Ludolf Bakhuizen Emden 1630 - 1708 Amsterdam

F. Oudaan,
His sale, Rotterdam, Holsteyn, 23 May 1791, lot 1 to Van der Hoop, Amsterdam for fl. 256;
H.L. Bischoffsheim,
His sale, London, Christie's, 7 May 1926, lot 5;
Dr. C.J.K. van Aelst, Hoevelaken;
With G. Cramer, The Hague, by 1965;
W. Russell, Amsterdam, by 1970.

The Hague, G. Cramer, Catalogus XII, 1965/66, p. 14, reproduced;
Amsterdam, Amsterdam Historisch Museum, Zeventiende-eeuwse schilderijen uit de verzameling Willem Russell, 20 June - 13 September 1970, cat. no. 4, reproduced. 

C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke..., vol. VII, Esslingen/Paris 1918, p. 310, no. 297;
J. von Moltke, Dutch and Flemish Old Masters in the Collection of Dr. C.J.K. van Aalst, (privately printed) 1939, p. 62, reproduced p. 63, plate XIV;
G. de Beer, Ludolf Bakhuysen (1630-1708). Sein Leben und Werk, Zwolle 2002, pp. 123-4, no. 72, reproduced fig. 148.

In the 1690s Ludolf Bakhuizen painted a number of  figural marines; that is to say marine subjects with genre scenes placed in the foreground of the composition, of which this picture is a fine example. Gerlinde de Beer (see Literature) describes it in her book as the most important example from this period in Bakhuizen's oeuvre.  Bakhuizen found that the nature of such pictures are most naturally composed along a diagonal, with the foreground figures placed in the corner. The boldly sited signature and date on the cross-bar of the actor which points out the angle of the diagonal show hos much at ease the artist felt with this compositional form.  In a picture dated the following year, now at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Bakhuizen reverses the diagonal, which recedes towards the right.[1]

The English yacht to the right appears to be royal, as the device on the stern shows. Holland and England were no longer at war by 1691, only three years after the glorious Revolution brought the Dutch Stadtholder Willam II to the English throne.  Thus the conjunction of an English royal yacht with Dutch vessels may reflect the widespread public approval of this political union.

[1] De Beer, op. cit., p. 126, no. 73, reproduced fig. 149.