# Riding School [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [WOUWERMAN, Philips]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 68 x 83 cm ## Commentary Wouwerman was a Dutch painter of landscapes with battle and hunting scenes and genre scenes of soldiers in camp reminiscent of Pieter van Laer. He frequently disposed dozens of small figures in his canvases and he had a special fondness for white horses. There are about 1200 recorded paintings by him, only very few dated. His brothers Jan and Pieter were also landscape painters, Pieter imitated Philips and used a confusingly similar PW monogram. The picture shown here depicts a scene of horse training with a mountainous landscape in the background. A company of horse trainers are seen in a woodland glade in the mountains breaking in horses. In this composition the figures of the riders, grooms and children, all clothed in bright colour, are no more important than the horses. The trees, billowing cumulus clouds and rather misty landscape suggest a more southerly setting than the place where this picture was in fact painted. The prancing movements of the saddled horses make this an exceptionally animated composition. ## Related artworks - [A Hawking Party]() - [A Man and a Woman on Horseback \(detail\)]() - [A Man and a Woman on Horseback]() - [Battle on Horseback]() - [Cavalier Holding a Dappled Grey Horse]() - [Cavalry Battle in front of a Burning Mill]() - [Cavalry Skirmish]() - [Coastal Landscape with the Dropping of Goods]() - [Coming out of an Inn]() - [Dune Landscape]() - [Dune Landscape with Figures]() - [Halt of a Hunting Party]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()