- 142
Willem van de Velde the Elder
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 USD
bidding is closed
Description
- Willem van de Velde the Elder
- The Dutch fleet at anchor on the open sea
- Black chalk over gray wash, an added horizontal strip at the top;
bears initials lower left: W. V. V J;
inscribed verso, possibly by the artist (obscured by added strip)
Provenance
Sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby's, 16 November 2005, lot 145
Catalogue Note
A dating has been suggested of around 1664, a year in which the Elder van de Velde spent much time at sea with the Dutch Fleet, making numerous rapidly executed drawings such as this, in which he recorded his observations. Most of Willem the Younger's drawings of this time consist of detailed studies or portraits of individual ships, often worked up from the base of a counterproof of one of his father's drawings. It seems the Elder van de Velde frequently took sketches made at sea and added extra sheets of paper at the top or sides, to make the compositions more balanced and complete, probably with a view to selling the drawings as independent works of art.