A few dozen light-skinned men, some on horseback and some on foot, fight each other on a low hill in this horizontal battle scene. The men and horses are arranged in a band that crosses the horizon of the painting and swells in numbers as it moves to our right. Some men wield guns, knives, or swords as they attack each other. They wear jackets, vests, or suits in black, brown, sage green, currant red, and pale yellow. While much of the action is in chaos, a few details stand out. For instance, a man in the center of the fray lies on the ground, dead or dying. A white horse behind him steps over a second fallen man, and the rider of that horse is about to be bludgeoned. To the left of the fray, a man wearing tattered black clothing looks over his shoulder at the crowd as he lurches away. It appears that one hand may have been severely injured or even cut off, leaving a bloody stump. A large drum lies on the ground nearby. The hill where the fight takes place sweeps gently upward from the lower left corner to more than hallway up the height of the panel to the right. Flags in the hazy distance have red, white, and blue horizontal stripes and a tall, thin tree grows up the right edge of the panel to frame the scene. A pale blue sky is mostly filled with parchment-colored clouds. The artist signed the work with his initials in brown paint in the lower right corner: “PH. W.”
Read the visual description

A few dozen light-skinned men, some on horseback and some on foot, fight each other on a low hill in this horizontal battle scene. The men and horses are arranged in a band that crosses the horizon of the painting and swells in numbers as it moves to our right. Some men wield guns, knives, or swords as they attack each other. They wear jackets, vests, or suits in black, brown, sage green, currant red, and pale yellow. While much of the action is in chaos, a few details stand out. For instance, a man in the center of the fray lies on the ground, dead or dying. A white horse behind him steps over a second fallen man, and the rider of that horse is about to be bludgeoned. To the left of the fray, a man wearing tattered black clothing looks over his shoulder at the crowd as he lurches away. It appears that one hand may have been severely injured or even cut off, leaving a bloody stump. A large drum lies on the ground nearby. The hill where the fight takes place sweeps gently upward from the lower left corner to more than hallway up the height of the panel to the right. Flags in the hazy distance have red, white, and blue horizontal stripes and a tall, thin tree grows up the right edge of the panel to frame the scene. A pale blue sky is mostly filled with parchment-colored clouds. The artist signed the work with his initials in brown paint in the lower right corner: “PH. W.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Battle Scene

Philips Wouwerman

Date
c. 1645/1646
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 48 x 82.5 cm (18 7/8 x 32 1/2 in.) framed: 62.9 x 97.3 x 6 cm (24 3/4 x 38 5/16 x 2 3/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
2000.159.1
Credit line
Gift of Joseph F. McCrindle in memory of Frederick A. den Broeder
Time span
1601 to 1650
Department
CNE-B

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • Baroque
  • Dutch
  • Acquired after launch of Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century (NGA Online Editions)
  • Battle
  • military
Provenance

(Carlo Sestieri, Rome);[1] purchased 1960s by Joseph F. McCrindle [1923-2008], New York; gift 2000 to NGA. [1] Although the earlier provenance of the painting is not known, hints of its history exist in earlier sale records and from labels on the verso of the panel. This work may be the painting identified as “Cavalry fight on a Hill” that was sold by J. H. van Heemskerk in The Hague in 1770 (sale of 29 March 1770, no. 142, sold for 461 florins to Deodati). The dimensions recorded for that work, 20 1/2 by 34 1/2 inches, are only slightly larger than those of this painting. See: Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, translated by Edward G. Hawke, 8 vols., London, 1907-1927: 2(1909):498, no. 770e. One of the old handwritten labels on the verso reads: “N:XXVII / Une bataille par Phillippe Wouwerman.” The other label, which indicates that the painting was at one point in Sweden, reads: “Österby-samlinger / Söderfors.”

Inscription

lower right, PH in monogram: PH.W.

NGA object ID 117959. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.