Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom

In the collection of the same family since at least the beginning of the nineteenth century.

The single oak panel is uncradled and with a very slight bevel along the right and upper margins. There is a very slight vertical bow to the panel. The paint surface is well preserved. There are two lines of retouchings that run the length of the extreme vertical margins, as if an old frame may have abraded the surface here and the abrasions have subsequently been touched up. There is a restored loss and scratch to the sky, to the left of the foremost sail (3 by 0.5 cm) and further very minor scattered retouchings in the sky. There is some minor wear and resulting restoration in the sails. The paint surface is clean and requires little or no further intervention. Sold with a plain modern ebonised frame, in good condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Hendrick Vroom was the great pioneer of Dutch marine painting and the leading Netherlandish painter of his time in this genre. Van Mander records that he began his career as a decorator of Delftware, although he soon embarked upon extensive travels in Italy, Spain, Poland and England. During this time he was employed by Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici in Florence for two years, and in England by Lord High Admiral, Charles, 2^nd Baron Howard of Effingham (1536-1624), for whom he designed a series of tapestries, illustrating the 1588 victory of the British navy over the Spanish Armada and which hung in the House of Lords until destroyed by fire in 1834. After his return to Haarlem Vroom, who was the only marine painter available, was commissioned by numerous sources to provide painted records or mementos of Dutch ships prior to their departure to distant lands and it is probable that the present work is one such record or 'portrait' of a single ship.  Such 'portraits' are fairly numerous in both his paintings and drawings, and indeed the vast majority of them show a three-master side-on in a stiff breeze, with a distant shore beyond, sometimes topographical but often fantasy. An extremely similar composition, signed and dated 1614, on canvas, of larger dimensions and which appears to depict the same town at the right, was with B. Koetser, London in 1972 (see Witt library mount). A drawing in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, representing a three-master trailing a dinghy should also be noted.¹

1. See M. Russell, Visions of the Sea. Hendrick C. Vroom and the Origins of Dutch Marine Painting, Leiden 1983, p. 143, reproduced fig. 125.