Calm: An English Frigate at Anchor Firing a Salute
Willem van der Velde the younger (Leyden 1633 – London 1707)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1673 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
648 x 1270 mm (25 1/2 x 50 in)
Place of origin
London
Order this imageCollection
Ham House, Surrey
NT 1139761
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Calm: An English Frigate at Anchor Firing a Salute by Willem van der Velde the younger (Leyden 1633 – London 1707), signed and dated, lower right on a cross-piece of the stumps: W.V.Velde In Londe 1673. Viewed from the port quarter, a small ship of about fourteen guns either at anchor or just coming to anchor in a light air from the left of the picture. Her mizzen is set, her fore course is being clewed up and the main yard is about to be furled; the fore and main topsails are lowered about half-way; the mizzen topsail is loosed on the cap. She has a red ensign and another ensign as a flag at the main; at the fore and mizzen are red vanes with the St George in the top corner. She is firing a forward gun on the port side as a state barge crowded with people pulls away from the ship's port quarter; the barge has a Union flag as an ensign. There is a ship's boat and a small fishing pink with a square-sail lowered lying on the ship's starboard quarter. In the left background, there is a two-decker lying at anchor, viewed from abaft the port beam; she has a pendant and vane at the main.
Provenance
Set of four overdoor seapieces by Willem van der Velde the Younger commissioned in 1673; in 1677 inventory and thence by descent until acquired in 1948 by HM Government when Sir Lyonel, 4th Bt (1854 – 1952) and Sir Cecil Tollemache, 5th Bt (1886 – 1969) presented Ham House to the National Trust, and entrusted to the care of the Victoria & Albert Museum, until 1990, when returned to the care of the National Trust, and to which ownership was transferred in 2002
Credit line
Ham House, The Dysart Collection (purchased by HM Government in 1948 and transferred to the National Trust in 2002)
Makers and roles
Willem van der Velde the younger (Leyden 1633 – London 1707), artist
