Lot 128: LIEVE PIETERSZ. VERSCHUIER ROTTERDAM CIRCA 1630 - 1686

LIEVE PIETERSZ. VERSCHUIER ROTTERDAM CIRCA 1630 - 1686

AN EVENING COASTAL SCENE WITH SAILORS UNLOADING THEIR CARGO, A MAN-O-WAR FIRING A SALUTE IN THE DISTANCE

measurements note
37.5 by 49.4 cm.; 14 3/4 by 19 1/2 in.

signed lower right: L. verschuier

oil on oak panel

PROVENANCE

Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 22 May 1963, lot 80 (to Hale);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 20 October 1982, lot 70, when bought by the Herwegs.

NOTE

Although they formed only part of his oeuvre, Verschuier is certainly best known for his highly atmospheric marines which, as here, are usually set before dramatic sunsets, depicted with unusual effects of light. He was in this regard a startlingly original artist, with no obvious precursors nor followers. Only one dated picture, of 1661, is known (Munich, Alte Pinakothek), but by comparison with it a picture similar to the present one, in Paris, Fondation Custodia, has been dated to circa 1660 (see G.S. Keyes, Mirror of Empire, exhibition catalogue, Minneapolis 1990, pp. 180-3, reproduced p. 181), and the Herweg picture must also date from the same period of the artist's life.