A view across the river Ij toward Amsterdam

Ludolf Bakhuizen began his career as a merchant's clerk for Guilielmo Bartolotti van den Heuvel, a member of the Dutch East India Company and wealthy grain trader. Bakhuizen only initiated his artistic training in the late 1650s under the landscapist Allaert van Everdingen and completed it under Hendrick Dubbels, a leading Amsterdam marine painter. Despite his late start, he is regarded, with Willem van de Velde II, as the foremost Dutch marine painter of the second half of the seventeenth century, securing the patronage of royalty and wealthy merchants alike. The careful observation of the coming storm seen here, and its effects on the river, is typical of Bakhuizen's marines. The spires of Amsterdam's Zuiderkerk, Westerkerk and Noorderkerk are seen in the background. Although the original commission of this painting is unknown, its earliest owner, Abraham Hume, was a noted floriculturist and collector of Old Master paintings, drawings and prints. His portrait, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is now in the collection of the Tate, London (inv. no. NOO305).