Philips Wouwerman, Two Vedettes on the Watch by a Stream

In the Netherlands in the seventeenth century a vedette was a mounted sentry usually placed near an outpost – here, two of them are on watch by a stream. Wouwerman captures their watchfulness by turning their backs to us, making them look in opposite directions and leaning them forward as if they are peering into the distance. The man in the red jacket is riding one of Wouwerman’s characteristic white horses, though he is a humbler character than the elegant aristocrat the artist usually showed on such a mount (like the man we see in A Stag Hunt).

Time hasn't been kind to the picture and it’s difficult to tell whether the light that catches the white horse is sun or moonlight. But the scene is tranquil enough to allow a couple to lie on the grass and play with their baby at the feet of the vedettes, though the dog beside them is still watchful.