Philips Wouwerman

Anonymous sale, Paris, A. Paillet, 15 December 1777, lot 66 (for frs. 2,000, erroneously as 'on panel', and said to be measuring 32.4 by 37.8 cm., "12 by 14 pouces");
Anonymous sale, Paris, Lebrun, May 1803 (dates unknown), lot 22 (listed by the Getty Provenance Index Databases);
Probably Jules-Paul-Benjamin Delessert (1773-1847), Paris;
Thence by inheritance to his brother François-Marie Delessert (1780-1868);
Baron François-Benjamin-Marie Delessert (1780-1868) Paris, by 1842 (upon his death held in trust by the estate);
Estate of Baron François-Benjamin-Marie Delessert, sale, Paris, Pillet/Petit (Hotel Delessert), 15-18 March 1869, lot 109 (for frs. 7,500);
Sale, Paris, Georges Petit, 29 May 1913, lot 58 (possibly from the collection of J. Beer);
Private collection, Massachusetts;
By whom sold, New York, Sotheby's, 11 April 1991, lot 128 (as Pieter Wouwermans [sic.]);
David Koetser, 1991.

Zurich, David Koetser, Fine Old Master Paintings: the Dutch, Flemish and Italian Schools, November 1991;
Birmingham 1995, no. 26;
New Orleans 1997, no. 62;
Baltimore 1999, no. 62.

Notice sur la collection de tableaux de MM. Delessert, Paris 1844, pp. 67-68, cat. no. 166;
Catalogue des Tableaux de M. François Delessert, Paris 1844, p. 89, cat. no. 233;
Notice sur la collection de tableaux de MM. Delessert, Paris 1846, p. 58, cat. no. 152 (as with B.D. sic.);
J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné... vol. 1, London 1829, p. 241, cat. no. 138, and Supplement, London 1842, pp. 185-186, cat. no. 133 (as "a good production");
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné...  vol. II, London 1908, p. 289, no. 109 (all the above erroneously as 'on panel');
H. Mireur, Dictionnaire des ventes d'art, vol. 7, 1912, p. 554;
New Orleans, 1997, pp. 158-160, cat. no. 62, reproduced;
Baltimore 1999, pp. 145-147, cat. no. 62, reproduced;
B. Schumacher, Philip Wouwerman (1619-1668): the horse painter of the Golden Age, Doornspijk 2006, vol. 1, p. 191, cat. no. A55, vol. 2, reproduced plate 55 (erroneously mentioning the date of the 1991 sale as 4 November).    

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This work on canvas has not been recently lined, but the lining remains successful. The paint layer is clean. There are a few tiny dots of retouching in the blue in the sky and in a couple of spots above the horse on the left. In the foreground, the bank of the river to the right of the dog has received some retouches, but the remainder of the figures and the landscape seems to be very well preserved. The varnish could be freshened, but the work can otherwise be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Set in a river landscape illuminated by a warm low late afternoon light coming in from the left, with dramatic cloud formations, a young groom is leading a restive piebald horse towards the river. On the right a youth with a hat seen from behind sits on the bank, another is undressing to bathe and two boys are in the water already. Wooded hills can be seen on the opposite bank in the distance, suffused in a warm hazy afternoon sunlight, with some light clouds in a sky otherwise brilliant blue. The mast of a sailing vessel with a crew member can just be spotted on the left.

In this painting we encounter the most accomplished and successful Dutch painter of horses of his time: Philips Wouwerman. This radiant composition brilliantly reflects the artist's mature style, with its superb naturalistic rendering of the animals, its saturated bright palette with a silvery tonality and the radiance of warm sunlight highlighting the landscape, figures and horses. Wouwerman showcases his skill by including two horses, both seen from different angles, of which one, the piebald, almost seems to perform a levade, a movement from horse dressage in which the horse sits on his hind hooves while keeping its forelegs raised and drawn in. Another detail showing Wouwerman’s inventiveness is the face of the boyish horseman guiding down the bank, which receives subtle highlighting as it is turned towards the warm setting sun on the left of the picture. A comparable handsome young groom can be seen in an earlier painting by the artist, also showing A Horse Pond with Bathers, which was sold in these Rooms, 26 January 2006, lot 18. 

Wouwerman’s oeuvre is notoriously difficult to date, with only circa twenty-five of his works dated; both Duparc and Schumacher have proposed chronologies on the basis of the securely dated pictures in combination with stylistic criteria.¹  According to Schumacher this picture can be dated to after 1655; this is also confirmed by both Frits Duparc and Quentin Buvelot, to whom we are grateful, who both independently date the Weldon Wouwerman to after 1655, with Buvelot more inclined to a slightly later dating, more towards 1660. The second half of the 1650s is regarded as the time of the artist’s highest degree of artistic maturity. This period is characterized by a brighter palette and a strong sense of elegance, both in the refinement of his figures and horses, and in the high level of finish in the paint surface.

Schumacher lists a copy, of smaller size (27 by 34 cm.), which was recorded in two 18th-century Antwerp sales. 

A note on the provenance
Auction catalogues reveal that Wouwerman's paintings already achieved substantial prices during his lifetime. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Wouwerman's work was perhaps most popular in France, and particularly his late works, such as the present, were in great demand.²  One indication of this popularity was the enormously successful publication of a series of prints after Wouwerman in 1733-1737 by the French engraver Moyreau (1690-1762). Certainly by the 1760s Paris had become the key center for Dutch and Flemish art. The earliest provenance of the Weldon Wouwerman can be traced back to an auction in Paris in 1777  where it was described as "Un Tableau précieux & fin de ce Maître...Ce morceau est intéressant & agréable pour la composition, la touche & la couleur... [a precious and fine painting of this Master... this piece is interesting and attractive for its composition, painter's touch and palette]." It subsequently entered the collection of the Delessert family who amassed an impressive collection of Old Master Paintings in the first half of the 19th century. The Delesserts were a well-known Parisian Protestant family who made valuable contributions to the silk trade and banking; they also set up the first French cotton mill and founded the Caisse d’Epargne.

1.  See Duparc, F.J., ‘Philips Wouwerman, 1619-1668’, in: Oud Holland, vol. 107, 1993, pp. 257-268; Schumacher under Literature, pp. 55ff.
2.  Schumacher 2006, op. cit., pp. 134-143; Duparc, F.J., Buvelot, Q., Philips Wouwerman 1619-1668, exhibition catalogue The Hague, Mauritshuis 2009-2010, pp. 7 and 55.