(Leiden 1633 – Greenwich 1707)

Ships at anchor

Pencil and grey wash, and some highlights in pen in grey, 185 x 408 mm

Provenance: Netherlands, private collection

In the left foreground e.g. a kaegh (kaag)

The ships are partly rendered in grey ink and vertical dotted lines, indicating a method of drawing in perspective. The horizon is drawn at the eye level of Willem van de Velde and all objects in the picture space are crossed by the horizon at the same height from the ground.

Literature: M.S Robinson, Van de Velde drawings, a catalogue of drawings in the National Maritime Museum made by the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Velde, 2 vols., Cambridge 1973. vol. 1, p. 408 ill. No. 708; R. Reurs, ”Even if it is not architecture”: perspective drawings by Simon de Vlieger and Willem van de Velde the Younger* in: Simiolus 13, 1983, pp. 189-200.

Cf. The Art of the Van de Veldes. Paintings and drawings by the great Dutch marine artists and their English followers, exhib. cat, London, The National Maritime Museum 1982, p. 100, ill. 87.