Halt of Sportsmen

Five figures come to a halt beside a river. A man in a blue tunic, with a hooded falcon balanced on his right arm, crouches down to attend to the pack of excited dogs who surround the spoils of the hunt. One seated figure – silhouetted against the sky – has already commenced plucking a pheasant, its long tail sticking out into the landscape background. Away from the group, a pair of harnessed dogs quench their thirst at the river after the exertion of the day. Further along the water, a little ferry has set off from the village on the opposite bank.  

Attributions for this painting have wavered over the years between Pieter Wouwerman (1623-82) and his older, and much revered artist brother, Philips Wouwerman (1619-68). Settling on the author of this painting is made difficult because of its poor condition, with badly-worn paint layers revealing the grain of the wooden panel in some places. The picture has many of the characteristic motifs found in Philips Wouwerman’s hunting scenes: a centrally placed white horse, dogs, a prominent tree and expansive skies strewn with clouds, as depicted here. Although he died at forty-eight, more than one thousand paintings are attributed to him and his workshop. Wouwerman was at the peak of his collectability when the Dulwich Picture Gallery founders were putting together their collection, with a newspaper report from 1791 describing a dedicated ‘Wouwerman Room’ in their house in Charlotte Street (now Hallam Street), London.