Wouverman's works have all the excellences that may be expected from high finishing, correctness, agreeable composition and colouring. It does not appear that he was ever in Italy, or even quitted the city of Haarlem, though it would seem probable that his more elaborate compositions owed something to other influences than those of Hals or Wynants. In his earlier pictures there are no horses, but later in his career he generally subordinated his landscapes to the groups or subjects for which he is most famous. In the National Gallery, among eleven examples, are a _Halt of Officers_, _Interior of a Stable_, _A Battle_, _The Bohemians_, and _Shoeing a Horse_, all of which contain numerous figures, mounted and unmounted--and there is nearly always a white horse. With all his success, he died a poor man, and it is related that in his last hours he burned a box filled with his studies and drawings, saying, "I have been so ill repaid for all my labours, that I would not have [Illustration: PLATE XXXI.--JAN VERMEER THE LACE MAKER _Louvre, Paris_] those designs engage my son to embrace so miserable a profession as mine." This son followed his advice, and became a Chartreux friar. Peter and Jan Wouverman were his brothers. The former painted hawking scenes, and his horses, though well designed, were not equal to those of Philips. The latter is represented in the National Gallery by a landscape in which the spirit of Wynant's, rather than that of Philips's, is discernible. At Hertford House, out of seven examples, two are of more than usual excellence, and well represent his earlier and later manners. _The Afternoon Landscape with a White Horse_ (No. 226 in Room XIII), which Smith (in his Catalogue Raisonne), characterizes as possessing unusual freedom of pencilling, and powerful effect, dates from the transition from the early to the middle period, and is a very effective picture, as well as being very characteristic. The _Horse Fair_ (No. 65, in Room XVI), is not only much larger than the other--it measures 25 x 35 inches--but is a really important picture. Lord Hertford paid L3200 for it in 1854. It was engraved by Moyrean, for his series of a hundred prints after Wouverman, under the title of _Le Grand Marche aux Chevaux_. It is thus described by Smith:--"This very capital picture exhibits an open country divided in the middle distance by a river whose course is lost among the distant mountains. The principal scene of activity is represented along the front and second grounds, on which may be numbered about twenty-four horses, exhibiting that noble animal in every variety of action, and nearly fifty persons. On the right of the picture is a coach, drawn by four fine grey horses, and in front of this object are a grey and a bay horse, on the latter of which are mounted a man and a boy. In advance of them is a group of four horses and several persons, among whom may be noticed a cavalier and a lady observing the