Willem van de Velde the Elder

Possibly the first of a large series of drawings, most of them numbered, which van de Velde made during the Northern expedition leading to the Battle of the Sound.  The galjoot on the left is presumably the one in which van de Velde joined the fleet (see Robinson, catalogue of the van de Velde drawings at Greenwich, vol. I, p. 38, vol. II, p. 10)

In an album of drawings primarily by William van de Velde the Elder and the Younger

M.S. Robinson A Catalogue of Drawings in the National Maritime Museum made by the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Velde, Cambridge 1958, vol. I, p. 38, Cambridge 1974, vol. II, p.10

Laid down on paper. The work is made up of three joined sheets which meet vertically at the centre left and right of the composition. There are three additional old fold lines running vertically dowwn the width of the sheet. The right edge has been made up as a result of an old loss and there are some old repaired tears to the upper and lower edges. There is evidence of some surface dirt to the edges and some light brown stains to the left centre. The medium is fresh throughout.
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This rather tranquil scene appears to be the first of a large series of drawings, most of them numbered, in which Van de Velde recorded the Northern Expedition of September-November 1658, which led to the Battle of the Sound.  The small boat ('galjoot') on the left is presumably the one in which van de Velde joined the fleet.  The Vlie is the waterway running between the two islands of Vlieland and Terschelling, in the northerly Dutch province of West Friesland.  In the present drawing the tower of Brandaris, on Terschelling, is visible in the centre distance, indicating that the atmospheric shoreline in the foreground is that of Vlieland. 

On 12/22 September 1658, Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer van Obdam took over command of the Dutch fleet in the Vlie, and set off along the North Frisian islands, heading for Denmark.  The expedition formed part of the Second Northern War.  Sweden had defeated Denmark and an army under Charles X of Sweden had Copenhagen itself under siege. The Dutch fleet was sent to prevent Sweden from gaining control of both sides of the Sound, just north of the Danish capital, Copenhagen, which would have given them total control over access to the Baltic, a vital trade route.  The Battle of the Sound took place on 29 October/8 November 1658.  The initial written instructions that the Dutch Admiral received from the Grand Pensionary, Johan de Witt, were so complicated that Obdam requested them again "in three words".  He received a very straightforward reply:  "Save Copenhagen and punch anyone in the face who tries to prevent it".  This was a direct reference to the English, whose powerful fleet had recently defeated the Dutch in the First Anglo-Dutch War, but in the event the English chose not to become involved in the battle.  The Dutch fleet successfully forced the Swedish to end their blockade of the Danish capital, enabling its resupply by Dutch armed transport ships, which eventually forced Charles to abandon the siege entirely.

Robinson mentions some thirty large drawings relating to the Northern Expedition, just under half of them at Greenwich and the rest in a variety of Dutch and English public and private collections, as well as a number of portraits and studies of the ships involved in the actions.¹ This is one of the most lively and visually interesting of the larger drawings from this moment, with its striking, sharply ruled horizon line, atmospheric foreground shore scene and brilliant, subtly drawn clouds in the sky to the right - a motif that we find only rarely in Van de Velde's drawings.

1.  Robinson, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 38-40, vol. II, pp. 10-13