La Grote de Marechal. Gravé d'Après le Tableau Original de Ppe. Wouvermens de dix neuf pouces de large sur vingt trois pouces de haut

Paris: Moyreau, 1748. Engraving, coloured by hand, by J. Moyreau. A fine composition, showing life on the road in the Flemish low countries: two travellers wait outside a farrier's shop. One of their horses had thrown a shoe and the farrier prepares the hoof whilst his assistant runs out from the shop with a new shoe clasped in a pair of iron tongs. Meanwhile life continues round about. The title notes that the original painting was 23 inches high by 19 wide.

'Dutch painter and draughtsman. [Philips Wouwerman]... was the eldest son of the painter Paulus [Pauwels] Joostens Wouwerman of Alkmaar (d 28 Sept 1642), whose two other sons, Pieter Wouwerman and Johannes Wouwerman, also became painters. Philips probably received his first painting lessons from his father, none of whose work has been identified. According to Cornelis de Bie, Wouwerman was next apprenticed to Frans Hals, although no trace of Hals's influence is discernible in Wouwerman's work. Wouwerman is also reputed to have spent several weeks in 1638 or 1639 working in Hamburg in the studio of the German history painter Evert Decker (d. 1647). While in Hamburg, he married Annetje Pietersz. van Broeckhof. On 4 September 1640 Wouwerman joined the Guild of St Luke in Haarlem, in which in 1646 he held the office of vinder (agent or finder). Given the many southern elements in his landscapes, it has repeatedly been suggested that Wouwerman must have travelled to France or Italy, but there is no documentary evidence that he left his native Haarlem for more than short periods. During his lifetime he must have attained a certain degree of prosperity, as demonstrated by the relatively large sums inherited by each of his seven children after his wife's death in 1670.