Peter Wtewael

Private collection, Europe;
Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Christie's, 13 November 1995, lot 163;
Private collection, New York;
With Bob P. Haboldt, Paris/New York, by 1996.

J. Spicer and L.F. Orr (ed.) in the exhibition catalogue, Masters of Light. Dutch Painters in Utrecht During the Golden Age, Baltimore, The Walters Art Gallery; San Francisco, The Fine Arts Museums; and London, The National Gallery, 1996/97, pp. 322-3, reproduced p. 322, fig. 2;
A. W. Lowenthal, 'Joachim/Peter Wtewael, Father/Son, Master/Pupil', in A. Golahny et al., In His Milieu. Essays on Netherlandish Art in Memory of John Michael Montias, Amsterdam 2006, pp. 280, 285, reproduced p. 280, fig. 2.

The actual painting is softer in tone and less red than the catalogue illustration suggests. The panel consists of two planks joined horizontally, and is enlarged with a thin strip off wood to all sides. The join is slightly visible to the front. The panel is sound. No damages are apparent. The paint surface is secure if a little abraded in the darker areas, and is under a clear layer of varnish. A few scattered retouchings can be observed in the figure's face and along the join. Inspection under UV light reveals more extensive retouchings throughout, e.g. in the figure's right hand, in his face, in his sleeve and in his hat. Offered in a black wood frame with a gilt fillet in good condition.
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The present playful figure of a shepherd represents the Arcadian fantasies which were in vogue in Utrecht in the 1620s. In pastoral literature, the roguish shepherd sings bawdy songs, but his pictorial counterpart is usually more decorous, although the flute played by our shepherd is certainly meant to convey erotic overtones.

Pictures by Peter Wtewael are very rare. He was the eldest son of the painter Joachim Wtewael (1566-1638), who was probably his only teacher. Peter seems to have only painted in the 1620s. Joachim von Sandrart visited Wtewael's studio in the 1620s and probably again on a short visit in 1637, and thought that the artist was wasting his talent when he gave up painting to concentrate on the family flax business. Wtewael also had political ambitions and became a member of the Utrecht city council after his father had left that post vacant. In September Peter joined the Reformed Church, a prerequisite for membership of the council. A long political career followed. After his father's death in 1638 Peter did not continue to subscribe as a master painter in the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke. Peter's brother Johan, however, did continue the family studio.