By the Riverside

River and waterway scenes occupied a distinct place in Dutch Golden Age painting because water was the fundamental medium of Dutch economic and social life — trade, travel, communication, and recreation all depended on rivers, canals, and estuaries. Wouwerman, primarily known for horse subjects, occasionally extended his range to include riverside settings where horses and riders interact with the water's edge, ferrymen, and boat traffic. This panel, dated around 1655 and held in the Wallace Collection, shows the artist integrating his equestrian expertise with the kind of staffed landscape composition that Dutch buyers valued for its combination of topographic specificity and human incident. The Wallace Collection's holdings of Wouwerman are among the most significant outside the Hermitage, assembled during the nineteenth century when his reputation remained at its height.

On panel with oil paint, the composition uses the river surface as a horizontal anchor against which the vertical drama of horses and riders plays out. The sky reflected in the water creates a luminous passage that unifies upper and lower zones of the composition. Paint application is confident and fluid in the sky and water areas.