Background
Wouwerman was born at Haarlem in May 1619. He was the son of a now altogether obscure painter named Pouwels Joostsz.
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(Chronicles the life and work of Philips Wouwerman)
Chronicles the life and work of Philips Wouwerman
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Wouwerman was born at Haarlem in May 1619. He was the son of a now altogether obscure painter named Pouwels Joostsz.
He learned the elements of his art from his father, Paul Joosten Wouwerman, an historical painter of moderate ability, and he then studied with the landscape painter, Jan Wynants (1620- 1679). According to his earliest biographer, Cornelis de Bie, he was then apprenticed to Frans Hals (Dutch, c. 1582/1583 - 1666). Wouwerman also may have received some training in the representation of horses from the Haarlem artist Pieter Verbeeck (1610/1615–1652/1654).
Returning to Haarlem, he became a member of its gild of painters in 1642, and there he died in May 1668. About 800 pictures were enumerated in John Smith's Catalogue raisonne (1840) as the work of Philip Wouwerman, and in C. Hofstede de Groot's enlarged Catalogue, vol. ii. (1909), the number exceeds 1200; but probably many of these are (he productions of his brothers Peter (1623 - 1682) and Jan (1629 - 1666), and of his many other imitators.
His earlier works are marked by the prevalence of a foxy-brown colouring, and by a tendency to angularity in draughtsmanship; the productions of his middle period have greater purity and brilliancy; and his latest and greatest pictures possess more of force and breadth, and are full of a delicate silvery-grey tone.
Wouwerman was an extraordinarily productive artist. More than a thousand paintings bear his name, though only a small number are dated, making it difficult to establish a chronology of his work. Attribution issues also exist because a number of studio works and copies were made by his brother Pieter Wouwerman (1623–1682).
Wouwerman’s oeuvre consists predominantly of small cabinet paintings of equestrian subjects, such as battle or hunting scenes, army camps, and smithies. He also painted several genre pieces as well as some mythological and religious subjects.
Today, his works are found in the collections of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the National Gallery in London, and the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
(Chronicles the life and work of Philips Wouwerman)
His authentic works are distinguished by great spirit and are infinitely varied, though dealing recurrently with cavalry battle-pieces, military encampments, cavalcades, and hunting or hawking parties. He is equally excellent in his vivacious treatment of figures, in his skilful animal painting, and in his admirable and appropriate landscape backgrounds. Three different styles have been observed as characteristic of the various periods of his art.
At an early age, Wouwerman married Anna Pietersz. van Broeckhoff with whom he had ten children. They lived on the Bakenessergracht in a house that was also lived in by Haarlem painters Cornelis Gerritsz Decker and Hendrik de Meijer. Seven of the Wouwerman children survived and, after the death of their mother in 1670, accepted a substantial inheritance.
