Lot 2064 D α

Jacob Bellevois is one of the few marine painters who occasionally painted in portrait format. Bellevois' painting "Dreimaster auf der Rede von Veere" in the Princely Collections of Liechtenstein, Vaduz, is comparable in format and style. Gerlinde de Beer considers both compositions to be early works by the artist, painted around 1653: "The parallels concern not only the structure, layout and type of water and land, but also the careful execution of the painting. These include the same fine painting style with great attention to detail, the grey-brown tone-on-tone painting and the fine use of light effects in the picture." At the beginning of his career in the early 1650s, under the stylistic influence of Simon de Vliegher, Bellevois produced paintings of similar quality and atmosphere to the present one. According to Gerlinde de Beer, "the close, obviously peaceful contact between the two ships with Burgundian and Dutch flags also speaks for an early creation around 1653. Only a few years after the end of the 80-year war against Spain in 1648, a reference to peace between the north and south of the Netherlands would still have been topical."