RKD STUDIES

Haarlem, baptised 13 September 1623–Amsterdam, buried 9 May 1682
Dutch painter and draughtsman

Pieter Wouwerman II was a brother of the more famous Philips Wouwerman (1619–68); like him, his name was sometimes spelt Wouwermans. He presumably took lessons from his father Pouwels Joostensz. Wouwerman (c. 1580/85–1642), his brother, and from the landscape painter Roelant Roghman (1627–91/2). Although no work is definitively ascribed to him, there are some paintings that are very close to Philips’s work but not by him. On that basis a small œuvre of some twenty works has been constructed.

LITERATURE
Van Thiel-Stroman 2006m; Ecartico, no. 8427: http://www.vondel.humanities.uva.nl/ecartico/persons/8427 (May 20, 2018); RKDartists&, no. 85691: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/85691 (May 20, 2018).

17th century; canvas, 24.1 x 36 cm
Companion piece of DPG36

PROVENANCE
Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 30, nos 316/317 (‘Unhung / nos 47/48, Landscapes with figures - C[anvas] “P.L.” called Wouvermans’; 1'3" x 1'7" (dimensions of each picture).

REFERENCES
Cat. 1817;¹ Haydon 1817;² Cat. 1820, p. 6, no. 80 or 84 (‘Peter Wouvermans’); Cat. 1830, no. 63 or 64 (Wouwerman); Jameson 1842, ii, p. 453, nos 63 and 64;³ Waagen 1854, ii, p. 343;⁴ Denning 1858, no. 63 (John (?) Wouvermans);⁵ Denning 1859, no. 63 (Philip Wouwermans); Sparkes 1876, p. 209, no. 63; Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 192, no. 64 (Pieter Wouwerman);⁶ Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 8, no. 34; Cook 1914 and 1926, p. 21, no. 34; Cat. 1953, p. 44; Murray 1980a, p. 142; Murray 1980b, p. 31; Beresford 1998, p. 270 (follower of Wouwermans); Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, pp. 308–9 (attributed to Pieter Wouwerman); RKD, no. 289768: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/289768 (May 21, 2018).

EXHIBITION
Hatchlands 1994, n.p., no. 34 (A. Sumner; ‘One of a pair of pictures originally ascribed to the more celebrated Philips Wouwermans (1619–1668), but in fact by his less talented younger brother, who took advantage of his shared initials and imitated his subject matter’).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Coarse plain-weave linen canvas. Glue-paste lined. The lining is now fairly stiff and there is some damage to the original canvas at the corners. The texture of the canvas is noticeable through the paint layers, particularly in the foreground. The painted area of the canvas is a little smaller than the stretcher and the edges are made-up and retouched. There is a loss in the lower-left corner and some areas of light abrasion to the paint surface. The paint is slightly cupped but secure and the craquelure is distracting in the lighter passages: it has been roughly retouched in parts. There is an old restoration along the right edge of the canvas that has blanched in the sky. This painting is less worn than its pair. Previous recorded treatment: 1867, ‘revived’ and revarnished; 1953–5, Dr Hell.

RELATED WORKS
1) Philips Wouwerman, Dune Landscape, monogrammed ‘PH W’, 1650–55, panel, 18.5 x 22.5 cm. Private collection.⁷

DPG34
attributed to Pieter Wouwerman (II)
Sandhills with figures, 1640-1682
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG34

Signed, lower right: PH [? – PW according to Sumner 1994] (in monogram)
17th century; canvas, 24.1 x 36 cm
Companion piece of DPG34

PROVENANCE
See DPG34.

REFERENCES
See DPG34; RKD, no. 289769: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/289769 (May 21, 2018).

EXHIBITION
Hatchlands 1994, n.p., no. 36 (A. Sumner; ‘Pendant to no. 34’).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Plain-weave linen canvas. Glue-paste lined. The paint is cupped but secure, and there is a small deformation in the canvas plane at the lower left corner. The paint layer is worn, especially in the foliage and the central figure: the abraded look of the paint surface is worsened by the fact that it has previously been semi-cleaned. There is some discoloured restoration in the sky. Previous recorded treatment: 1867, ‘revived’ and revarnished; 1952–5, Dr Hell.

RELATED WORKS
See DPG34.

DBP34 and DPG36 are competently produced pictures in the style of Philips Wouwerman, if somewhat pedestrian in composition. They were often given to that artist in the 19th century, but as early as 1817 Cockburn doubted the attribution, and suggested ‘Peter Wouvermans’ – Pieter Wouwerman, the younger brother of Philips. Denning in 1858 said ‘John Wouvermans’; he changed that a year later to Philip, adding, ‘They are not like the other pictures of this master in the Gallery, having been evidently painted at that period when he imitated his master Wynants’. In 1880 Richter and Sparkes suggested that the pictures might be by Pieter, noting a ‘PW’ in monogram at the lower right of DPG36. In 1980 the attribution was repeated by Murray, who noted similar pictures attributed to that artist in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge,⁸ but in 1998 Beresford challenged Richter’s reading of the monogram, asserting that it might instead be ‘PH’. Since so little research has been carried out on Pieter Wouwerman’s œuvre or the followers of Philips Wouwerman it seems impossible at the moment to establish who created the pair. For a comparable dune landscape by Philips Wouwerman, see Related works, no. 1.

