A Hawking party

A hawking party setting out on horseback and on foot accompanied by hounds, one man sounds the horn while another transports birds. Philips Wouwerman, (1619-1668) was the most accomplished and successful 17th-century Dutch painter of horses, which he included in his many pictures depicting battle scenes, hunting scenes, army camps, smithies and stables. During the second half of the 1650s Wouwerman produced many fanciful hunting scenes. Between 1737 and 1759 Jean Moyreau (1690–1762) published 89 engravings after paintings by Wouwerman. Although 573-1870 does not correspond to any specific work in Wouwerman’s oeuvre it contains many of the artist’s favourite motifs and themes. Wouwerman produced roughly 30 hawking party pictures over his career and 573-1870 and appears to be a pastiche of several of these, possibly taken from engravings after his work.