Philips Wouwerman

Jeanne Baptiste d'Albert de Luynes, Comtesse de Verrue (1670–1736), Paris;

Her posthumous sale, Paris, 27 March 1737, lot 35, for 1,510 livres;

Where acquired by 'Ruel' on behalf of M. de Ravanne;

Anonymous sale, London, Langford, 9 March 1776, lot 73, for 100 guineas (as 'enriched with such a multitude of beautiful figures');

Heer Servad, Amsterdam;

His sale, Amsterdam, Cornelis Ploos van Amstel, Hendrik de Winter and Jan Yver, 25 June 1778, lot 120, for 2,950 florins (as 'een pronkjuweel van deezen grooten Meester' ('a showpiece of this great Master'));

Where acquired by Pierre Fouquet, Jr. (1729–1800), Amsterdam;

With Alexis Delahante (by whom transported to England);

From whom acquired by Charles Duncombe, later 1st Baron Feversham (1764–1841), Duncombe Park, North Yorkshire, by 1815 (not in 1825, as stated by Schumacher; see Literature), for £800;

Thence by descent;

Until sold ('The Property of the Late the Rt. Hon. The Earl of Feversham, D.S.O. (Sold by Order of the Executors)'), London, Christie’s, 23 June 1967, lot 58, for 15,000 guineas;

Where acquired by Leonard Koetser, London;

From whom acquired by a private collector, Provence, France;

By whom anonymously sold, Monaco, Sotheby’s, 17 June 1988, lot 855, for 4,773,000 francs;

With Verner Åmell, Stockholm, and Newhouse Galleries, New York, by March 1989;

From whom acquired by Dr Hinrich Bischoff (1936–2005);

Thence by inheritance.

London, British Institution, Pictures by Rubens, Rembrandt, Vandyke, and other artists of the Flemish and Dutch Schools, 1815, no. 92 (lent by C. Duncombe, Esq. M.P.);

London, British Institution, Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters, June 1855, no. 63 (lent by Lord Feversham);

London, British Institution, Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters, June 1865, no. 9 (lent by Lord Feversham);

York, Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, 1879, no. 421 (lent by the Earl of Feversham);

Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, long-term loan, before 2006–2025 (lent by Dr Hinrich Bischoff).

Engraved

Jean Moyreau (1690–1762), 1738;

Philippe le Bas (1707–1783).

J. Moyreau, Œuvres de Philips Wouwerman Hollandais: Gravées d'après ses meilleurs Tableaux qui sont dans les plus beaux Cabinets de Paris et ailleurs, Paris 1737–62, n.p., under no. 5;

Pictures by Rubens, Rembrandt, Vandyke, and other artists of the Flemish and Dutch Schools, exh. cat., London 1815, p. 18, no. 92;

W. Buchanan, Memoirs of painting, with a chronological history of the importation of pictures by the great masters into England since the French Revolution, London 1824, vol. II, p. 191, no. 4;

J. Smith, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters, vol. I, London 1829, pp. 207–208 and 339, nos 18 and 471;

Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters, exh. cat., London 1855, p. 9, no. 63;

G.F. Waagen, Galleries and cabinets of art in Great Britain, London 1857, suppl. vol., p. 494 (as 'a very originally composed picture in [Wouwerman's] second manner');

C. Blanc, Le trésor de la curiosité, vol. I, Paris 1857, p. 4, no. 35;

C. Blanc, ‘Philippe Wouwermans’, in Histoire des peintres de toutes les écoles: école hollandaise, Paris 1861, vol. I, p. 6;

Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters, exh. cat., London 1865, p. 8, no. 9;

Fine Art and Industrial Exhibition, exh. cat., York 1879, p. 24, no. 421;

C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch painters of the seventeenth century, vol. II, London 1909, pp. 441 and 443, nos 603 and 612;

H. Mireur, Dictionnaire des ventes d'art faites en France et à l'étranger pendant les XVIIIème et XIXème siècles, vol. VII, Paris 1912, p. 549;

B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668): The horse painter of the Golden Age, Ghent 2006, vol. I, pp. 72 and 223–24, no. A136, vol. II, reproduced pl. 127 (with incorrect provenance; the trees in the foreground described as perhaps painted by Wouwerman's workshop, possibly Pieter Wouwerman).

This unusually large extensive summer landscape – which can be dated to the last years of Wouwerman's career,¹ around 1667–68 – has been acknowledged as 'een pronkjuweel' ('a showpiece') within the painter's œuvre from as early as 1778 (see Provenance). Set beneath a lofty, open sky, which gives way to an expansive view of a fortified town in the middle distance, the hawking party indeed exhibits all of the lightness in atmosphere and elegance of style that made Wouwerman's pictures so sought after during the eighteenth century and beyond. This painting's distinguished provenance, having previously been in the collections of the Comtesse de Verrue in the early 1700s, and later the Barons and Earls of Feversham for over 150 years, serves to further underscore its importance.

