A hoeker and smalschepen on choppy seas, a storm approaching beyond

The present lot is an important addition to the hitherto known oeuvre of Jan Porcellis. It is to be dated to circa 1620 and is to be compared with the picture dated 1620 in the National Museum, Budapest (L.J. Bol, Die Holländische Marine Malerei des 17. Jahrhunderts, 1973, p.94/95, fig.90). The present lot is somewhat unusual for its scale, as most of Porcellis' paintings are limited to cabinet sizes. The composition is almost identical with the picture recorded in the Semenow-Tianshanski Collection in Saint Petersburg in 1913 (photograph in the RKD, The Hague). Jan Porcellis, as so many other Dutch painters of his generation, was born in Flanders and alternately lived in the Northern and Southern Netherlands. In the 1620's he developed towards a tonalic marine painting, with low horizons and subdued colours in which atmospheric effects were the most important subjects. The present lot stands at the beginning of this development.

See illustration and front cover