Two Horsemen near a Fountain

Two travellers and their horses have halted in their journey to refresh themselves at the simple stone fountain in the lower left-hand corner of the scene. One has already dismounted from his white horse and looks towards the woman who gestures towards her bucket, seemingly offering to draw water for them. Prominent with her white sleeves, the woman’s pose is stiff and studied compared to the theatrical posturing of the dismounted traveller. A brown dog looks obediently up to him, while in the foreground a white dog laps thirstily from a stream. A third man, leaning against the rocks in the background, looks on. Although he may also be pausing in his respective journey, he is of a different social standing to the two newly arrived travellers. Their feathered hats, silk jackets and sturdy boots from the city form a contrast to the humble attire of the seated figure. The landscape stretches out to the right, giving the viewer a sense of the distance already covered by the travellers, while the path curving up behind the woman indicates their onwards journey. 

The Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman (1619-68) was well-known for scenes of travellers halting to rest in the Dutch countryside. Here he repeats some of his regular motifs: a prominent white horse, a central tree with feathery branches, and visible dashed brushstrokes creating a clouded sky. Yet this is a transitional picture by the artist in which it is possible to see his development from the earlier influence of his contemporary, the painter Pieter van Laer (1599-1642), to the stylistic sophistication found in Wouwerman’s later works such as the Halt of a Hunting Party. Wouwerman has developed Van Laer’s signature diagonal compositions and earthy brown tones into an almost horizontal panorama with subtle colour transitions throughout. This painting has historically been seen as a companion piece to Wouwerman’s A Halt of Cavaliers, painted around 1642-43, possibly because of the similarity of their subject matter. However, this cannot be the case as Wouwerman’s signature in the lower right-hand corner of this painting – which reads ‘PHILS W’ – dates the painting to after 1646, the point when the artist changed his signature to this particular format. This painting was lent to the Royal Academy, London, to be copied in 1834.