Adam Willaerts

The tone of the original is less red than it appears in the catalogue illustration. The canvas has a firm relining which has somewhat flattened the paint surface, which is otherwise secure under a dirty varnish. There is an old restored vertical damage of approx. 10 cm. upper left in the clouds. Thorough inspection under UV light is impeded by the aforementioned varnish but old retouching work does fluoresce along the line of the aforementioned damage, in a series of small scattered restored losses, most notably in the sky and in some of the figures on the boat’s rigging. Offered in a modern painted gold wooden frame in good condition.
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This painting depicts the arrival in Vlissingen (known in English as Flushing) in the Dutch province of Zeeland of the recently married Frederick V, Elector Palatine and Elizabeth Stuart, daughter of King James I of England. The Royal couple are depicted on board the ship, the Royal Prince flying the English royal standard.  They are often referred to as the Winter King and Queen, because their reign as King and Queen of Bohemia was of short duration.  Following their wedding in the Palace of Whitehall in London on St Valentine’s Day in 1613 they travelled to the Electoral palace at Heidelberg in the Palatinate via The Hague. They set sail from Margate on 25^th April 1613, and arrived at Vlissingen (Flushing) on 29^thApril. After they were deposed in 1620, they settled in The Hague.

Willaerts was commissioned in 1622-3 to paint a series of works commemorating the Royal marriage, and these are now at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. This series includes a painting depicting The Arrival of the Elector Palatine at Flushing, 29 April 1613 which is the prototype for the present composition (see fig. 1 in the printed catalogue), although Willaerts has introduced a number of changes in the design.  It is possible that the present picture was commissioned following the death of Frederick in 1632.  As a widow, Elizabeth stayed in The Hague until 1660, when she went to London following the accession to the English throne of her nephew, Charles II.