PHILIPS WOUWERMAN | Calvalry and soldiers on the march fording a stream

Dom Pedro José Vito de Menezes (c.1775-1823), 8th Count of Cantanhede and 6th Marquis of Marialva, Lisbon;
His deceased sale, Paris, Paillet, 15-16 November 1824, lot 32;
Urbino Pizetta, London;
His sale, London, Christie's, 2 April 1825, lot 45, purchased by Hume;
Mr. Penell, London;
His sale, London, Phillips, 14 March 1835, lot 77;
Hans H. König, by 1903 (Schumacher under Literature lists the name as 'King', sic.);
Mrs M. Barchard, Horstead Place, Sussex;
Her sale, London, Sotheby's, 2 July 1958, lot 34, purchased by Duits;
With Duits Gallery, London;
With Alfred Brod Gallery, London, by 1977;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 11 July 1980, lot 11;
With Robert Noortman Gallery, London, 1983;
Private collection, Germany.

Kassel, Gemäldegalerie, The Hague, Koninklijk Schilderijenkabinet het Mauritshuis, Philips Wouwerman 1619-1668, 1 July 2009 - 28 February 2010, pp. 128-129 and p. 179, cat. no. 29, reproduced.

J. Smith, A catalogue raisonné, London 1829, vol. 1, p. 337, no. 466, and London 1842, vol. 9, p. 215, no. 223;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné, London 1908, vol. 2, p. 518, no. 830;
B. Schumacher, Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668). The Horse Painter of the Golden Age, Doornspijk 2006, vol. I, p. 283, cat. no. A281, repoduced vol. II, fig. 262. 

Although Wouwerman dated very few of his pictures, this is certainly a late and mature work, and one which can be assigned, as Birgit Schumacher suggests, to circa 1665, the last few years of his life.¹ The subject should be considered a sub-genre of his numerous military subjects, and it is intriguing that the majority of them depict quotidian aspects of the life of a campaigning army and its civilian camp-followers: encampments, sutler's booths and tents with figures taking refreshment or amusing themselves, or as here the ordered chaos of an army on the march, rather than true battle scenes. Of the nine paintings that Schumacher lists of this subject, seven can be dated to the last decade of Wouwerman's career, and many of them have similar rich smoky skies with warm-toned skies and misty distances as the present picture.²

NOTE ON THE PROVENANCE
The first listed owner, Pedro José Joaquim Vito de Menezes Coutinho (c.1775-1823), 8th Count of Cantanhede and 6th Marquis of Marialva, was a descendant from one of the three foremost noble families in Portugal. He served as the Portuguese Ambassador to France during the period of Napoleon and Louis XVIII. The family collection contained an extraordinary number of paintings including 'many capital works by Rubens and the first Masters'.³ The 6^th Marquis himself is remembered as a patron of contemporary artists and for the impressive collection he gathered in Paris. His wide-ranging collection included a Raphael and works by Rembrandt, Van Ruysdael, Greuze, and Vernet. Marialva intended to bring the collection back to Portugal for the education of its people, but most of the group was auctioned in Paris upon the Marquis' death in 1824.

Offered with a copy of the photo certificate by Dr. Birgit Schumacher, dated 11th of January 2014, who describes it as a typical work datable to circa 1665 from the artist's mature period.

1. See under Literature.
2. Idem, vol. 1, pp. 282-5, nos. A278-A286, reproduced vol. 2, plates 259-268, and colour plates 37 & 38.
3. See A. Delaforce, Art and patronage in Eighteenth-Century Portugal, Cambridge 2002, pp. 332-333.