Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 2, 1909.djvu/269

 vin PHILIPS WOUWERMAN 253 PUPILS AND IMITATORS OF PHILIPS WOUWERMAN Wouwerman's two well-known brothers, Pieter (1623-1682) and Jan (1629-1666), have been mentioned above, as well as his wholly unknown step-brother Pieter, and nothing more need be said of them. Of the painters who are recorded to have been pupils of Wouwerman, some are only known by name. No existing works can be traced to KOORT WITHOLT or JACOB WARNARS, who were with Wouwerman in 1642, or to ANTHONIS DE HAEN, who was with him in 1656. A fourth pupil, NICOLAES FICKE, who studied under him in 1642, is known only as an etcher and not as a painter. His print, signed in full and dated 1643, of a tethered horse facing right, shows that he did good work in the style of his master. It would not be surprising if sooner or later some oil-paintings were recognised as his. A third group of artists who are stated to have been Wouwerman's pupils diverged into other paths after their studies were ended. These included the two Germans JACOB WEIER, who flourished about 1670, and MATTHIAS SCHEITS (about 1640-1700?); and the Dutchmen BAREND GAEL (born about 1620 and still alive in 1687), and EMANUEL MURANT (1622- about 1700). Gael painted almost exclusively inns under tall trees by the roadside with accessories, among which a grey horse is almost always prominent, and he may thus be regarded as an artist of very limited invention. Murant, however, in his village street scenes, shows only very faint signs of Wouwerman's influence, which can be traced not in his figures, but for the most part, and even then only in exceptional cases, in his vaporous distances. In the architectural passages, mostly very strong in tone, Murant practises a minuteness of detail and a neatness of handling which mark him out as a forerunner of Jan van der Heyden. WILLEM SCHELLINKS (about 1627-1678) is said by Houbraken to have been another of Wouwerman's pupils ; but few of his existing pictures show this phase of his art. In the case of Aelbert Cuyp, the other master treated in this volume, the test of imitation in painters who were not his pupils in the ordinary sense, lies in the tone of sunlight and in the preference for certain colours, notably red and yellow. With Wouwerman, on the other hand, the test is in the subject the landscapes enlivened with figures and horses, and especially the cavalry fights, the scenes of plunder, the camp scenes, and so forth. The chief men in this category of imitators are JOHANNES LlNGELBACH (1623-1674), JoHAN VAN HUCHTENBURGH (1646-1733), and DIRK MA AS (1656-1717). Lingelbach comes nearest to his original, especially in versatility. He is not so much absorbed in military themes as the two others. He also paints travellers, peasants at harvest-time and at market, and hunting scenes, and thus covers almost the whole range of Wouwerman's art.