In a large number of Philips Wouwerman’s pictures the landscapes are
of secondary importance to the figures; and although the execution
is careful and conscientious, the frequenter of picture galleries is
apt to tire of his make-believe genre-pieces, landscapes with horses,
riders, sportsmen, soldiers, robbers, gipsies, and the like. The Louvre
presents an imposing array of fifteen of the twelve hundred or more
pictures by Philips Wouwerman (1619-1668), and his brother and pupil
Pieter is credited with a poor but historically interesting _View of
the Porte de Nesles, Paris_, in 1664 (No. 2635).
It will be convenient here to group Adam Pynacker (1622-1673) with his
three pictures, Willem Romeyn (1624?-1696?) with one, Abraham Begeyn
(1637?-1697) with one, Guilliam de Heusch (1625?-1692) with one, Dirk
van den Berghen (1645-1690?) with two, and Glauber (1646-1726) with
a single _Landscape_ (No. 2374) in which the figures are inserted by
Gerard de Lairesse. Mention must, however, be made of Paul Potter,
the highly esteemed cattle painter, who died in 1654 at the early age
of twenty-nine. One of his latest canvases is the _Cows and Sheep in
a Field_ (No. 2527), of 1652; but his _Horse in a Field_ (No. 2528)
of the following year, and the _Wood at The Hague_ (No. 2529), give
an excellent idea of his art. These and the _Horses at the Door of a
Cottage_ (No. 2526) show that Paul Potter had a sound knowledge of
animal anatomy. He is seen at his best in small compositions such as
are here exhibited, in which the construction and _mise-en-scène_ are
simple and the details delicately rendered. It is a popular fallacy
that his chief contribution to the fame of Dutch art was his large
_Bull_ of 1647, which measures 8 ft. by 12 ft., in The Hague Gallery.
He did not live long enough to form a “school.”