Philips Wouwerman, 'A Horse being Shod outside a Village Smithy', probably 1640-50

Philips Wouwerman was an extremely successful painter in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century and was also a favourite of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collectors. His paintings – landscapes with rural scenes being enacted in them – are full of movement, small dramas and incident, capturing the imagination of the viewer.

A billowing cloud, its shape and movement echoed in the tree that pierces the sky, sets the busy, almost turbulent, atmosphere. The blacksmith shoeing the white horse raises a strong arm. Around him boys busy themselves with buckets, while the elegant owner of the horse supports its leg. Coming up the hill at a pace is another rider while on the right another – and more gruesome – procedure is taking place, the horse’s head thrown back and its mouth open.

Wouwerman was able to breathe life into the everyday activities and scenes he painted – you can almost sense the noise, the smells and the chill breeze suggested here. There are more of his small but realistic dramas in the National Gallery’s collection, like Two Horsemen at a Gipsy Encampment, One having his Fortune told.