Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 2, 1909.djvu/265

 SECTION VIII PHILIPS WOUWERMAN PHILIPS WOUWERMAN was baptized at Haarlem, May 24, 1619. He was the son of Paulus Joosten Wouwerman, also a painter, whose works, however, have not come down to us. He is said to have received his first lessons from his father. Then he became a pupil of Frans Hals, according to the credible statement of De Bie. Finally, he is said to have perfected himself in his favourite study under the direction of Pieter Verbeeck of Haarlem, a painter of horses. In order to marry the girl of his choice, who was a Catholic while he himself belonged to a Protestant family, he ran away with her to Hamburg ; he was then nineteen, in 1638. At Hamburg he worked for some time with Evert Decker, a painter who is not known in any other connection. He must have soon returned home, for on September 14, 1640, he was summoned by the guild authorities to fulfil his obligations as a member. It may be inferred that he had again taken up residence in the town some time before, but had delayed giving formal notice of the fact to the guild. In the years immediately following he is repeatedly mentioned as living in Haarlem. From November 1641 to February 1642, Koert Witholt was his pupil. In April 1643 a child of his was buried. In 1645 he was commissary of the guild, although only twenty-six. About this time begin the genuine dates on his pictures. But there is little more documentary evidence about his life, except a casual mention of a pupil of his in 1656, up to the date of his burial, May 23, 1668. Wouwerman must have had, beside the child already referred to, at least one son, whose children are mentioned in 1718, as well as a daughter Ludovica ; to this daughter, on her marriage at Amsterdam in 1672 to Hendrik de Fromentiou, court painter to the Elector of Brandenburg, Wouwerman was able to give a dowry of 20,000 florins. Houbraken is probably right in regarding this as a proof of Wouwerman's worldly prosperity. One of the most important questions that must be answered in order to form a correct estimate of Wouwerman's artistic development is this : Did he, besides his romantic escapade across the sea to Hamburg, make 249