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Cavalry Battle in front of a Burning Mill by Philip Wouwerman (1660s) Oil on canvas, 54.5 x 66.5 cm. Gemäldegalerie, Dresden

Philips Wouwerman (also Wouwermans) (baptized May 24, 1619, Haarlem – May 19, 1668 Haarlem), was a Dutch painter of hunting, landscape and battle scenes.

He was first taught by his father, Paul Joosten Wouwerman, an historical painter of moderate ability. According to a contemporary account he had also studied with Frans Hals (1581/85-1666). Wouwerman became a member of its guild of painters in 1642, and he died after a successful career in his hometown in May 1668.

About 800 pictures were listed in John Smith's Catalogue raisonné (1829/1842) as the work of Philip Wouwerman. In Hofstede de Groot's enlarged Catalogue (1908) the number exceeds to 1200. In Birgit Schumacher's recently published Catalogue raisonné (2006), only some 560 pictures were listed as authentic works, as many of the pictures mentioned by Hofstede de Groot were actually painted by his brothers, Pieter (1623-1682) and Jan (1629-1666), as well as by countless followers and imitators all over Europe.

Wouwerman's authentic works, spirited and polished, are of great variety, showing equestrian scenes, hunting and hawking parties, landscapes with travellers, cavalry battles and military encampments. He excels in his vivacious treatment of figures, skillful animal painting, and appropriate landscape backgrounds.

Three different styles have been observed as characteristic of the periods of his art. His earlier works are strongly influenced by the italianate painter Pieter van Laer (1599-after 1642) and marked by a foxy-brown colouring and by a tendency to angular draughtsmanship; the productions of his middle period have great purity and brilliance and they are full of a delicate silvery-grey tone; his last pictures have force and breadth, but tend to be over-crowded and less brilliant in colouring.

Literature:
Birgit Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman. The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, Davaco Publishers, Doornspijk 2006
Frederik J. Duparc, "Philips Wouwerman, 1619-1668", in: Oud Holland, 1993, vol. 107, no. 3, pp. 257-286
Birgit Schumacher, Studien zu Werk und Wirkung Philips Wouwermans', Diss. Munich 1989
Justus Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke der hervorragendsten holländischen Maler des XVII Jahrhunderts, vol. 2, Esslingen and Paris 1908
John Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish and French Painters, vol. 1, pp. 199-412 and vol. 9, pp. 137-233, London 1829 and 1842

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.