Marine, Choppy Sea
Ludolf Backhuysen the Elder (Emden 1630 - Amsterdam 1708)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1661 (signed and dated)
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
546 x 648 mm (21 ½ x 25 ½ in)
Place of origin
Holland
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486265
Caption
When Willem van de Velde and his son (Willem van de Velde the Younger) left Amsterdam for England in 1672, Backhuysen assumed the mantle of leading maritime painter of the time. The boats in this picture can be identified as: a yawl with its foresail furling, and flying red and white pennant and Dutch flag; a man of war’s boat to the left, with a Dutch flag and thirteen passengers; beyond, a smack with skiff alongside; and right, mid-distance, a Dutch frigate. The artist’s realistic depiction of the sea and its environment was informed by his first-hand study of the elements. He would occasionally travel out to sea in an open boat in order to study the effects of storms. Backhuysen attracted a princely group of patrons, including Cosimo III de’Medici and Peter the Great.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Marine, Choppy Sea by Ludolf Backhuysen I (Emden 1630 - Amsterdam 1708), signed and dated: L.U.D. BA ... F 1661. A marine scene depicting vessels in a chopping sea. In the right foreground there is a landing boat with seven figures and barrels; at centre there is a yawl with foresail furling and flying a red and white pennant and Dutch flag. On the left is a man-of-war boat, flying the Dutch flag and with thirteen passengers. Beyond can be seen a smack with a skiff alongside and in the right mid-distance, a Dutch frigate with a flag; in the distance is a low shore-line.
Provenance
Acquired by the 2nd Earl of Egremont (1710-1763) at the 1761 Mrs Browne sale for £10.8. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by HM Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1956 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
Recto: L.U.D.BA... F.1661 (inscription reproduced exactly from Collins Baker) Recto: And old number is painted bottom right: 43
Makers and roles
Ludolf Backhuysen the Elder (Emden 1630 - Amsterdam 1708) , artist
References
Waagen 1854-7: Gustav Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, 3 vols. (translated by Lady Eastlake) with a supplementary volume: Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854-7, p. 40