A coastal landscape with a Dutch three-master in distress and a shipwreck by a fortified town

Bonaventura Peeters, thought to have been apprenticed to Andries van Eertvelt and Simon de Vlieger, was elected a member of the Antwerp Guild by 1634. The artist was famed for his stormy shipping pictures, such as the present work, with intricately drawn compositions often crowded with boats and mariners. As a young man Peeters is believed to have made several voyages at sea, and during the siege of the town of Calloo, he is said to have been employed as a cartographer.