Pieter Verbeeck, 'A White Horse standing by a Sleeping Man', about 1652
About the work
Overview
In this strange little picture, Pieter Verbeeck appears to be telling us a story, though it’s impossible to say what it is. A man, apparently a vagrant, sleeps under a tree with his dog. A patient horse waits for them, its rein hanging down loose close to the man’s hand. Another man appears over the breast of the hill and seems to eye the group. He has a couple of scruffy dogs with him and carries a club over his shoulder.
Although the green of some of the leaves has turned blue with age, the other colours in the painting appear remarkably fresh. Verbeeck was influenced by the work of Paulus Potter and Isack van Ostade, as well as by Dutch landscape painters known as the Italianates. He, like them, painted pictures full of soft, warm Mediterranean colours that proved popular with collectors.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- A White Horse standing by a Sleeping Man
- Artist
- Pieter Verbeeck
- Artist dates
- probably about 1610/15? - 1652/4
- Date made
- about 1652
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 31.8 × 27 cm
- Inscription summary
- Signed
- Acquisition credit
- Wynn Ellis Bequest, 1876
- Inventory number
- NG1009
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
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.
Bibliography
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1907C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
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1913A. Bredius, 'A Wrong Potter in the National Gallery', The Burlington Magazine, XXIII, 1913
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1940H. Gerson, 'Leven en werken van den paardenschilder Pieter Verbeeck echtgenoot van Elizabeth van Beresteyn', in E.A. van Beresteyn, Bijlage II der genealogie van het geslacht van Beresteyn, The Hague 1940
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1960Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
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1991Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
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1995R. Verbraeken, La peinture de paysage en Hollande au XVII siècle, Paris 1995
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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.