Willem van de Velde the Younger

Velde, Willem van de, II

Dutch, 1633 - 1707

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A three-masted warship against a sky piled with clouds fills most of the right half of this vertical painting. The cream-white sails are bright in the sunlight, and tiny deckhands work along the horizontal yards and along the rigging. The flat stern faces us and is decorated with a rearing lion and unicorn on either side of a shield among gold molding. Eight hatches along the port side of the ship are lifted, and smoke shoots out of one of the cannons poking through the openings. Six men row a boat carrying seven more men to the left. A large flag fluttering from the stern has a red and white cross on a blue field. A single-masted sailboat with its red sail furled has pulled up to the stern of the warship, and three people work there. Another warship with sails partially raised floats in the hazy background to the left. The horizon comes about a quarter of the way up the composition, and clouds shaded with muted peach and lavender-tinted gray fill the sky along the horizon and break along the top third of the painting. Minuscule in scale, two white and black birds fly low to the water near the lower right corner of the painting. The artist signed and dated the painting as if he had inscribed a piece of driftwood near the birds: “W. V Velde In Londen 1673.”
Willem van de Velde the Younger, An English Warship Firing a Salute, 1673, oil on canvas, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2018.10.1

An English Warship Firing a Salute

Willem van de Velde the Younger · 1673 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2018.10.1

We look across choppy waves at a sailboat canting at a sharp angle, with several others floating nearby or in the distance, all beneath a sky filled with charcoal-gray clouds in this horizontal painting. In the bottom third of the canvas, the battleship-gray waves are topped with frothy white crests. The boat closest to us is slightly left of center, and its mast tips wildly to our right. Sunlight catches the straw-yellow sail as it pulls taut in the wind. At least two men crouch or bend over in the wooden vessel below, as white spray kicks up off the far side of the boat. Two white seagulls, tiny in scale, fly closer to the water’s surface to our left of that boat. The next closest vessel is to our right, and it is nearly swallowed in shadow. Two men huddle at one pointed end of the narrow boat, and a crimson-red sail flaps loosely in the wind. At least four more boats in the distance, along to the horizon, range in size from a small sailboat to a three-masted ship. The sail of the smallest boat also tips sharply to our right, but the tall masts of the ship are upright, and those sails are furled. Dark clouds billow up from the horizon, but break near the upper left corner. The sky beyond is pale apricot peach, and a few streaks of light reach the water’s surface.
Willem van de Velde the Younger, After the Storm, c. 1700, oil on canvas, Corcoran Collection (William A. Clark Collection), 2016.22.7

After the Storm

Willem van de Velde the Younger · c. 1700 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  2016.22.7

Amid the white crests of gray, churning waves, two masted ships tip wildly near a rocky outcropping beneath slate-gray and lavender-purple clouds in this horizontal landscape painting. The horizon comes a quarter of the way up the painting, and the ships are outlined against the clouds, which sweep across the sky from the lower right to the upper left corner. A patch of topaz-blue sky shines through at the top center of the painting. The long side of the three-masted ship to our left faces us and flags, possibly white with red stripes, fly from two of its masts. The ship at the center of the painting is angled toward us and a single white flag with a red cross flies from one of its two masts. Tiny in scale, people are gathered on the decks and climb the rigging alongside the masts. On the boat at the center, one person hovers overboard, perhaps holding onto a rope or shown falling to the sea. Foamy waves lap at the tall, jagged rock formations to our right, which jut out of the ocean like teeth. The largest boulder, near the right edge of the painting, is painted with tones of golden tan and silvery gray, suggesting it catches sunlight. The lower rocks, closer to us, are in shadow and painted coffee brown and iron gray. Upon closer inspection, two people climb onto the jagged rock closest to us. More scrutiny reveals several people in a rowboat and two men in the water around the rocks. A few birds, minuscule against the waves, fly over the rocks.
Willem van de Velde the Younger, Ships in a Gale, 1660, oil on panel, Patrons' Permanent Fund, 2000.72.1

Ships in a Gale

Willem van de Velde the Younger · 1660 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  2000.72.1

Willem van de Velde the Younger, View of a Dutch Town (Delft?), graphite and gray wash on laid paper, incised with stylus, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1972.58.2

View of a Dutch Town (Delft?)

Willem van de Velde the Younger · · graphite and gray wash on laid paper, incised with stylus ·  Accession ID  1972.58.2

Willem van de Velde the Younger, Marine, gray watercolor over touches of black chalk on laid paper, Gift of Howard Sturges, 1956.9.10

Marine

Willem van de Velde the Younger · · gray watercolor over touches of black chalk on laid paper ·  Accession ID  1956.9.10

Maria Catharina Prestel, Seascape, 1782-1785, etching and aquatint, Rosenwald Collection, 1948.11.291

Seascape

Maria Catharina Prestel · 1782-1785 · etching and aquatint ·  Accession ID  1948.11.291

Elisha Kirkall, Shipping Scene with Man-of-War, 1720s, mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper, Paul Mellon Fund, 2001.118.17.2

Shipping Scene with Man-of-War

Elisha Kirkall · 1720s · mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.118.17.2

Elisha Kirkall, Shipping Scene from the Collection of Nathaniel Blackerby, 1720s, mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper, Paul Mellon Fund, 2001.118.17.16

Shipping Scene from the Collection of Nathaniel Blackerby

Elisha Kirkall · 1720s · mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.118.17.16

Elisha Kirkall, Fight in 1672, 1720s, mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper, Paul Mellon Fund, 2001.118.17.12

Fight in 1672

Elisha Kirkall · 1720s · mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.118.17.12

Elisha Kirkall, Shipping Scene from the Collection of John Hadley, 1720s, mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper, Paul Mellon Fund, 2001.118.17.11

Shipping Scene from the Collection of John Hadley

Elisha Kirkall · 1720s · mezzotint and etching printed in green and black on laid paper ·  Accession ID  2001.118.17.11

Bibliography

1982

  • National Maritime Museum. The Art of the Van de Veldes: Paintings and drawings by the great Dutch marine artists and their English followers. Essays by David Cordingly and Westby Percival-Prescott. Exh. cat. National Maritime Museum, London, 1982: 11-20, 23-32, 143.

1990

  • Robinson, Michael Strang. Van de Velde: A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Velde. 2 vols. Greenwich, 1990.