Lot 2049 Dα

This village market scene by Philips Wouwerman is unique due to the one element that has been omitted from the work. The scenery is diverse and varied: traders have set up their stalls between permanent buildings, offering a variety of goods ranging from vegetables to poultry; between them we see people shopping alongside children and dogs; a church steeple towers in the landscape of the background. But one thing is missing. This is one of the few compositions by Wouwerman that does not include a horse. The artist was popularly known as a specialist in these animals. His reputation was such that even a hundred years later, the Frankfurt horse painter J.G. Pforr was still referred to appreciatively as "the German Wouwerman". Perhaps this particular acclaim overshadowed the equally outstanding skills that distinguished Philips Wouwerman of Haarlem as a genre and landscape painter. He sets this depiction of a village market into a peaceful setting, which is also unusual for an œuvre otherwise characterised by scenes of soldiers. Here the painter has instead focused his attention on the figures who bring the market scene to life. But Wouwerman apparently took just as much pleasure in the precise observation of the vegetables on offer, which he presents in the marketplace in the manner of a still life.