Philips Wouwerman

François Nieuwenhuys (d. 1880), Paris;

His estate sale, Paris, Hôtel Drouot, 28 April 1881, lot 29;

Where acquired by Martin Rikoff, Paris for 4,750 francs;

By whom sold, Paris, Georges Petit, 4 December 1907, lot 26;

With Steinmeyer, Cologne, 1912;

With Reinhardt Galleries, New York, 1914;

John N. Willys (1873-1935), New York, by 1925;

Thence by inheritance to his wife, Isabel Van Wie Willys (1877-1945), New York;

By whose estate sold, New York, Parke-Bernet, 25 October 1945, lot 21;

Where acquired by Mr. and Mrs. J. Theodor Cremer, New York;

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 December 1987, lot 87;

With Robert Noortman Gallery, London;

With Bob Haboldt, Ltd., New York, 1989;

From whom aquired by the present collectors, June 1989.

P. Eudel, L'Hôtel Drouot en 1881, Paris 1882, p. 127;

C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the seventeenth century..., vol. II, London 1909, p. 473, cat. no. 697aa;

R. Flint, "John N. Willys Collection," in International Studio 80 (February 1925), p. 370;

B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619 - 1668): The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, Doornspijk 2006, vol. I, pp. 248-249, cat. no. A197; vol. II, reproduced pls. 24, 186 (as indistinctly signed).

Wouwermans favored scenes from hunting excursions as they allowed him to display his talent as an equestrian painter as well as a landscapist. His success in his lifetime with these scenes was paralleled only by his posthumous popularity among wealthy collectors.