Lot 107: A naval engagement between a galleon and frigates

Pieter Savery (Haarlem 1598-1640)
A naval engagement between a galleon and frigates
signed 'PSAVE' (PS linked, lower right)
oil on panel
33.6 x 44.6 cm.

Paderborn, Städtische Galerie in der Reithalle Schloss Neuhaus, Schiffsbruch vor felsiger Küste-Niederländische Landschaften und Seestücke des 17. Jahrhunderts , 23 August-4 November 2001.
Erfurt, Angermuseum, Unter weitem Himmel- Holländische Landschaftsbilder des 'Goldenen Jahrhunderts' aus der Sammlung SOER Rusche , 10 February-21 April 2002.
Dessau, Anhaltische Gemäldegalerie, Bauern, Fischer, Vagabunden-Niederländische Landschaftsmalerei des 17. Jahrhunderts aus der SOER Rusche Sammlung , 16 November 2003-6 January 2004.

G.F.F. Davies; Sotheby's, London, 22 July 1903, lot 100.
Bruce Ingram, Greenwich; Sotheby's, London, 6 May 1964, lot 147.
with Rupert Preston.
with K.J. Müllenmeister, Solingen.

Maritime Painting in the Dutch Goldern Age

by Jeroen Giltaij,
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen


The specialty of the sea painters developed and flowered in no other country in the world as it did in Holland. Trade, fishing, defence of coastal waters and trade routes and the discovery of new countries and sea routes all depended on shipping. This played a major role in the Dutch economy and it explains why painters started specializing in portraying marine life. Some of the specialists can even be counted among the greatest masters of the Golden Age and there can be no doubt that maritime pictures were much in demand on the Dutch art market: the many 'zeetjes' found their way into private houses and the famous sea battles were often commissioned for public spaces.

The first real specialist in the field was the Haarlem born painter Hendrik Vroom. He led a rather adventures life as a sailor in his youth and back in Haarlem he had a successful career receiving many important commissions. Painters like the Haarlem master Cornelis van Wieringen and Adam Willaerts from Utrecht built upon the tradition started by Vroom. Willaerts however used a more colourful palette in his compositions like in The Embarkation of the Elector Palatine (see lot 119). Pieter Savery also seems to have built on the example of Vroom and Van Wieringen. Like his predecessors he depicted battles at sea, in this case an engagement between a Dutch or English vessel with a Spanish galleon probably taking place in the Mediterranean (see lot 107). Pictures by this master from Haarlem are rather rare.

In the 1620s Jan Porcellis was the first painter of atmospheric maritime paintings. The panel in this sale (see lot 202) is, like many of his works, relatively small, showing a stiff breeze at sea. The different shades of grey of the water and sky dominate the composition and the waves and clouds seem to merge almost invisibly. Among Porcellis' followers we count Willem van Diest and Hendrick Dubbels. Van Diest's calm sea is almost unthinkable without Porcellis' examples (see lot 110). Jeronymus van Diest was taught by his father Willem. This sea view at sun down is dated 1664 (see lot 118), the year he became member of the painter's guild in The Hague. Not much is known about Hendrick Dubbels' training, but the influence of Porcellis is evident in his early work, for instance in this one from the 1640s that still is in his tonal manner and is done in different shades of grey (see lot 117).
A colleague of the Van Diests in The Hague was Abraham van Beijeren, who later moved to Overschie. He specialized in still-lifes as well as in maritime paintings. However his atmospheric depictions of sailing vessels in a stormy sea are more in the tradition of Jan van Goyen (see lots 108 and 111). Like the aforementioned Dubbels, Jan Beerstraaten came from Amsterdam. In this spectacular naval battle, a skirmish between Spanish and Dutch Men o'War is visualized (see lot 112). Like the specialists of the early years he was a master of the detailed depiction of the huge battle ships.
The dominant masters in the second half of the century were Jan van de Cappelle, Willem van de Velde and Ludolf Bakhuizen. On the one hand they still very much drew on the enormous tradition, but they also started catering to a changing taste; the demand for scenes bathed in warm light. The pictures by the Amsterdam master Aernout Smit, a pupil of Bakhuizen, are very much in the tradition described above (see lots 115 and 116). This master was capable of depicting rough waves in a convincing way. Many of Abraham Storck's pictures show the new predilection, setting his compositions in the Mediterranean (see lot 113), although he probably never went there himself. The early work of Ludolf Bakhuizen was influenced by Dubbels but he also knew the work of the Willem van de Veldes. After the Van de Veldes left for England he was the most important sea painter in Holland, running a successful workshop. This fine small picture showing an Italianate coast with the light of a rising sun (see lot 114) appeals to the same change of taste as the aforementioned work by his pupil Storck. The present work by Bakhuizen is dated 1701, the start of a new century.




Property from the SØR Rusche Collection (lot 107)

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €5,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €5,001 and €400,000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €400,000. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.