Pieter Wouwerman

According to Arnold Houbraken, a biographer of artists from the Dutch Golden Age, Pieter Wouwerman was the brother of the landscape painters Jan and Philips Wouwerman, who, like his more famous brother, made a living selling Italianate landscapes in the manner of Pieter van Laer.

Apparently when Pieter van Laer returned to Haarlem, his art was worth less than what he received in Rome, but he would not lower his price.

When a landscape that Laer made was considered too expensive, the buyer contracted the then young Philips Wouwermans to copy it, which he did quite well.

The success of this transaction launched the career of the young Wouwermans at the expense of Pieter van Laer, and Houbraken heard from Michiel Carré who in turn heard it from Pieter Gerritsz van Roestraten and Jacob de Wet that guilt forced Wouwerman to burn the proof of all of his copies before he died.

According to the RKD (Netherlands Institute for Art History), he was a student of Roelant Roghman, his older brother Philips, and his father Pouwels.