Seascape

While Simon de Vlieger was probably the most important Dutch marine painter of the first half of the 17th century, little is known of his early career, although his paintings of the 1620s and 1630s reveal a clear debt to Jan Porcellis. By the 1640s, he had evolved his own style, recognizable for its silvery light, cool palette and strong draftsmanship. De Vlieger formed a link between the second and third generations of Dutch marine painters, influencing Willem van de Velde II, who worked in his studio at Weesp, as well as Hendrick Dubbels and Jan van de Cappelle (who owned numerous paintings and more than 1,300 drawings by de Vlieger), who also probably trained in de Vlieger’s studio.

One of the most appealing aspects of de Vlieger’s finest works is the quantity of observational details that he included in his paintings, imparting them with a particularly lively and engaging realism. These include here, for example, the two men in the small boat at left, who brace themselves as they row against the choppy seas, and the wispy sheets of rain that shroud the boats in a misty haze in the left background. These are complemented by close attention to naturalistic details, for example the way in which the sun, obscured by heavy dark clouds, seemingly lights the picture from behind, with patches of sunlight escaping here and there to illuminate the right side of the composition. Particularly successful is the carefully-observed treatment of light and shadow seen in the sails of the two boats in the foreground.

The impression of realism is underpinned by a carefully thought-out composition, in which the two large boats at right are balanced by the larger ships in the distance at left. These visual bookends create an avenue leading the eye into the low horizon at the center of the composition, a device that de Vlieger would also develop in his later naval parade pictures.