Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 2, 1909.djvu/266

 250 PHILIPS WOUWERMAN SECT. other journeys abroad, or was his art wholly rooted in his native soil ? The known facts of his life seem to leave little opportunity for such journeys, if one considers the time that travel for the purpose of study usually consumed in those days. He was married in 1638 ; he is men- tioned as resident at Haarlem with his young wife and little children in the years 1640-43 and 1645. It is improbable then that he had left them alone at Haarlem for any long period. On the other hand, several features of his work suggest that he had lived abroad. In the first place, he obviously has a personal knowledge of mountain scenery not merely that of broad river valleys bounded by hills, as may be seen, for instance, in the neighbourhood of Cleve and Emmerich, but also that of steep rocks, deep gorges, and mountain torrents, which often occur in his early pictures. Later he delighted to introduce mountains, to enliven the horizon of landscapes which in other respects are thoroughly Dutch. Again, in Holland, he could not have learned with his own eyes to paint scenes of warfare, as he so often does. The last time when hostile troops trod Dutch soil during his life was in the unsuccessful attack on the Veluwe, during the siege of 'S Hertogenbosch, 1629. He must have accompanied the States' troops in their campaigns in the border lands, in order to observe camp-life. The country was at peace from 1646, roughly, to shortly before Wouwerman's death. Even the peaceful scenes which Wouwerman painted do not accord with what is otherwise known of the middle-class Holland of that time. This is certainly the case with the stage upon which he arranged these scenes the magnificent palaces and country-houses with their spacious and elegant terraces, their great fountains, their wealth of statues, whether antique or not. Where shall we find their like in the numerous publica- tions dealing with Dutch country-houses and gardens ? Where shall we see anything remotely resembling them in the other representations of Dutch country life at that time ? It is possible that stag-hunts were still kept up in Holland, as well as coursing and hawking. But there was certainly no hunting of the wild boar and the wolf, such as Wouwerman depicts. Lastly, there are echoes of Italy and the antique. Here is a plausible imitation of the Ponte Mollo; there, again, are some fragments of ancient columns. Here is an Italian wine-shop with cypresses ; there, again, are the ruined arches of an aqueduct in the Campagna. All things considered, the foreign motives in Wouwerman's pictures seem too numerous for one not to assume that he had visited Italy, that he had at least studied the life and pursuits of the French aristocracy at first hand. From the first, biographers have been content to ascribe much of the foreign element in Wouwerman's art to Pieter van Laer and his influence. Houbraken went so far as to assert on the strength of calumnious state- ments made to him by Haarlem painters whom he names that Wouwer- man worked after sketches and drawings by Van Laer. It is scarcely worth while to refute this assertion. Between the genuine though not very numerous pictures of Van Laer and the youthful works of Wouwerman