A Man and a Woman on Horseback

It is generally agreed that this well-preserved picture by Wouwerman is a comparatively early work, dating from about 1653–54. The setting is a towpath along a Dutch canal. A gentleman on a handsome white horse and an elegant—if somewhat overdressed—woman sitting sidesaddle on a sorrel mount are out riding for pleasure. They have come upon a bay horse harnessed to pull the canal barge on the left. A man in green, with a fur cap, glances soberly at the running boy who appears to beg for a coin. The smiling young man behind the draft horse is probably attempting to align the animal for hooking up and trudging onward. The bay leans forward, resisting, which is unsurprising given the raw wound that the harness has rubbed into his side. A man in red hauls a heavy sack to the barge, which is already loaded with freight and at least three male passengers (a boy and an old man by the mast, and an apparently young man sitting in the bottom of the boat). In front of the barge, a naked youth stands hip high in the water, and another, slightly covered, sits on the bank. Across the canal, two boats, perhaps a weyschuit (fishing boat, with the blue flag) and a small kaag (cargo vessel), are tied up in front of an inn or farmhouse. Each boat is attended by a bargeman.

All these details and many more (the delicately described trees, for example) are carefully rendered by the artist, who gave close attention to the expressions of the figures, not least that of the gentleman rider, who looks with apparent concern to the side, though what, specifically, draws his attention is difficult to say. Clearly, however, Wouwerman intended to contrast the haves and have-nots.

Wouwerman painted many fashionable couples passing by inns, pausing at watering places, and so forth. In many, mostly later pictures, the subject has an air of romance and literary derivation. Here, more meaning is found in simple observations.

[2016; adapted from Liedtke 2007]

Inscription: Signed (lower left): PHLSW [monogram]

D. de Vries (until 1825; sold for fl 2,900 to Emmerson); [?Thomas] Emmerson, [?London] (from 1825); Ludwig I, King of Bavaria (in 1829); Freiherr Carl von Mergenbaum (until 1846; his estate sale, Hofgute Nilkheim, near Aschaffenburg, July 13–24, 1846, no. 176, for 2,300 marks to Lee); Hon. W. F. B. Massey-Mainwaring, London (by 1889–1907; sale, Christie's, London, March 16, 1907, no. 35, for £315 to Colnaghi); [Colnaghi, London, from 1907]; Leopold Koppel, Berlin (by 1909–d. 1933); his daughter, Else Koppel Klotz (from 1933); her son, Leopold Hugo Paul Klotz (until 1970; sold to Schaeffer); [Schaeffer Galleries, New York, 1970–71; sold to The Met]

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," January–March 1889, no. 71 (as "Canal, with Figures," lent by the Hon. W. and Mrs. Massey-Mainwaring).

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 18, 2007–January 6, 2008, no catalogue.

John Smith. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters. Vol. 1, London, 1829, p. 342, no. 479, as in the collection of the king of Bavaria, and as bought by Mr. Emmerson from Mr. D. de Vries in 1825 for fl. 2,900; calls it "a clear and excellent picture".

Cornelis Hofstede de Groot. A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century. Ed. Edward G. Hawke. Vol. 2, London, 1909, pp. 350, 352–53, no. 337, as in the collection of L. Koppel, Berlin; tentatively associates it with pictures sold in Paris in 1778 (HdG 330) and in Frankfurt in 1846 (HdG 334).

John Walsh Jr. "New Dutch Paintings at The Metropolitan Museum." Apollo 99 (May 1974), pp. 348–49 n. 19, colorpl. IV, dates it probably about 1653 and calls it "perfectly preserved".

Anthony M. Clark in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 89, ill., dates it to the early 1650s.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 325, ill., as "A Man and Woman on Horseback".

Birgit Schumacher. Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668): The Horse Painter of the Golden Age. Doornspijk, The Netherlands, 2006, vol. 1, pp. 318–19, no. A374; vol. 2, pl. 344, dates it to the beginning of the 1650s; associates it with Smith nos. 149 and 479 [see Ref. 1829], and with Hofstede de Groot nos. 330, 334, and 337 [see Ref. 1909]; confuses the de Vries and Emmerson provenance.

Esmée Quodbach. "The Age of Rembrandt: Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 65 (Summer 2007), p. 58, fig. 65 (color).

Walter Liedtke. Dutch Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2007, vol. 2, pp. 972–74, no. 223, colorpl. 223, fig. 276 (color detail), dates it about 1653–54.