Lot 2035 D α

Willem Van De Velde the Younger - A Dutch Bezan Yacht in a Fresh Breeze with Other Shipping

Auction 1254 - overview Cologne
16.11.2024, 11:00 - Old Masters & 19th Century, Part I
Estimate: 200.000 € - 250.000 €
Result: 226.800 € (incl. premium)

Willem Van De Velde the Younger

A Dutch Bezan Yacht in a Fresh Breeze with Other Shipping

Oil on panel. 60.5 x 82.5 cm.
Monogrammed and dated lower right: WvV on the long side of the ship, Anno 1655 at the stern.

The economic and artistic prosperity of the Netherlands in the 17th century would have been unthinkable without the country's dominance of the seas; so it was only natural that marine painting developed into an important genre in the flourishing Dutch art scene. Of all people, their worst rivals on the world's oceans, the English, were to become the greatest admirers of this art. Willem van de Velde the Younger represents like no other the prestigious reputation of Dutch marine painting as well as the eventful artistic and political relations between the two nations. He initially made a career in Amsterdam and later entered the service of King Charles II of England together with his father, the elder Willem van de Velde. The art historiographer Arnold Houbraken gives us an impression of the maritime and artistic rivalry between the Netherlands and England, who mocked the fact that the English bought the good works of Willem van de Velde from the Dutch: “The English value his works very highly and have bought them up from time to time in Holland, depriving us of the pleasant sight and bringing them away…” (Houbraken 1719, II, p. 327).
This depiction of a Bezan yacht, which would also find its way to England, is a masterpiece by Willem van de Velde from his time in Amsterdam. The sea is shown with light waves. On the right you can see the Bezan yacht, the protagonist of this picture. The yacht has a round-topped tafferel decorated with openwork carvings, probably depicting a lion, while the transom shows a dolphin. The yacht flies a large flag with four light green stripes on a white background. According to Robinson (Robinson, op. cit., p. 769), this cannot be identified; it is probably a private yacht that belongs to the owner of the ship on the horizon towards which the yacht is heading. To the right you can see more boats and ships in the water.
According to Robinson, three versions of this composition have survived. He regards the present work to be the highest quality iteration (Robinson, op. cit., p. 770), and dates it to around 1655. The piece indeed shows the early mastery achieved by Willem van der Velde, who had learned from the best marine painters of his time - his own father and, as Houbraken reports, Simon de Vlieger. The way in which the ships are staggered throughout the space to evoke the vastness of the ocean; how the arrangement of the masts – sometimes vertically, sometimes diagonally – makes the waves more tangible; how the cumulus clouds in the sky convey the atmosphere of the open sea; the way in which the direction of the lighting brings the Bezan yacht into the viewer’s focus - all of this shows the skills of the young artist, who had already established himself as a marine painter in Amsterdam at an early age. 1655 was also the year in which he acquired a prominent neighbour, none other than Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, the hero of the Anglo-Dutch naval wars.

Provenance

Vicars Brothers, London (Altes Etikett). - Christie´s, London, 28.3.1952, lot 87. - With P. de Boer, Amsterdam. - Collection D, Cevat. - Collection Arnold Hofland, London. - With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam 1972. - Collection Ina Marshalll-Van Doormaal, Rueschlikon. - With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam 1986. - Dutch private collection.

Literature

M. S. Robinson: Van de Velde. A catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Veelde, Volume II. 1990, p. 769/70, no. 244.