Lieve Pietersz. Verschuier

With Gebr. Douwes, Amsterdam, 1961;

With Saam Nijstad, The Hague, 1964;

Sidney J. van der Bergh, Wassenaar, 1964 until after 1968;

Anonymous sale, Amsterdam, Christie’s, 28 October 1975, lot 281, when acquired by Jean Schuybroek;

Thence by descent.

Laurens Bol, who wrote lyrically about this picture in his seminal work on Dutch marine painting, considered it to be from Verschuier's early period. Verschuier's marines are distinctive and original. They are almost all evening scenes (a few, especially when one of a pair, depict morning) with the setting sun catching ripples in the usually calm sea, sometimes with vessels silhouetted against the light. His middle-period works appear to owe something to Claude Lorrain in this regard, while his late works are also Italianate, suggesting perhaps a frustrated Drang nach Süden, although he may very well have travelled there in the 1650s. There is nothing Mediterranean in mood about the Schuybroek picture, however, with its cool northern light.

The church tower on the right horizon might be Dordrecht, but is more likely to be the Sint Laurenskerk in Verschuier's native city of Rotterdam, and would be to the north of the Maas looking west towards the lowering sun, as the viewer appears to be doing. The Sidney van den Bergh catalogue of 1965 (see Literature) suggested that the low island fort to the right might be Fort Pampus, which is in the Zuider Zee (now Ijsselmeer) near Amsterdam, but since Fort Pampus is an artificial island created in the 19th century, this is unlikely. The site may well have been suggested to Verschuier by one of the low islands in Zeeland, south of Rotterdam.