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Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

July 1 – November 25, 2018
West Building, Main Floor, Northeast Galleries

Ludolf Backhuysen, Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast, 1667, oil on canvas, overall: 114.3 x 167.3 cm (45 x 65 7/8 in.) framed: 147.3 x 146.1 x 6.4 cm (58 x 57 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.), National Gallery of Art, Washington, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund

This exhibition is no longer on view at the National Gallery.

The Dutch rose to greatness from the riches of the sea. During the seventeenth century they became leaders in marine travel, transport, commerce, and security as their massive cargo carriers and warships traversed oceans and their small vessels and fishing boats navigated inland and coastal waterways. Water was central to their economic and naval successes, but was also a source of pleasure and enjoyment. In the warm summer months, dune-covered beaches offered scenic vistas, while in the winter, frozen canals provided a place for people of all ages to skate, play, and enjoy the outdoors.

In a nation of sailors and skaters, it is no wonder that marine subjects became a favorite of seventeenth-century collectors and artists alike. Some painters, among them Jan van Goyen and Jacob van Ruisdael, delighted in capturing the marine environs in and around the Dutch coast. Others, such as Hendrick Avercamp, turned their attention to the activity of frozen canals on a wintry day. Many artists also depicted the open seas. Hendrick Vroom, Willem van de Velde the Elder, and Willem van de Velde the Younger, who often sailed the seas themselves, rendered every imaginable vessel, from fishing boats and major transport ships to the great warships of the Dutch naval fleet, each formulating his compositions with extraordinary accuracy and attention to detail. At the same time, they also introduced atmospheric light effects and various weather conditions to bring life and drama to their scenes.

This exhibition explores the deep, multifaceted relationship the Dutch had with the water, including their gratitude for the sea’s bounty and their fear of its sometimes destructive power. Drawn largely from the Gallery’s own collection, the exhibition features nearly 50 paintings, prints, drawings, rare books, and ship models. From quiet harbor scenes and frozen canals to fierce naval battles pitting Dutch crews against their Spanish foes, the range of images reveals the extraordinary impact the water had on art of the Dutch Golden Age.

Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Hendrick Cornelis Vroom, A Fleet at Sea, c. 1614, oil on canvas, Private collection
Created with fine black lines of paint and ink against a white background on this horizontal wood panel, this seascape showing several large ships and dozens of rowboats looks like a black and white print at first glance. The horizon line where the choppy water meets the nearly cloudless sky comes about a quarter of the way up the composition. The ship closest to us is angled into the distance to the right of center, and its masts reach three-quarters of the way up the panel. Another large ship has nearly pulled alongside it to our right, and a third ship appears near the left edge. Canons poke out of open flaps along the sides of the ships, and most of the sails are furled. More than a dozen smaller masted ships and rowboats are spaced around and behind these larger vessels, extending into the deep distance. Flags and pennants with three horizontal stripes hang from many of the ships. Closest to us, dark dolphin fins cut through rippling waves, and a few rounded jugs float in the water. People stand along a shoreline in the distance to our right, where two horse-drawn carriages wade between the beach and rowboats. The artist’s name is written on a wooden panel floating in the water near the lower right corner, “W.V. Velde.”
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Willem van de Velde the Elder, Dutch Ships near the Coast, early 1650s, oil and ink on panel, Gift of Lloyd M. Rives, 1994.61.1
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Willem van de Velde the Younger, The Dutch Fleet Assembling Before the Four Days' Battle of 11–14 June 1666, 1670, oil on canvas, On loan from Moveo Art Collection
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Simon de Vlieger, Estuary at Day's End, c. 1640/1645, oil on panel, Patrons’ Permanent Fund and The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund in memory of Kathrine Dulin Folger, 1997.101.1
A fleet of ships gathers in a river lined by trees and buildings in this horizontal painting. The horizon is low, less than a quarter of the way up the composition, and the immense pale blue sky above is filled with clouds with golden tops above dove-gray undersides. The river spans the width of the painting and is congested with boats and ships, many festooned with red, white, and blue flags and banners. The vessels are crowded with people, mostly men wearing hats and black or brown garments. A ship to our right is closest to us and is the largest in the composition. A rowboat has pulled up to the side of the ship, and is occupied by a seated man wearing crimson red and a standing man wearing black. Another man, wearing brown, pulls the rowboat closer to the ship. Amid the densely packed deck over the rowboat, a musician plays a drum while another drinks from a flagon. Ships with unfurled sails, rowboats, and ferries fill the river behind and around the large ship. Churches and buildings are clustered along the riverbank to the left and trees line the river to the right.
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Aelbert Cuyp, The Maas at Dordrecht, c. 1650, oil on canvas, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1940.2.1
Painted in tones of beige, cream white, and pecan brown with hints of shell pink and faint blue, a few sailboats float in a calm body of water with a harbor and a town deep in the distance along the horizon, which comes about a quarter of the way up this painting. Rippling gently across the foreground, the water reflects the pale blue sky and blush pink of clouds above. To our left, two masted ships with sails furled have pulled up alongside each other. A smaller boat sails to our right and a few more are spaced sparsely along the waterway leading to the town. Painted as a dense forest of spiky masts, the harbor in the far distance is full of boats along a town that stretches nearly the width of the panel. Tiny in scale, there are a few windmills and slate-gray towers for churches, town halls, and other buildings.
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Abraham de Verwer, View of Hoorn, c. 1650, oil on panel, Fund given in honor of Derald Ruttenberg’s Grandchildren, 2008.32.1
A sage-green harbor teems with more than a dozen sailing ships and rowboats under a pale gray sky in this horizontal painting. The horizon comes about one-fifth of the way up the composition, and dark gray and white clouds tower above. Light filters onto the scene through the clouds from our left to fall across the ships while casting shadows on the water nearest us. Painted in tones of slate gray and warm brown, most of the ships closest to us have their sails furled so the masts and horizontal yard arms bristle against the sky. The larger ships have cannons poking out of square portholes. On our right, a war ship floats with its ornately carved and gilded stern facing us. A flag flying from the tallest of the three masts has red, white, and green stripes. The artist painted his name on that flag, “R. Zeeman.” The ship is tied to a buoy with a length of rope, and an empty rowboat is tethered to the right side of the ship. A similar ship but with the sails hanging loosely is tied to a buoy just beyond this one. A row of pickets, like a fence, extends into the water behind these two ships. To our left, a rowboat full of men has pulled up alongside a partially sunken ship, its masts tilting toward us. A few people stand on two more ships nearby. A black temporary dock floats next to the leftmost ship here. A person mixes something that smokes on the platform, and another person stands on a board lifted halfway up the ship’s side, presumably working on a repair. Two women in another rowboat next to the floating dock lean over the side, washing clothes. Another fence encloses the harbor to our left, and a hut in the middle of the harbor is surrounded by a similar structure. Two rowboats closer to us are filled with men wearing tall hats and black or brown coats, and women wearing black bonnets and white shawls. More sailing ships and rowboats move back or around beyond the harbor, out to sea. Visible cracks cover the surface of the painting.
