Flemish school of the XVII-XVIII century. Circle... Lot n° 24

Flemish school of the XVII-XVIII century. Circle of PHILIPPS WOUWERMAN (Haarlem, 1619-1668). "Cavalry in the countryside". Oil on canvas. Relined. Frame ca. 1900. Measurements: 62 x 79 cm; 75 x 92 cm (frame). This painting represents a wild, monumental and savage nature, inhabited only by the horsemen who gallop swiftly, dwarfed by the natural grandeur. Leaving behind definitively the classical landscape painting cultivated by the painters of the Spanish school in Rome, neither classical order nor ruin appear, nor do the countryside landscapes, evocative of the lost Arcadia. It is instead a totally romantic one, dominated by what was the main aesthetic value of the romantic landscape painters, the sublime. It does not seek beauty, calm or divine order reflected in nature, but the expression of it in all its magnitude, in all its raw beauty. The composition is open and solid, built on the basis of a foreground dominated by a path along which the figures run, located to the left of the composition, and a stream to the right of the work. In the background, the cliffs of the nearby mountains can be glimpsed and, above them, a stormy and moving sky. It is also worth mentioning the importance of the lighting aspect; it is a twilight light, which vividly illuminates some areas leaving others in darkness, obtaining an image of enormous naturalism, very different from the compensated, balanced and calm scenes of the classical landscape. Because of its physical and stylistic characteristics, this painting could have been done by a painter close to Philips Wouverman's circle. Wouverman was the son of a modest painter from Alkmaar, Paul-Joosten Wouverman, and became one of the most reputable painters of religious and military compositions, landscapes and animals, especially horses, as well as a genre painter focused on the elegant life of the time and its historical framework (castles, palaces, gardens, etc.). Wouverman's initiation as a painter must have taken place in his father's workshop and also in that of Frans Hals, according to references of the time, although his works do not reveal the influence of this painter. He joined the painters' guild of St. Luke in 1640, and at that time he began a prolific career marked by commercial success. He was not a painter of large commissions, but worked on easel paintings of great beauty and intimacy, for which he had all the nobility as clients. He also had buyers abroad and, apart from enjoying great success in his time, he gained special esteem in the France of Louis XVI and in the Spain of Charles IV. In fact, the paintings by his hand that are now in the Prado come from the Royal Palace. In addition, today we can find works by Wouverman in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan and the Frick Collection in New York, the National Gallery, the Wallace and the Royal Collection in London, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, among many others.