Besides landscapes, a camp, and others in his usual style, there are two pictures of fighting peasants.
His brother, Pieter Wouwermans (1623-82), is represented by two works: Assault on the Town of Koevorden, 1672, and The Hunting Party. His works have frequently been mistaken for Philips's, though, as may be seen in these pictures, his brush work has less freedom, and his tones are heavier than his brother's.
Jan Wijnants Unsuccessful in peopling his Scenery.—Jan Wijnants (1600-79), who is said to have been the master of Philips Wouwermans, has eight pictures by which his qualities may be compared with those of that painter. These are Landscape in the Dunes, with Hunters; Mountainous Country; The Farm; and Flock in a Landscape; and four landscapes in the Van der Hoop Collection. He was a painter of extreme care and finish; and in painting nature he ranks among the highest. Like so many other Dutch landscape-painters, however, he was not successful with figures; and for peopling his scenery he availed himself of the assistance of his great pupil, Adriaen van de Velde (as in the case of the above-mentioned Landscape in the Dunes), Lingelbach, Wouwermans, Helt Stokade, and others.
Jan Wijnants's Love of painting the Dunes.—Durand Gréville says:
"His dated pictures are of his last period, 1641-79, so that he may claim the honor of first having introduced into the landscape the neighboring dunes of Haarlem and of having been the first to love them. He faithfully translated in their blond harmony the dunes, gray or golden, with the sun, the trees with their pale foliage, and the skies with their light vaporous veilings. To his last hour he went back again and again to that inexhaustible theme in its apparent monotony. He put into the execution of the dazzle of the sand, tree-trunks, spaces of moss and clumps of grasses an astonishing sincerity, perhaps even somewhat too minute from the point of view of the impression of the whole, but, even by that, quite accessible to the taste of the majority of people. None the less he remains to-day one of the most remarkable landscape-painters of Holland."
Cornelis van Poelenburg.—Cornelis van Poelenburg has four characteristic pictures in his favorite Italian style: The Bathers, Women Coming from the Bath, Adam and Eve Expelled from Paradise, and The Bathers Spied Upon.
Winter Scenes by A. van der Neer.—The most noted painter of winter scenes and of the magic beauty of snow and ice is Aart van der Neer (1603-77), a friend of A. Cuijp, from whom he doubtless learned much, as they frequently worked together on the same canvas. His winter pieces are generally warm in their lighting. Two fine specimens hang in this gallery, one of which is brightened by numerous figures skating and playing ball on a frozen canal. The sky is full of dark snow-clouds. He may also be studied by a Landscape.
His Moonlight Scenes.—He is also famous for his beautiful towns on the canals, lighted by the moon, and his conflagrations. No other painter has depicted the broad masses of shadow, and the effects of light and tranquillity of character peculiar to a moonlight night, with so much truthfulness as Van der Neer. In his rendering of the warm glow of sunset he has been compared to his friend Cuijp.
Hendrick Averkamp.—In this connection The Skaters, by Hendrick Averkamp (1585-after 1663), should be noted. This artist was surnamed "the Mute of Kampen" because of his taciturnity. He produced many marines, landscapes, and festivals on the ice, which have, unfortunately, lost their color.
Esais van de Velde's Pictures.—Winter amusements by Esais van de Velde will afford pleasure to the student, who may also see this artist's Dutch Landscape, painted in 1623; The Surrender of Bois-le-Duc (1629-30), and an original replica of his curious satire on religious quarrels in 1618-19, Prince Maurice Fastening Bells on a Cat. Many of the architectural painters have depicted the well-known street scenes and buildings under the mantle of winter.