Philips Wouwerman
COASTAL LANDSCAPE
Oil on panel. 19 x 15 cm.
On the reverse a label "Royal Academy Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, 1887", with handwritten owner's reference `R.S. Holford Esq Dorchester House".
Philips Wouwerman painted only few coastal landscapes, whereas other Haarlem artists made these an important part of their thematic repertoire. Those rare examples by Wouwerman were mostly created in the 1650s, and Birgit Schumacher accordingly dates the present painting to that period (op.cit.p. 353). The finely nuanced colours interpreting the dunes and the exquisite natural spectacle of the sky show Wouwerman at the height of his artistic ability. This painting reveals Wouwerman's characteristic silvery, pale colour that is typical for the artist's mature phase.
Provenance
Charles-Alexandre Vicomte de Calonne (1734-1802). - Auction Skinner and Dyke (Calonne Collection), London, 23.3.1795, lot 17. - Auction Foster and Son, London 1832. - Charles Brind, London, 1842. - Auktion Christie & Manson (Brind Collection), London, 12.5.1849 (?). - Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892), London. –Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860-1926), London. - Auction Christie's (Holford Collection), London, 17./18.5.1928, lot 78. - Acuired for the Holford family via Gooden & Fox . - Auction Sotheby’s, London, 3.7.1991, lot 29. – Galerie Haboldt & Co, Paris. –
Galerie Noortman, Maastricht. – Private collection, Berlin.
Literature
William Buchanan: Memoirs of painting with a chronological history of the importation of pictures by the great masters into England since the French Revolution, vol. 1, London 1824, p. 243. - John Smith: A Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, vol. 1, London 1829, p. 261, no. 207. - John Smith: Supplement to the Catalogue Raisonne of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, London 1842, p. 215, no. 207. - Gustav Friedrich Waagen: Treasures of art in Great Britain, London 1854, vol. 2, p. 202, no. 5. - Cornelius Hofstede de Groot: Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der hervorragendsten Maler des XVII. Jahrhunderts, 2. vol., Esslingen, Paris 1908, p. 575, no. 991 und p. 624, no. 1129. - Robert H. Benson: The Holford collection, Dorchester house, Oxford, London 1927, no. 151 illustrated. – Birgit Schumacher: Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668). The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, 2 vol., Doornspijk 2006, vol. 1, p. 353, no. A462 with colour plate (vol. 2, Abb. 70).