Oil painting, 'Interior of a Stable', Wouter Verschuur, 1853

A stable interior with three horses and two dogs in the foreground , with people looking after them; a little donkey and a fourth horse in the background with two other figures.

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon

Bequeathed by Joshua Dixon, 1886
Ref: Parkinson, Ronald, Catalogue of British Oil Paintings 1820-1860, (Victoria & Albert Museum, HMSO, London, 1990), p.xx.
Joshua Dixon (1811-1885), was the son of Abraham Dixon of Whitehaven and brother of George Dixon (who was head of the foreign merchants firm of Rabone Brothers in Birmingham 1883-98). Educated at Leeds Grammar School, and was deputy chairman of the London, Chatham and Dover Railway Company 1869-70. Died Winslade, near Exeter, 7 December 1885. Bequeathed all his collection of drawings, watercolours and oil paintings to the Bethnal Green Museum; they have since been transferred to the V&A. He also collected engravings, Japanese vases and panels, and bronze and marble sculpture.

Historical significance: This stable interior is a typical of Verschuur's work. He became famous for his depictions of horses. Another example is theInterior with horses in the Amsterdam Historisches Museum (inv.SA 2944).

His use of an earthy, rather monochrome palette, is reminiscent of 17th-century painters, especially Philips Wouverman (1619-1668), who was celebrated for his equestrian scenes.

Wouterus Verschuur (1812-1874) was born in Amsterdam, where he trained with the landscape and cattle painters Pieter Gerardus van Os (1776-1839) and Cornelis Steffelaar (1797-1861). In 1833, he became member of the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten and the Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut in Amsterdam, and joined the artists' society Arti et Amicitiae in 1839. He worked in The Hague from 1846 to 1857 and 1869 to 1874, and lived also in Doorn (1842), Brussels (1867) and Haarlem (1858-68).

Verschuur's oeuvre specialised in stable interiors and landscape painting, in a style reminiscent of 17th century art. The great tradition of the Golden Age constituted a real burden for Dutch painters in the 19th century, but a more direct approach to nature emerged. The arrival of the Barbizon school gave new life to a tradition that had been stagnating. Hendrik Mesdag (1831-1915), Anton Mauve (1838-1888), Jozef Israëls (1824-1911) and Jacob Maris (1837-1899) were the nucleus of the Hague School, founded in the 1870s. Their subdued colour and sketchy technique puzzled contemporary art critics who then nicknamed this new movement as the 'grey school'. 19th-century Dutch paintings wee popular with British collectors, including James Staats Forbes (1823-1904), Alexander Young and Sir John Charles Frederic Sigismund Day (1826-1908).

Wouterus Verschuur (1812-1874) was born in Amsterdam and trained there by the landscape and cattle painters Pieter Gerardus van Os (1776-1839) and Cornelis Steffelaar (1797-1861). In 1833, he became member of the Akademie voor Beeldende Kunsten and of the Koninklijk Nederlands Instituut in Amsterdam, and joined the artists' society Arti et Amicitiae in 1839. He worked in The Hague from 1846 and 1857 and 1869 to 1874, residing also in The Hague, Doorn (1842), Brussels (1867) and Haarlem (1858-68).

This painting is a typical example of Wouterus Verschuur's oeuvre. He specialised in stable interiors and landscape painting in a style reminiscent of the 17th century art. Animals, especially horses and cattle, were favoured by the 19th century artists as they were considered an example of the national pride.

1060-1886