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Description: | Signed: yes Description: In the left foreground of Shipping in a Calm a smalschip' (a small sprit-rigged transport vessel) is being moored while beyond it to the left is a kaag' (a Dutch vessel with a straight raking stern). The large ship on the right firing a salute to starboard, is a man-of-war, flying a Dutch ensign on her stern. A drawing, Ships and a Fishing Boat on a Calm Sea (c. 1700; Sotheby's, New York, 25 January 2002, lot 51) by Willem van de Velde the younger (1633-1707) has a very similar composition to the Russell-Cotes painting. Shipping in a Calm is attributed to Willem van de Velde the elder (1611-93) on the grounds of the likeness of the initials 'W.V.V.', seen on the mooring post, to those on a painting of 1682 and inscribed on the back 'de oude'. The present painting has been relined, hiding any evidence of old inscriptions. However, although the painting's surface is abraded, it reveals great subtlety in the treatment of light playing on the sagging sails of the ships, the reflections on the opaque water surface and the towering cumulus clouds, which are touched with the warm glow of evening sun. The ships are depicted with calligraphic detailing and the application of strong contrasts of lighting between the foreground and background serve to emphasise the painting's expansive sense of depth. Such a sensitive interpretation of light and atmosphere are hallmark qualities of the work of Willem van de Velde the younger, the foremost Dutch marine painter of the seventeenth century. | Subjects: | marine; figure | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: Velde, Willem van de, II (Dutch painter, 1633-1707) Æ Attributed to Attributed to Velde, Willem van de, the elder (Dutch painter and draftsman, 1611-1693) | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8467... | Go to resource |
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