Omschrijving | BOOKSALE Aetas Aurea Volume XX. Philips Wouwermans was one of the most versatile and prolific artists of the Dutch Golden Age. Embedded in the artistic environment and tradition of his home town of Haarlem, Wouwermans made an important and highly influential contribution to the canon of seventeenth-century Dutch painting. This comprehensive study begins with a biography of the artist based on extensive archival research, followed by a detailed examination and critical analysis of his stylistic development and commentary on questions of iconography. Of particular importance, in light of Wouwermans' enormous output, is the discussion of the influence exerted by the art market and the taste of contemporary collectors on the content, form and style of his paintings. Because of the approximately 2,000 attributed paintings which have flooded the art market (and bearing in mind that of the c. 800 original paintings that have survived, around 400 are to be found in private collections and on the art market), special attention has been paid to the question of authenticity. This study establishes criteria, based on the information supplied by detailed photographs of his work, by means of which Wouwermans' own handwriting can be explained. His oeuvre, cleansed of false attributions, is reduced to its original core and the contributions his studio made to his late work are also examined. Subsequent chapters deal with the posthumous fame of Wouwermans in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and with the changing reputation of the artist in the art-historical literature since the seventeenth century. The exhaustive catalogue raisonné is divided into four parts: the first contains detailed information on accepted, verifiable paintings; the second comprises dubious attributions; the third and fourth part document the rejected works in public collections, as well as works that have been lost. The catalogue is complemented by comprehensive appendixes which contain a list of archival documents, indexes of owners, past and present, and a concordance with Hofstede de Groot's 1908 numbers. This lavishly illustrated reference book provides a basis for further research on the work of Philips Wouwermans. |
