The son of Peter Verdussen (1662–1701), the celebrated battle painter and a descendant of the artist Jacob Verdussen, Jan Peeter seemed naturally destined for an artistic career. He began his training in his native city of Antwerp, under his father’s guidance.
Inspired by his father’s work, the young artist turned toward the military genre. Around 1743, he travelled to Italy and settled in Turin, where King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia appointed him official court painter, commissioning him to depict scenes celebrating the House of Savoy for the royal villa. From that point on, Verdussen established himself as a recognised artist: representations of battles and military encampments became his specialty, which he maintained throughout his career. Documented in Marseille in 1744, he already enjoyed a solid reputation as a battle painter, while also exploring more tranquil subjects. The pair of paintings presented here bears witness to this duality, combining a taste for encampments and horses with the elegance of refined social encounters during a countryside hunt.
Influenced by the work of Philips Wouwerman (1619–1668), Verdussen was particularly fond of hunting themes, depictions of departures for or returns from the hunt, sometimes illustrating members of the House of Savoy (fig. 1). Certain subjects of hunting or military inspiration may have been conceived as pendants, representing two key social moments of the hunt (fig. 2). In this delicate approach, nature is never relegated to a secondary role: it actively participates in the composition, alternately positioned to the right or left so as to visually link the two canvases like a theatrical scene. Our two works offer a representative example of this practice.
The first depicts the departure for the hunt: at the centre, a rider wearing a tricorne exchanges a few words with a companion on foot, while the dogs bustle around them, ready to set off. In the background, peasants observe the scene with lively anticipation, and other hunters gather within the landscape.
The second canvas illustrates the rest during the hunt. In a shaded clearing, two elegantly dressed figures wearing tricornes are surrounded by hunters engaged in peaceful conversation. The horses, held at rest, wait patiently as the dogs regroup near their masters. To the right, a man lays down the freshly captured game, a testament to a successful hunt. The ensemble conveys a harmonious pause combining conviviality, social prestige, refinement and nature.
From his Flemish roots, Verdussen derived a masterful handling of oil painting, particularly evident in his rendering of fabrics. From Wouwerman—who had made hunting one of his favourite subjects—he retained above all the anatomical treatment of horses. In his compositions, the horse thus occupies a central place, whether saddled, held by the reins or galloping freely. The animal’s movement and musculature are rendered with great virtuosity, underscoring its majestic character.
Diffuse light harmoniously permeates his scenes. Both paintings appear to be set in the late morning or afternoon, when the low sun illuminates the principal subjects without creating excessive contrasts, subtly guiding the viewer’s eye toward the central figures. The undergrowth and backgrounds, immersed in a soft penumbra, are rendered through tonal harmonies of ochres, greens and browns, enhancing the depth and the delicate atmosphere of the compositions.
Active in France from 1744 onwards, Jan Peeter Verdussen’s talent found recognition in Marseille, where he became a member and later director of the Academy, thus contributing to the transmission of the Flemish tradition of landscape and battle painting to local artists. The painter died in Avignon at the age of sixty-three, leaving behind a valuable testimony to a hybrid artistic production poised between Flemish and Italian traditions.
