JAN ABRAHAMSZ. BEERSTRATEN | DUTCH SHIPS AT ANCHOR IN A CALM HARBOR, WITH DIGNITARIES IN A BARGE APPROACHING THE ROYAL YACHT OF PRINCE WILLIAM II, AND A FERRY TRANSPORTING A CANNON IN THE FOREGROUND

Thomas Poynder (d. 1873), Hartham Park, Chippenham, Wiltshire;

Thence by descent to his nephew, Sir John Dickson-Poynder (1866-1936), the 1st Lord Islington;

Thence by descent in the family;

Anonymous sale ("The Property of a Lady of Title"), London, Christie's, 10 July 1987, lot 77;

With Johnny Van Haeften, London;

From whom purchased by the present owner in 1987.

This large, signed panel is a masterpiece of Jan Abrahamsz. Beerstraaten's versatile and prolific career in 17^th century Amsterdam. Though he specialized in topographical views and winter landscapes, it is his rarer maritime scenes like the present, with luminous atmospheres and expansive skies, that most fully reveal his prowess as the leading figure not only in a family of artists but also of the Dutch Golden Age. Here, the Royal Yacht of William II, Prince of Orange, appears at center, approached by a boat full of dignitaries, while a barge carrying a canon fills the lower left foreground.   

A soft, golden tone washes over this calm scene, crowded with a variety of vessels at anchor. Several tall ship masts anchor the composition, and vivid tones of blue and red, colors of the Dutch flag, animate the view.  In style, composition, and impression, the present painting can also be compared to works by other contemporary maritime painters in Amsterdam, such as Simon de Vlieger’s Visit of Frederick Hendrik II of Orange to the Fleet at Dordrecht (1649) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum¹ and Jan van de Capelle’s Shipping in a Calm at Flushing with a States General Yacht Firing a Salute (1649) at the Getty.² Van de Capelle similarly recorded the ferry in the foreground of the present work in a drawing of 1646 that is today preserved in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin (fig. 1).³

The Yacht of Prince William II was initially intended for his father, Prince Frederick Hendrik. After the elder's death, it was completed for his son in 1647. This royal vessel appears in another example by Beerstraten in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.⁴ It is also carefully recorded in a number of works by Willem van de Velde the Elder including a drawing in the Het Scheepvaartmuseum,⁵ in a painting in the Royal Museums Greenwich,⁶ and in two paintings in the Rijksmuseum.⁷

1. Oil on panel, 71 by 92 cm, inv. no. 478.

2. Oil on panel, 69.9 by 92.1 cm, inv. no. 96.PB.7

3. Black chalk, 175 by 309 mm, signed and dated J.v.d.C 16(4)6, and inscribed in ink lower left by a later hand: J. v. See M. Russell, Jan van de Capelle, 1975, p. 93, reproduced fig. 31. 

4.  Oil on panel, 75.9 by 107 cm, inv. no. 17.1421. 

5. Pen and ink on paper, 27.5 by 34.7 cm, inv. no. A0149 (0153). See also G.C.E. Crone, De Jachten der Oranjes, 1937, fig. XX. 

6. Oil on canvas, 87.7 by 106.7 cm, inv. no. BHC0910. 

7. Oil on panel, 61 by 80 cm, inv. no. SK-A-1589 and oil on panel, 77.5 by 106.5 cm, inv. no. SK-A-1385.