Ambushing an Army Convoy

The Dutch title of this panel speaks of a legertros, an army's baggage train, the wagons, carts and camp followers that trailed behind the troops. In 1631, when Pieter Post signed and dated it, the Dutch Republic had been at war with Spain again for ten years, ever since the Twelve Years' Truce ran out in 1621, and a column like this was always open to attack.

Post painted it as the companion to a Cavalry Engagement of the same size and year. The two panels came to the museum together in 1922 as a gift from Anton Philips, the Eindhoven industrialist who built up the Philips electrical company, and his wife Anna. It belongs to the Mauritshuis and hangs in the Gallery Prince Willem V on the Buitenhof.