17th Century Painting By Matthias Scheits (hamburg C.1625/30-c.1700 Hamburg) Carriage Ambush

Matthias Scheits (Hamburg c.1625/30 – c. 1700 Hamburg)

A Carriage Ambush

Oil on panel, 44.5 x 62 cm (17.5 x 24.4 inch)

Provenance
Private collection, Germany

Matthias Scheits was born in Hamburg and travelled to Holland in his student years, where he was apprenticed to the horse painter Philips Wouwerman (1619 – 1668) in Haarlem.1 By 1652 Scheits had returned to Hamburg, as he married there in that year. The painter Johannes Voorhout knew Scheits in Hamburg around 1673, who commented he was painting history pieces, as was recounted by the artists’ biographer Arnold Houbraken in his Groote Schouburgh of 1721.

The loose handling of this recently discovered painting recalls the influence of Haarlem painters, not only Scheits’s master Wouwerman, but also other contemporary painters such as Adriaen and Isaac van Ostade and ultimately Frans Hals. The work may have been painted during his time in Holland during the 1640s but could also have been painted in Germany after his return to Hamburg. As was noted out by Dr Fred Meijer, the fairly dark and romantic sky is typical for the artist.

Although paintings by Scheits are rare, good examples are preserved in the collections of the Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Deutsche Barockgalerie, Augsburg, the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg, the Schönborn collection at Schloss Weissenstein, Pommersfelden and the Kadriorg Art Museum, Tallinn. Our painting can for instance be compared to Scheits’s painting of a Cavalry Skirmish in the Hamburger Kunsthalle (fig.).2

We are grateful to Dr Fred Meijer for confirming the authorship of Scheits.3

The painting has recently been professionally cleaned and restored and is in very good condition. There is some old woodwurm holes in the frame.

1. For the artist, see I. van Thiel-Stroman, ‘Biographies 15th-17th century’’ , in: P. Biesboer and N. Köhler, Painting in Haarlem 1500-1800: the collection of the Frans Hals Museum, Ghent/Haarlem 2006, p. 359 and H. Gerson, Ausbreitung und Nachwirkung der holländischen Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, Amsterdam 1983, pp. 219-220 and 271-272.
2. Oil on panel, dimensions unknown, inv. no. HK-258; Maria Theresia Horstmann, Matthias Scheits. Gemäldeverzeichnis, Hamburg 1988, cat. no. 10.
3. Email correspondence, 19 December 2024.