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Reinier Nooms, called Zeeman, Amsterdam Harbor Scene, c. 1654/1655, oil on canvas, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, 2011.3.1
Beyond several craggy boulders that loom in the lower left corner of this horizontal painting, three sailing ships pitch wildly in crashing waves beneath towering clouds. At the center, a large ship tips sharply to our right with billowing ivory sails and two red, white, and blue striped flags whipping in the wind. White spray kicks up against the side of the boat and in the waves surrounding it. The sails of the second ship, to our right, are furled except for one that crashes down onto the deck. Tiny people scurry around inside the ship, which tilts steeply up on a high wave. The third ship floats beyond this, its sails also tied up. The top of a tall wooden mast along with a broken wooden pole poke up from emerald-green waves in the lower right corner, near a barrel and two bundles wrapped in cloth and tied with rope that bob nearby. One of the brown, jagged rocks to our left nearly spans the height of the painting while others jut from the water like crooked teeth. A bank of billowing, slate-gray clouds at the center of the sky separates a fog-gray sky and puffy clouds to our right from a patch of golden sunlight to our left, in the upper corner of the canvas. The artist signed and dated the work as if written on a rock at the bottom center of the canvas, “LBackh 1667.”
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Ludolf Backhuysen, Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast, 1667, oil on canvas, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, 1985.29.1
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Willem van de Velde the Younger, Ships in a Stormy Sea, 1671–1672, oil on canvas, Toledo Museum of Art; Purchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey, 1977.62
We look slightly down onto a scene showing light-skinned men, women, and children ice skating on a frozen river in this horizontal landscape painting. We get the impression of hundreds of people gathered on the ice creating a crowd that extends into the hazy distance. The couple dozen closest to us are the most defined. A few clusters of people and individuals in particular draw our attention. For example, a group of three men wearing dark cloaks and hats stand in conversation on our right. Two boys nearby hold sticks and play a game similar to hockey. A small child holds two smaller sticks, perhaps to help balance. A man in the front center wears puffy scarlet-red pants with white stockings, a red jacket, and a tall brown hat with a cloud of scarlet feathers. He stands next to a woman wearing a black hooded cloak over a black skirt and raspberry-pink bodice. She tucks her hands into a cylindrical muffler held at her waist. Another elegantly dressed man in golden yellows and black and a woman in mauve pink and butter yellow stand nearby. Some of people throughout the scene wear white frilly collars and others are more simply dressed in shades of brown, gray, and black. To our right, a faded rose-red windmill stands at the river’s edge, and to our left a large house with steeply pitched and stepped roofs is enclosed within a solid fence painted with pink diamonds against black and white. Smoke rises from one chimney, and other houses and a church line the riverbank into the distance. A wooden bridge near a grove of bare trees connects spit of land near us in the lower left corner with the village beyond. Brilliant azure-blue sky is visible through breaks in the steel-gray clouds above.
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Adam van Breen, Skating on the Frozen Amstel River, 1611, oil on panel, The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund, in honor of Arthur K. Wheelock, Jr., 2010.20.1
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Hendrick Avercamp, Winter Games on the Frozen River Ijssel, c. 1626, pen and black and gray ink with watercolor, gouache, and graphite on laid paper; laid down, Woodner Collection, Gift of Andrea Woodner, 2006.11.3
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Rembrandt van Rijn, View over the Amstel from the Rampart, c. 1646/1650, pen and brown ink with brown wash, Rosenwald Collection, 1954.12.114
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Anonymous Dutch 17th Century, Dutch States yacht, c. 1690, hardwood, linen, brass, iron, mica, and hemp, Kriegstein Collection
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age

Pieter van der Werff, Portrait of a Boy with a Miniature Three‑Master, 1696, oil on canvas, The Leiden Collection, New York

Organization: Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Sponsors: The exhibition is generously supported by the Hata Foundation. Additional support is provided by The Exhibition Circle of the National Gallery of Art.

Passes: Admission is always free and passes are not required

Attendance: 192,185

Brochure: Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age by Alexandra Libby. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2018. 

Backhuysen, Ludolf
Dutch, 1630 - 1708
Goyen, Jan van
Dutch, 1596 - 1656
Ruisdael, Jacob van
Dutch, 1628 - 1682
Velde the Elder, Willem van de
Dutch, 1611 - 1693
Velde, Willem van de, the Younger
Dutch, 1633 - 1707

Education Painting in the Dutch Golden Age (PDF 6.7MB)

Press

Ludolf Backhuysen
Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast
1667
Piffaro, The Renaissance Band
Audio, Released: October 22, 2019, (39:05 minutes)
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age
Video, Released: August 7, 2018, (52:16 minutes)
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age
Audio, Released: July 24, 2018, (52:16 minutes)
Press Event: Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age
Audio, Released: June 26, 2018, (35:43 minutes)