- 12
* Willem van de Velde the Elder Leiden 1611 - 1693 London
Description
- Willem van de Velde the Elder
- An English Two-Decker
with a partly obscured inscription in brown ink on the verso: de kat...?
numbered in graphite in a later hand upper right: 3
- Graphite, brush and gray wash on three sheets of paper ; with two small irregular pieces of paper that show corrections to the stern, graphite, brush and gray wash
Catalogue Note
In terms of size, handling and perspective, this handsome warship is very like the circa 1684 portrait of the Lenox, in Rotterdam (MB 1866/T362, Robinson and Weber, vol. I, p. 115 and vol. III, pls. 234-35). In both works the details of the decoration, particularly the stern, are very roughly drawn. What is quite unusual in this work are the number of pentimenti all along the side of the hull. Van de Velde had sketched the decorative wreaths around the gun ports in pencil and even drew in ports on the lowest deck in wash, when he decided the proportions of the ship were not corrrect. He then shifted his design forward, bringing the ports further toward the prow. In two places along the lowest deck near the stern, he pasted on small sheets of paper covering and correcting the old design. There are two more elaborate corrections to the taferel and to the carving of the end of the quarter-gallery. These at some point came loose from the drawing and are now mounted on a separate sheet to protect them.