Resting on the Battlefield

Resting on the battlefield is a wonderful original drawing in burnt Sienna pencil on ivory-colored paper, realized by Jan Peeter Verdussen .

Numbered in black China ink on the lower right corner " 134 ".

This original artwork represents with a very rapid and wise line a curious scene: men and women wearing clothes of the time are witnessing a fight of cavalry in a battlefield.

Likely, this original artwork was realized when Verdussen was the official court painter of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, the King of Sardinia. From 31 March 1743 to 28 February 1746, he accompanied the king during his military campaigns and made paintings of what he witnessed: the victories of his patron. He thus painted a large number of artworks of the Battle of Guastalla and many more. In 1745, these works decorated the Battle Gallery in the Royal Palace in Turin. 

In excellent conditions, with some minor stains on the higher margin. White cardboard passepartout included: 49 x 34 cm.

Jan Peeter Verdussen or Jan Pieter Verdussen (Antwerp, ca. 1700 - Avignon, 1763) was a Flemish painter, draftsman, and printmaker, well-known for his battle scenes, incidents of camp life, equestrian paintings and landscapes with hunting scenes, gallant companies and genre scenes of markets. He was the son of a battle painter, who was in turn the son of the painter Jacob Verdussen that was a master of the Guild of Saint Luke of Antwerp in 1697. After a training period with his father in Antwerp, he arrived in Turin on 31 March 1743 to become the court painter of Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, the King of Sardinia. Verdussen remained in Turin until 28 February 1746.

Jan Peeter Verdussen kept travelling throughout France, in Rome, and in Marseille, where in 1759 he became member and then director of the local Academy. He later arrived in Avignon, where he died on 31 March 1763.

The chronology of his work is not well established.

He was influenced by the leading Dutch battle painters Philips Wouwerman and Bamboccianti, the Dutch and Flemish genre painters of low life themes active in Rome in the 17th century. Furthermore, he was influenced by the French rococo painter Nicolas Lancret, by the Flemish battle painter Adam Frans van der Meulen, who was active in France, and by his pupil, the French painter Jean-Baptiste Martin.