The pictures first appear in the 1813 inventory of Bourgeois’ collection. Murray suggested that DPG34 may be the ‘Wouermans – A Landscape with a Traveller giving Charity to poor Peasants’ that was offered for sale as part of Desenfans’ collection at Skinner and Dyke, London, on 28 November 1795 (lot 93). Arguing against that is that there is no mention there of a pair, and the figure on horseback here is not giving charity but only seems to be preparing to do so.

DPG36
attributed to Pieter Wouwerman (II)
Sandbank with travellers, c. 1640-1682
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG36

17th century; oak panel, 30.8 x 36.5 cm
Remnants of a wax seal on the back

PROVENANCE
Paillet, Paris, 15 Dec. 1777 (Lugt 2754), lot 13 (810 frs);⁹ Bourgeois Bequest, 1811; Britton 1813, p. 1, no. 9 (‘Small parlour / no. 8, Halt of Travellers - 2 horses &c in Lande – C[anvas] – Wouvermans’; 1'9" x 2'.

REFERENCES
Cat. 1817, p. 8, no. 127 (‘SECOND ROOM – West side; A Landscape, with Horses and Figures; Wouvermans’); Haydon 1817, p. 381, no. 127;¹⁰ Cat. 1820, p. 8, no. 127; Smith 1829–42, i (1829), p. 241, no. 137 (‘Collection of M. Paillet 1777 810 fs. 32l.’); Cat. 1830, p. 5, no. 65; Jameson 1842, ii, p. 65, no. 65; Denning 1858 and 1859, no. 65 (Peter Wouvermans and Ascribed to Philip Wouwermans);¹¹ Sparkes 1876, pp. 209–10, no. 65 (ascribed to Wouwerman); Richter & Sparkes 1880, p. 189, no. 65 (Philips Wouwerman; ‘An early work of the master’); Richter & Sparkes 1892 and 1905, p. 51, no. 193; HdG, ii, 1908, p. 456, no. 660 (and possibly 677d; Engl. edn 1909, p. 461); Cook 1914, pp. 122–3, no. 193; Cook 1926, pp. 122–3, no. 193; Cat. 1953, p. 44; Murray 1980a, p. 142; Murray 1980b, p. 31; Edwards 1996, pp. 53, 56;¹² Beresford 1998, p. 268 (Attributed to Wouwermans); not in Schumacher 2006; Jonker & Bergvelt 2016, p. 309; RKD, no. 289770: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/images/289770 (May 21, 2018).

TECHNICAL NOTES
Oak panel with vertical wood grain; the verso edges are bevelled and the back bears the remnants of a wax seal. The grey ground is very thin. The paint layers are worn and abraded, revealing the panel grain. This wear is most noticeable in the sky, and in the darks of the figures, the trees, the dog and the horses’ legs. Some areas of wear have been retouched, but the thinness is still evident. Previous recorded treatment: 1952–3, cleaned and restored, Dr Hell.

EXHIBITIONS
?London 1843, p. 10, no. 75 (‘Landscape with Horses and Figures’); London 1952–3, p. 85, no. 450 (as Philips Wouwermans).

RELATED WORKS
1) Copy: Ralph Cockburn, Landscape with Horses and Figures, c. 1816–20, aquatint, 129 x 182 mm (Cockburn 1830, no. 38) [1].¹³

The rubbed state of DPG193 – most of the surface of the darker layers is gone – makes a fair assessment of the painting in the original state difficult. Frederik Duparc wondered whether it was painted by Philips or Pieter Wouwerman, and commented, ‘Very weak, due to condition?’¹⁴ In 1858, Denning suggested Peter [i.e. Pieter] Wouwermans as the maker, but he changed his mind in his 1859 catalogue.

The picture shows a halt of sportsmen beside a river. On the far bank are a ferry¹⁵ and a village. In 1880 Richter and Sparkes published what they thought was a monogram on the picture, ‘PLW’; in his catalogue Hofstede de Groot doubted it, but it was repeated by others up to and including the 1926 Dulwich catalogue. No trace of a signature is now visible.

DPG193
attributed to Pieter Wouwerman (II)
Halt of Sportsmen, c. 1640-1682
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery, inv./cat.nr. DPG193

1
Ralph Cockburn after Pieter Wouwerman (II)
Landscape with Horses and Figures, 1816-1820
Dulwich (Southwark), Dulwich Picture Gallery