Philips Wouwerman, 'A Stag Hunt', about 1665

A Stag Hunt

Philips Wouwerman

Room 23

About the work

Overview

A group of fashionably dressed aristocrats canter and prance round a stag at bay, threatened by hounds in for the kill. Other riders gallop up or splash through the shallow river to join in the excitement, hat feathers flying and horns whooping. The horses in particular are beautifully painted in Wouwerman’s flowing style, skilfully suggesting the speed and noise of the hunt. One of Wouwerman’s characteristic white horses leads the chase, ridden by a red-coated man; another carries a woman hunter in an elegant gown, riding side-saddle and holding her hat.

The hermit outside his rickety cottage high on the hill on the right was perhaps intended as a moral contrast to the leisurely pursuits of the aristocratic hunters. Far from hunting on horseback being a way of feeding a household, it was a privilege reserved for the aristocracy, with severe penalties for anyone encroaching on their rights.

In-depth

A group of fashionably dressed aristocrats canter and prance round a stag at bay, threatened by hounds in for the kill. A huntsman holds a dog back by its collar and other riders gallop up or splash through the shallow river to join in the excitement, hat feathers flying and horns whooping. The horses in particular are beautifully painted in Wouwerman’s flowing style, skilfully suggesting the speed and noise of the hunt in full chase. One of Wouwerman’s characteristic white horses leads the chase, ridden by a red-coated man; another carries a woman hunter in an elegant gown, riding side-saddle and holding her hat.

You can see another example of aristocratic hunting on horseback in A Stag Hunt in a Forest by Jan Hackaert and Nicolaes Berchem.

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Stag Hunt
Artist: Philips Wouwerman
Artist dates: 1619 - 1668
Date made: about 1665
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 75 × 104.2 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
Inventory number: NG975
Location: Room 23
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Thomas George Baring, 1st Earl and 2nd Baron of Northbrook

Wynn Ellis

John Rushout, 2nd Baron Northwick

Provenance

Bought from the (Corneille-Louis?) Reynders collection, Brussels, by Buchanan and in the collection of Edward Gray, Haringay House, by 1824; bought from Gray’s collection by Buchanan. In the collection of Sir Thomas Baring, Bart., by 1840, when it was exhibited at the BI; Sir T. Baring sale, London, 2–3 June 1848 (lot 111), bought by Earle (£105). It has been identified with a Stag Hunt, said to have been in Lord Northwick’s collection, which was in the Robert White sale, London, 11 June 1853 (lot 66), bought in (150 gns) and the [R. White] sale, London, 16 February 1861 (lot 115), bought by Wilson (130 gns), but judging by the description in both the sale catalogues this was a different composition. In the Wynn Ellis collection, London; Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2020

Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

The National Museum of Western Art

18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020

The National Museum of Art

3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
2021

Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

National Gallery of Australia

5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021

Bibliography

1824

W. Buchanan, Memoirs of Painting: With a Chronological History of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into England Since the French Revolution, London 1824
1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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A large tent or booth has been set up on top of a hill above a military camp, next to a blasted tree. They stand upright against a big, luminous sky, together filling nearly half the picture.Dramatic though this backdrop is, it’s the cavalrymen gathered in the foreground whose antics are the main...

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There is a cold grey dawn, but a promise of winter sun as the wind sweeps away the clouds on a Dutch seashore. A young horseman leans down towards a woman kneeling in the shadow of his mount – she holds a large fish up towards him. A patch of light picks out the white apron of a red-cheeked woman...

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The Interior of a Stable

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Stables were found everywhere in the seventeenth century – but this is no ordinary one. A peacock is perched on a branch at the entrance. Outside, there’s part of a weathered but grand building; birds nest on its roof and climbing plants drift over windows. The entrance and the trees give an air...

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Two Horsemen at a Gipsy Encampment

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Smoke seems to mingle with the clouds in this dramatic scene of Gypsies round a fire against a background of distant mountains and closer hills. Strong women carry babies slung round them in shawls, and here and there a man’s turban is visible. An old man tends the fire.A woman with a baby on her...

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Two Vedettes on the Watch by a Stream

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In the Netherlands in the seventeenth century a vedette was a mounted sentry usually placed near an outpost – here, two of them are on watch by a stream. Wouwerman captures their watchfulness by turning their backs to us, making them look in opposite directions and leaning them forward as if they...

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Cavalry attacking Infantry

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Philips Wouwerman was famous in his time for his skill at depicting horses in many different situations – at rest in the stable, being shod in the forge, out hunting or, as here, in the frenzy of battle. In what is a relatively small painting – not by Wouwerman himself but produced in his studio...

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You've viewed 6 of 11 works

Philips Wouwerman, 'A Stag Hunt', about 1665

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Philips Wouwerman