File:A Dutch flagship coming to anchor with a States yacht before a light air RMG BHC0910.tiff

A Dutch flagship is coming to anchor, in calm water, off the Netherlandish coast. In this scene the tall sky seems to envelop all the shipping below. Van de Velde has given equal attention to the rendering of natural atmosphere as well as the various vessels. All the detail on the vessels has been observed meticulously and they are shown bathed in a soft hazy light. The sunlight delineates the carved decoration of the ships and draws attention to the draped sails of the flagship.

To the right a large ship, in port-bow view, is under way, close-hauled on the starboard tack, and firing a forward gun to starboard. This is probably the 'Eendracht', 76 guns, built in 1653. She has a prominent turret on her quarter gallery and lion supporters are just visible on the taffrail. This was the flagship of Lieutenant-Admiral J. van Wassenaer who assembled the fleet that was to sail to the Baltic in October 1658. She flies a Dutch flag at the main, a plain red ensign and a striped jack, red white and blue. Men are preparing to furl the sail and can be seen on the main topsail yard. Pulling to the right, in the centre foreground, is a ship's boat with four oars a side. Four distinguished people are seated aft and a trumpeter is standing forward. A figure standing in the stern is gesturing towards the notable men in the boat. In the left foreground is a States yacht, in starboard-quarter view, running towards the flagship under a white sprit-sail and a brown square sail boomed out to port. She is thought to be the yacht laid down for Prince Frederik Hendrik but completed, after Frederik's death, for Willem II in 1647. This vessel appears in a number of paintings by van de Velde the Younger and, also, in a pen-painting by van de Velde the Elder (BHC0862). A date inscribed in the cartouche, above the rudderhead, is understood to be the date of the painting. Although only '165�' can now be clearly read. The vessel bears the arms of Orange and lion supporters on the stern. The Dutch colours can be seen at her peak, stern and dipped on a staff at the masthead. Two trumpeters, positioned in the stern, face towards the right as they play their instruments. The yacht is shown towing a boat with two men in it. In the left middle distance is a ship, in port-quarter view, at anchor. The stern decoration of this vessel suggests that she is the 'Huis te Zwieten' built in 1653. She shows the arms of Amsterdam above the rudder as well as crossed anchors, signifying the Admiralty, to either side of it. She flies a Dutch flag at the fore and, also, as an ensign. Other ships and vessels lie in the distance.

Lieutenant-Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, promoted Vice-Admiral of Holland and Westfriesland in November 1653, flew his flag in the 'Huis te Zwieten' whilst on convoy duty to and from the Mediterranean in 1654. On 27 May 1658, at the time Wassenaer was assembling his Baltic squadron in the Texel, de Ruyter once more sailed in the 'Huis te Zwieten' with a squadron for Portugal and again, in May 1659, when he led reinforcements to Wassenaer in Denmark. If the flag at the foremast of the 'Huis te Zwieten' signifies de Ruyter's substantive rank of vice-admiral then the conjunction shown in the painting may commemorate the scene in the Texel in the spring of 1658.

This is an early painting by the artist and, as such, it was produced before he had developed his own artistic style of ship portrayal. From the late 1650s van de Velde painted a number of large coastal subjects which displayed elaborate, important and often identifiable shipping in a calm setting. These ‘parade’ paintings show the influence of Simon de Vlieger in both their subject matter and their sensitive observation of nature. De Vlieger’s influence can also be found in works by Hendrik Dubbels (BHC0917) and Jan van de Cappelle (LOA0739) and it manifests itself in elements such as the hazy, pale blue skies and filtered sunlight which are reflected in calm, barely moving water. Whilst, this painting has been influenced by the work of de Vlieger, the rendering of the shipping in this scene suggests a relationship with van de Velde the Elder. The motif of the figures in a boat, in the foreground, is one which occurs frequently in the Elder’s pen-paintings. Paintings such as this, which show shipping on a calm sea, may be seen as the forerunners of those which van de Velde painted much later for the English market. An outstanding example of which is the National Maritime Museum’s ‘‘Royal Sovereign’ with a Royal Yacht’ which is dated 1703.

The artist was the younger son of Willem van de Velde the Elder. Born in Leiden, he studied under Simon de Vlieger in Weesp and, in 1652, moved back to Amsterdam. He worked in his father's studio and developed the skill of carefully drawing ships in tranquil settings. He changed his subject matter, however, when he came with his father to England in 1672-73. Increasingly he concentrated on royal yachts, men-of-war and storm scenes. From this time painting sea battles for Charles II and his brother (and Lord High Admiral) James, Duke of York, as well as other patrons became a priority. Unlike his father's works, however, they were not usually eyewitness accounts. After his father's death in 1693 his continuing role as an official marine painter obliged him to be more frequently present at significant maritime events. The painting is signed lower right 'W.V.Velde' and is dated to the 1650s as already noted.