A Cavalry Fight

Cavalry fights in the open field — the mêlée — were the dramatic set pieces of seventeenth-century warfare, and painters competed to represent them with the combination of historical accuracy and compositional excitement that buyers demanded. Wouwerman approached battle scenes with less interest in heroic narrative than in the physical drama of horses in violent motion and the atmospheric effects of dust, smoke, and confused action. This work, painted around 1660 and formerly in the Charles Sedelmeyer collection, represents the cavalry fight as an energetic spectacle rather than a patriotic episode, consistent with Wouwerman's generally non-nationalistic approach to military subjects. Sedelmeyer's collection, dispersed at the end of the nineteenth century, included many significant Dutch works that subsequently entered major public collections.

Oil on panel with a composition organized around the directional clash of opposing cavalry groups meeting at the centre. Dust and smoke are introduced through hazy passages above the conflict zone. Wouwerman's horses in combat are given extended, straining postures far removed from the composed animals of his stable and camp scenes.