HENDRIK WILLEM MESDAG | Boats at Sea

M. van den Heuvell, The Hague (his sale: Pulchri Studio, The Hague, 16 November 1897, lot 57)

Jhr. Hendrik Jacob Herman Stoop, The Hague (1868-1953; purchased at the above sale); thence by descent to the present owner

Johan Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915) Oeuvrecatalogus, Wassenaar, 1994, p. 254, no. 1897.11, catalogued & illustrated

Painted in 1897. 

Mesdag was a leading artist of the Hague School, a movement that dominated Dutch painting in the late nineteenth century. In May 1869 Mesdag moved to the city, making the beach at nearby Scheveningen his subject. International success soon followed, as he received a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1870 for Breakers in the North Sea (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam). In 1881 Mesdag painted his 120m-long panoramic view from the Seinpostduin ('Signal box dune') in Scheveningen, assisted by several other Dutch artists.