17th Century Dutch school - Hunting Scene

17th Century, Oil on Canvas Dutch Painting with Hunting Scene
Oil on canvas. Dimensions: frame W 81 x H 75 cm, canvas 58 x 49 cm

The oil on canvas painting depicts a hunting scene in a predominantly rocky landscape. On the right, at the center of the canvas is depicted a group of characters dressed for hunting according to the seventeenth-century fashion of northern Europe. The men stop with their horses and dogs; one of them points downstream, while another one sounds a horn, used as a call sign in hunting trips. In the foreground on the left another character sits on the ground, turning his back on the observer, in the company of two hunting dogs. The scene takes place in the open air, in a rocky context and the landscape widens towards a valley, beyond which the horizon is lost among mountain reliefs with blue tones. The bright sky is characterized by some clear clouds. The colour palette of the canvas is characterized by brown tones; a ray of light that emphasizes the right group, where it stands out illuminated a dog and the spotted steed on which is rising a man with a red mantle, the only colour saturated and decided canvas.
Stylistically the painting can be traced back to the hand of a painter active around the middle of the seventeenth century in Holland, in the ambit of Philips Wouwerman (Haarlem, 24 May 1619. Haarlem, 19 May 1668) famous Dutch painter and draughtsman of the golden age.
Wouwerman was an eclectic painter; he devoted himself to genre painting, with which he represented mainly subjects of the lower classes in rural environments, and landscape, especially Italian and winter, represented city views, historical subjects, equestrian, portraits, marines, architectures. In the 1641-1649 Wouwerman’s paintings are characterized by the presence of a diagonally arranged hill or dune and a tree in contrast with some large figures, such as farmers or hunters, generally with horses. It was during this period that the artist developed his own style, although strongly influenced by Pieter van Laer. Its characteristic was the extreme ease of execution: in fact it left us a considerable number of works, which were copied and reproduced for engraving, especially in the eighteenth century.
The quick brushstroke that the author of the painting uses gives freshness and immediacy to the image, very pleasant for its well-balanced brightness.
The work, in excellent condition, is accompanied by a hand-carved giltwood frame from 19th century.