Accession Number
1970.286
Medium
brush and black ink, brush and gray wash, and black chalk; framing lines in black ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 34.9 x 23.9 cm (13 3/4 x 9 7/16 in.); Secondary Support: 34.9 x 23.9 cm (13 3/4 x 9 7/16 in.); Tertiary Support: 42 x 30.6 cm (16 9/16 x 12 1/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Noah L. Butkin
Tags
Drawing Baroque (1600–1750) Ink Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Jan Wouwerman (1629-1666) was a Dutch painter known for the atmospheric landscape paintings with peasant subjects that make him one of the accomplished landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Peasants in a Rocky Landscape from 1629-66 depicts peasants in a rocky landscape in the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that distinguishes Wouwerman's best work from the more general landscape painting of his contemporaries. Jan was the younger brother of the more famous Philips Wouwerman, and his atmospheric landscape paintings with peasant subjects represent one of the accomplished traditions in Dutch Golden Age landscape painting.
Cultural Impact
Peasants in a Rocky Landscape is important in the history of Dutch landscape painting because it demonstrates the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that Jan Wouwerman brought to landscape with peasant subjects as one of the accomplished landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Wouwerman's atmospheric landscape paintings—combining peasant subjects with the atmospheric landscape manner that is his most distinctive contribution—represent one of the accomplished traditions in Dutch Golden Age landscape painting, and the 1629-66 painting shows this tradition at its most atmospheric.
Why It Matters
Peasants in a Rocky Landscape is Jan Wouwerman's atmospheric Dutch landscape: peasants in a rocky landscape rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the accomplished landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. The 1629-66 painting shows the combination of peasant subjects with atmospheric landscape that makes Dutch Golden Age landscape painting one of the most accomplished traditions.
