1854, p. 86 ("This beautiful picture unites the power and depth of his first manner with the more delicate execution of his second");
C. Davis, A Description of the Works of Art forming the Collection of Alfred de Rothschild, London 1884, vol. I, no. 40, reproduced;
W.H.J. Wheale & J.P. Richter, A Descriptive Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures belonging to the Earl of Northbrook, London & Sydney 1889, pp. 208-9, no. 90;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol II, London 1909, p. 391, no. 467.
Catalogue Note
We are grateful to Dr. Birgit Schumacher for confirming that this is a mature work which she dates to the first half of the 1650s; she endorses Gustav Waagen's comments on it (see Literature below). Dr. Schumacher will include it in her forthcoming catalogue raisonné of Wouwerman's paintings, to be published in March 2006, as no. A67.
The sale of the celebrated cabinet of pictures belonging to Baron Verstolk after his death in 1846 was, as Francis Haskell pointed out, one of the last instances of the purchase of a European collection en bloc by an English consortium (for further discussion see F. Haskell, Patrons and Patronage). Two paintings were kept by his family and one was sold to the King of Holland, but the remaining ninety-nine were sold through the dealer Chaplin to a consortium consisting of Thomas Baring, Lewis Jones Loyd (later Lord Overstone) and Humphrey Bingham Mildmay. Chaplin kept twenty-six minor works, for which he paid £1,100, Jones Loyd bought ten pictures for £8,116, and Mildmay twenty for £4,543. The lion's share went to Baring, who paid £12,472 for forty-three pictures, including the present picture, and other masterpieces, such as Ferdinand Bol's The String of Pearls, Cuyp's Landing Party, also subsequently to become a Rothschild picture and now at Waddesdon, and Jan Steen's Self-Portrait with a Lute now in the Thyssen collection in Madrid.
The sale of the celebrated cabinet of pictures belonging to Baron Verstolk after his death in 1846 was, as Francis Haskell pointed out, one of the last instances of the purchase of a European collection en bloc by an English consortium (for further discussion see F. Haskell, Patrons and Patronage). Two paintings were kept by his family and one was sold to the King of Holland, but the remaining ninety-nine were sold through the dealer Chaplin to a consortium consisting of Thomas Baring, Lewis Jones Loyd (later Lord Overstone) and Humphrey Bingham Mildmay. Chaplin kept twenty-six minor works, for which he paid £1,100, Jones Loyd bought ten pictures for £8,116, and Mildmay twenty for £4,543. The lion's share went to Baring, who paid £12,472 for forty-three pictures, including the present picture, and other masterpieces, such as Ferdinand Bol's The String of Pearls, Cuyp's Landing Party, also subsequently to become a Rothschild picture and now at Waddesdon, and Jan Steen's Self-Portrait with a Lute now in the Thyssen collection in Madrid.