Dutch Landscapes
Dutch Landscapes
A Calm: A States Yacht under Sail close to the Shore with many other Vessels
c. 1655Oil on panel | 59.8 x 71.4 cm (support, canvas/panel/str external) | RCIN 405328
The ships in question can be identified through the comparison with the drawings of Willem van de Velde the Elder; to the left of the yacht is a pont in the foreground, behind this a kaag and hoekers in the distance. Reading to the right from the yacht is a kaag, two smalschepen, a hoeker next to a Pont and a weyschuit in the right foreground.
The artists already mentioned as Willem van de Velde’s inspiration for images such as this – Simon de Vlieger and Jan van de Cappelle – were both exponents of the ‘tonal’ style of seascape, initially pioneered by Jan Porcellis. The best way of understanding this painting is to imagine Willem van de Velde setting out to paint a tonal painting and striving not to sacrifice any of its atmospheric unity, while at the same time adding those elements which tonal painting lacks – bright colour and a thick, opaque and smooth paint surface. In the lower part of this painting the boats, ripples and sand are beautifully unified in a close, grey-brown tonal range. This is also a perfect example of ‘going with the grain’, an effect whereby the paint follows and suggests the grain of the wood panel while at the same time evoking the clinker boats and ripples of water. The sky contains thicker paint, purer white and brighter blue than any tonal painting, and yet colour and tone are controlled in such a way as to retain an effect of atmospheric unity. By this means the viewer is made to feel that there is a veil of moist, sunlit air between their eye and every surface in the painting.
Text adapted from Dutch Landscapes, London, 2010
BUCKINGHAM PALACE INVENTORY NUMBER / [Number] ; an oval stamp, enclosing a number; relates to the current B.P. Picture Inventory ( started ca. 1968; includes oils, miniatures, enamels, watercolours & drawings, porcelain paintings & mosaics)1487