Page of Riding School by WOUWERMAN, Philips in the Web Gallery of Art, a searchable image collection and database of European paintings and sculptures (1100-1850)

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Riding School

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Oil on canvas, 68 x 83 cm
Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Wouwerman was a Dutch painter of landscapes with battle and hunting scenes and genre scenes of soldiers in camp reminiscent of Pieter van Laer. He frequently disposed dozens of small figures in his canvases and he had a special fondness for white horses. There are about 1200 recorded paintings by him, only very few dated. His brothers Jan and Pieter were also landscape painters, Pieter imitated Philips and used a confusingly similar PW monogram.

The picture shown here depicts a scene of horse training with a mountainous landscape in the background.

A company of horse trainers are seen in a woodland glade in the mountains breaking in horses. In this composition the figures of the riders, grooms and children, all clothed in bright colour, are no more important than the horses. The trees, billowing cumulus clouds and rather misty landscape suggest a more southerly setting than the place where this picture was in fact painted. The prancing movements of the saddled horses make this an exceptionally animated composition.