A calm estuary with a smalschip and a waterschip at anchor, with other ships in the distance

Dated to circa 1645, this painting has all the attributes of Simon Jacobsz. de Vlieger’s most celebrated works - a transparent, silvery tonality, a limited, cool palette, and a sense of deep perspectival space. In this quiet calm, a strong receding diagonal is formed by the masts of the smalschip and waterschip anchored at left and the stern flag of a ship in the distance at right, creating the illusion of depth and distance. A work datable to the same period, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, uses the same spatial devices to convey a vast seascape on an intimate scale. In both pictures, a small indent in the paint surface indicates that de Vlieger used a straight edge to mark out the horizon line. De Vlieger experimented with the effects of basic linear perspective in a sheet of ten drawings, now in the British Museum, London (fig. 1). His mastery of perspective, attention to scale and detail, including the reflections in the water and the birds skimming the shallows, are beautifully displayed in this landscape. When this work appeared on the art market in 2001, it achieved a record price for the artist at auction (£685,750). Since then, it has remained hidden from view in the private collection of the family who acquired it over twenty years ago.