Willem van de Velde the Younger Leiden 1633 - 1707 London

Probably Richard Monckton Milnes, 1st Baron Houghton (1809-1885) (according to a fragmentary label affixed to the reverse).

Van de Velde's calms are amongst the most accomplished of all his paintings, and are central to his work in Holland from the 1650s onwards. Typically, as here, they depict Dutch coastal craft at low tide among the sand banks of the northern Dutch coast. This panel most probably dates to the 1660s, when Van de Velde was working in his father's studio before their departure for London in 1672. Other calms of similar size and date include that formerly in the Rothschild collections and with Richard Green in 2000 (panel, 13.6 by 19 cm.) and the Calm with a States yacht sold London, Christie's, 9 July 1999, lot 19.