Willem van de Velde 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. 113, under no. 732

Laid down on paper. There is some very light surface dirt and a small repaired tear to the upper left corner. Otherwise in good condition with the medium fresh throughout.
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This, the latest in date of all the Northumberland Van de Veldes, is surely also the most unusual drawing in the group.  Extensively inscribed by the artist and dated 1693, it is one of several known drawings in which Van de Velde seeks to demonstrate how to depict certain details of ships, made, so Robinson tells us, when he was trying to teach his own son how to draw.  Here, Van de Velde draws four sketches of gunports, illustrating the shadows which the port-lid makes when in various positions.   A similar sketch of gunports, though without any inscriptions, is at Greenwich.¹

1.  Robinson, op. cit., p. 113, no. 732, and also pp. 201-2 for other examples of similar late instructional drawings.