Willem van de Velde the Younger

Baron Nathaniel von Rothschild (1836-1905), Vienna;
Bequeathed by the above to his nephew Alphonse von Rothschild (1878-1942), Vienna;
Confiscated by the Nazi authorities in 1939 for the planned Führer Museum in Linz;
Restituted to the Rothschild family in 1949;
With Leonard Koetser, London, 1963, from whom purchased by the late owner.

London, Leonard Koetser, Spring Exhibition, 1963, no. 7.

Probably C. Hofstede de Groot, A catalogue raisonné..., vol. VII, London 1923, p. 141, no. 574;
M.S. Robinson, Van de Velde. A catalogue of the paintings of the Elder and Younger Willem van de Velde, London 1990, vol. II, pp. 817-18, no. 571, reproduced;
S. Lillie, Was einmal war. Handbuch der enteignungeten Louis' brother Kunstsammlungen Wiens, Vienna 2003, p. 1031, no. 852;
Possibly B. Schwarz, Hitlers Museum, Vienna and Cologne 2004, p. 114, no. IV/33 (as Dutch School), reproduced p. 243.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has an old but firm lining that has been primed on the back, and a strong old stretcher. There seems to be a small horizontal line in the lining behind, perhaps traceable to a little line of retouching between the lower central clouds quite near the horizon, however there seems to be very little sign of damage at all, as far as can be discerned through the fairly old darkened varnish. The craquelure is beautifully fine and even throughout, and the glazing of the clouds remains smooth and unworn. A few old retouchings can be seen under ultra violet light, which seem to be cosmetic: some at the edges in the sky, and consistent slight strengthening of the blues in the sky, particularly at upper right but also in the smaller central breaks in the clouds. A small retouching on the stretcher bar line near the upper left corner seems also to be superficial, and there are darker apparently cosmetic touches near the top of the sky on the left and in the centre. There is one tiny recent indentation in the lower right corner. The fine detail seems to be in beautiful condition and the entire painting appears exceedingly well preserved, with only occasional old accretions that seem superfluous beneath the darkened varnish. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This is one of a small group of coastal marines painted by Willem van de Velde around or shortly before 1670, just prior to his departure for England in 1672-3. Comparable compositions, in which the design is anchored to the left by a small pier or breakwater, are to be found, for example, in two panels in Kassel, Staatliche Gemäldegalerie,¹ and Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum.²  Michael Robinson (see Literature), who knew the painting only from an old photograph, described it as 'painted partly by [Van de Velde] the Younger circa 1665'. The attribution to Van de Velde has more recently been fully endorsed by Dr. Jan Kelch, following first-hand inspection of the original.

This painting seems to have been confused in the past with another canvas of very similar dimensions which was bequeathed by Nathaniel von Rothschild to Alphonse's brother Louis (1882-1955) (see Lillie, under Literature, p.1117, no. 55). This was described as a 'Landscape' by the Dutch School when it was no. 55 in the inventory of Louis' paintings in his palace in Prinz Eugen-strasse confiscated in Vienna in 1939 but later as a Van de Velde when taken to the Neue Burg. As both paintings were to form part of the planned Führer Museum in Linz,  it is not impossible that the two have since been confused.

We are grateful to Dr. Michael Hall and Tracy Wilkinson at the Rothschild Archive in London for their help with the cataloguing of this painting.

 

1. Inv. no. 422. reproduced in Robinson, under Literature, vol. II, p. 818, no. 105.
2. Inv. no. A723. Panel 28.5 by 37 cm. For which see P.J.J. van Thiel et al., All the paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, Amsterdam 1976, p. 564, no. A723, reproduced.