When this painting was sold in London in 1776, the author of the catalogue note drew particular attention to the 'multitude of beautiful figures' that populate its foreground.² Certainly, Wouwerman appears to have delighted in variegating his cast of characters, adorning each figure with a different expression, gesture and choice of costume. On the banks of the stream, a lady wearing a blue overcoat and a matching feathered hat is being presented with some fruit by a gentleman and his assistant. The spoils of the hunt – which is still underway, as indicated by the figures on both foot and horseback careering into the distance, some of which are accompanied by their falcons – can be seen behind this group. Wouwerman's reputation as the most accomplished Dutch equestrian painter during his time is upheld by the inclusion of no less than thirteen horses, all of which are seen from various angles, each striking a different pose. The energetic animation of this colourful scene contrasts with the work's upper half, which is dominated by a silvery blue, calm sky and an almost monochrome townscape. These two halves come together to create a balanced and pleasing composition.

In its impressive size, design, and jovial atmosphere, this painting compares closely with other examples executed by Wouwerman during the 1660s. Among others, these include Hunting party and fishermen of circa 1660–62 and The hare hunt of about 1665 (figs 1 and 2), both of which hang today in the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid,³ as well as Departure for the chase of 1665–68, in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden.⁴

This work was extended at left with the addition of a strip of canvas during the process of painting, no doubt to extend the composition outwards. The vertical seam can just about be made out with the naked eye.

An illustrious history of ownership

Wouwerman was not an artist who has ever needed to be rediscovered. He was clearly very much in demand in his own lifetime, much copied and imitated then and long afterwards, and his paintings were avidly collected throughout each of the succeeding three centuries. Like many of Wouwerman's finest works, this painting was in a French private collection during the early 1700s: the Comtesse de Verrue was born just two years after Wouwerman’s death, and it appeared in her posthumous sale in Paris in March 1737 (see Provenance). The Comtesse's Old Master paintings comprised the single most important collection in France at the beginning of the century. It included nine works by Wouwerman, including The horse fair now in The Wallace Collection, London (fig. 3).⁵ Interestingly, that picture likewise dates to the late 1660s and is of a comparable compositional design.

This painting was in London later in the century and then went back to The Netherlands, before being reimported to England by Alexis Delahante (c. 1767–1837). Delahante was one of the most prominent dealers of his day and was responsible for importing entire collections en bloc and very many individual paintings to Britain. He lived in London, or at least was based there, from around 1800. One of his many major clients was John Julius Angerstein, whose collection was to form the nucleus of The National Gallery. Another was the Prince Regent, and a third was Charles Duncombe, 1st Baron Feversham, for whom Delahante supplied much of his extensive collection of Dutch Golden Age pictures for his Yorkshire seat of Duncombe Park, including this work, among others by Wouwerman, and Rubens’s Old woman and boy with candles (fig. 4), which is today in The Mauritshuis, The Hague.⁶ The collection at Duncombe Park also included The Annunciation to the Shepherds of about 1555–60 by Jacopo Bassano (c. 1510–1592), now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington;⁷ and Meindert Hobbema's Woodland road of around 1670, which hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.⁸

In her 2006 monograph on the artist, Birgit Schumacher incorrectly recorded that this painting was with Galerie van Diemen in Berlin around 1925, before entering the collection of Mme T. Sichel.⁹ This claim must have been the result of confusion between the provenance for the present work and that of a copy after this picture, of slightly different dimensions, which was in Berlin over those years.¹⁰ The Bischoff painting, however, descended in the collection of the Barons and Earls of Feversham until 1967, when it sold at Christie's London (see Provenance). Approximately 20 years later, in 1988, it sold for nearly three and a half times its low estimate at Sotheby's Monaco, achieving a price that places it among Wouwerman's top auction results, even to this day.¹¹

Dr Hinrich Bischoff had a particular affection for certain artists, which he collected avidly. Hans van Wechelen was one (see lot 13), Gillis Mostaert another (see lot 12), and Philips Wouwerman, by whom he owned at least seven paintings, a third.

¹ Schumacher 2006, vol. I, p. 223.

² London, Langford, 9 March 1776, lot 73.

³ Inv. no. P002147; oil on canvas, 76 x 115 cm. Inv. no. P002148; oil on canvas, 77 x 105 cm.

⁴ Inv. no. 1466; oil on canvas, 82.5 x 127.5 cm.

⁵ Inv. no. P65; oil on mahogany panel, 64.3 x 88.4 cm.

⁶ Inv. no. 1150; oil on panel, 77 x 62.5 cm.

⁷ Inv. no. 1939.1.126; oil on canvas, 106.1 x 82.6 cm.

⁸ Inv. no. 50.145.22; oil on canvas, 94.6 x 129.5 cm.

⁹ Schumacher 2006, vol. I, p. 223–24.

¹⁰ Répertoire d'œuvres d'art dont la Belgique a été spoliée durant la guerre 1939–1945, Belgium 1948, n.p., no. 282, reproduced pl. XIX, fig. 114 (as 78 x 109 cm.).

¹¹ Monaco, Sotheby’s, 17 June 1988, lot 855, for 4,773,000 francs.