Tsar Peter the Great and his companions cruising off the Dutch coast in his boier

It has been suggested that this work emulates several executed by Abraham Storck to commemorate the well-documented visit by Tsar Peter to Amsterdam in the summer of 1697.

Tsar Peter the Great of Russia (1672-1725) visited Europe on his 'Great Embassy' from 1697-1698 accompanied by an entourage of over two hundred people. The stated aim of the tour was to advance diplomatic relations but it was also to give Peter the Great the opportunity to study European developments in technology, particularly military science, shipbuilding and navigation. He arrived in Amsterdam on 25th August 1697 and the city celebrated with lavish festivities, including a grand review of shipping in the river and a mock battle on 1st September. A contemporary account states that Peter was so delighted with the whole performance that, at his request, it was repeated several weeks later. This provided Storck with the opportunity to make sketches and record the occasion from which he subsequently produced several paintings of the mock battles and the surrounding events, one of which was offered in our Maritime Sale at King Street on 29th October 2008 (lot 1). The painting here appears to show Peter and his companions enjoying a coastal jaunt in the new boier which had been specifically built for him in Zaandam and with which he was said to be delighted [a boier was a small, shallow-draft Dutch boat with a flat bottom and wide leeboards, primarily used for transporting freight in coastal waters plagued by sandbanks].