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Lot Essay
Arguably the most famous marine artist of the second half of the seventeenth century, Willem van de Velde II was the son of the celebrated painter Willem van de Velde I. Willem II moved in circa 1648 to Weesp to study under Simon de Vlieger (for whom see lot 566), whose sombre and atmospheric seascapes were a crucial influence on his previous experience of his father's more academic tradition. Back in Amsterdam by 1652, Willem II took up work in his father's studio, where his prodigious artistic talent rapidly became clear, with many of his celebrated calm scenes painted while he was still in his twenties. Father and son moved to England in 1672, around which time the subject-matter of Willem II's paintings underwent a marked change, with shipwreck and storm subjects, such as the present work, tending to replace the calms of the 1660s, perhaps in reaction to the influence of Ludolf Bakhuizen (for whom see lot 563).
Willem van de Velde I was constantly at sea with the Dutch fleet, sometimes as an independent observer, sometimes in an official capacity, and most of his work was based on the meticulous drawings he made on those trips. Although Willem II did not make a regular practice of sailing with the Dutch or the English fleets - the only action of the Anglo-Dutch wars that he is likely to have witnessed was the Four Days' Battle of Dunkirk in 1666 - he was able to use his experience in conjunction with his father's sketches, from which the majority of his works were worked up, to depict with remarkable accuracy the working of ships at sea.
In the present picture, as described by Robinson, the artist represents a galliot-type fishing smack, port bow view, at anchor and sheered to windward by the strong weather-going tide, her brown mainsail stowed beneath her gaff, which is lowered to within a few feet of the gunwale. Beyond, a similar smack lifts to a sea as she runs before the gale; her brown foresail is hoisted but the sheets are let fly; her mainsail, as with the foreground boat, is stowed beneath the gaff, which is lowered. In the right background is a ship at anchor head to wind, fore topmast struck, fore and main yards acockbilled and the mizzen yard lowered on deck. As Robinson remarked, 'even the smallest details of the masts and yards that would have been ordered in a ship at anchor in a gale are correctly shown' (loc. cit.).
These were subtleties that would not have been apparent to the majority of Van de Velde's contemporaries, and which he therefore delighted in displaying in an oeuvre that was to influence maritime art through the next two centuries. He was, for example, regarded by Turner as one of the great masters - his celebrated Dutch Boats in a Gale: Fishermen Endeavouring to Put their Fish on Board (London, National Gallery, on loan) was a deliberate challenge to Van de Velde's Kaag close hauled in a fresh breeze in the Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio.
Willem van de Velde I was constantly at sea with the Dutch fleet, sometimes as an independent observer, sometimes in an official capacity, and most of his work was based on the meticulous drawings he made on those trips. Although Willem II did not make a regular practice of sailing with the Dutch or the English fleets - the only action of the Anglo-Dutch wars that he is likely to have witnessed was the Four Days' Battle of Dunkirk in 1666 - he was able to use his experience in conjunction with his father's sketches, from which the majority of his works were worked up, to depict with remarkable accuracy the working of ships at sea.
In the present picture, as described by Robinson, the artist represents a galliot-type fishing smack, port bow view, at anchor and sheered to windward by the strong weather-going tide, her brown mainsail stowed beneath her gaff, which is lowered to within a few feet of the gunwale. Beyond, a similar smack lifts to a sea as she runs before the gale; her brown foresail is hoisted but the sheets are let fly; her mainsail, as with the foreground boat, is stowed beneath the gaff, which is lowered. In the right background is a ship at anchor head to wind, fore topmast struck, fore and main yards acockbilled and the mizzen yard lowered on deck. As Robinson remarked, 'even the smallest details of the masts and yards that would have been ordered in a ship at anchor in a gale are correctly shown' (loc. cit.).
These were subtleties that would not have been apparent to the majority of Van de Velde's contemporaries, and which he therefore delighted in displaying in an oeuvre that was to influence maritime art through the next two centuries. He was, for example, regarded by Turner as one of the great masters - his celebrated Dutch Boats in a Gale: Fishermen Endeavouring to Put their Fish on Board (London, National Gallery, on loan) was a deliberate challenge to Van de Velde's Kaag close hauled in a fresh breeze in the Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio.