Willem van de Velde, son of Willem Willemsz. van de Velde, an immigrant shipper from Flanders, was born in Leiden in 1611. In all likelihood, Willem may have accompanied his father, initiating his interest in seafaring.[1] In 1631, Van de Velde married Judith van Leeuwen and had three children: a daughter, Magdalena, and two painter sons: Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707) and Adriaen van de Velde (1636-1672). The family relocated to Amsterdam and by 1646 lived near the water by the Montelbaanstoren. Although both sons trained initially with their father, only Willem would follow in his footsteps and together they established a successful studio specialized in marines. Highly successful as one of the most admired maritime artists in the seventeenth century, the Van de Veldes would receive studio visits from Cosimo de Medici and other prominent collectors, establishing an international reputation.

During the winter of 1672, the Disaster Year (‘Rampjaar’) when the Dutch Republic was under attack by the British, French, and Germans, resulting in a collapsed art market, the Van de Veldes left for England. King Charles II awarded Willem the Elder an annual salary of £100 for “taking and making Draughts of Sea Fights,” while Willem the Younger was responsible for “putting the said Draughts into Colours.”[2] Together, the Van de Veldes established a studio in the Queen’s House in Greenwich, where they carried out royal commissions. After the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the Van de Veldes moved their studio to Westminster enjoying patronage from the admiralty to the haute bourgeoisie. Van de Velde died on 13 December 1693 and was buried in the church of St James, Piccadilly.

Arnold Houbraken, refers to Van de Velde as a ship draughtsman, rather than a painter.[3] He frequently traveled with the Dutch navy to witness events firsthand, resulting in precise historical records portraying naval battles executed under the auspices of the Dutch admiralty. His drawings, executed in chalk, pen, or wash, demonstrate his keen observation and serve as a reference for his meticulously detailed drawings on vellum or the specialized medium of penschilderijen (pen paintings), executed back in the studio. Most of the oil paintings from the Van de Velde studio are by Willem van de Velde the Younger, utilizing his father’s drawings for a extraordinarily prolific output.[4] These records of heroic deeds, on vellum, canvas or panel, of an admiral or immortalizing a famous vessel were in high demand, propelling the Van de Velde studio.[5]

At the center of the Van de Veldes success were the drawings, essentially their working archive and source material for the studio production. At sea, in great peril, Van de Velde the Elder worked on sheets of paper, already pasted together to form strips measuring more than a meter wide, enabling him to sketch panoramic views of the fleet.[6] Enhanced with washes, the drawings were part of the studio’s operating inventory and served as a prospectus for clients from which a composition could be put together. These preparatory sketches were never sold, explaining the large quantity that remained together: over 2,000 sheets can be found in Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, and in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK, with additional drawings disbursed throughout museums and private collections worldwide.

Complex compositions in this elongated format with connecting paper rarely appear on the art market as they have been usually cut into single sheets. The sheer number and variety of vessels indicate a fleet captured before departure, being supplied with goods while waiting for good weather, before sailing the world’s oceans. One of the ships resembles the Maria, the royal yacht Mary, originally built for the Dutch East India Company, the V.O.C.[7] She was subsequently purchased by the City of Amsterdam for presentation to King Charles II (1630-1685) on the restoration of the British monarchy as part of the Dutch Gift of 1660 to curry favor.[8]

After his father’s execution in 1649, Charles, known as Karel II in Holland, sought refuge in the Dutch Republic, where his sister Mary and his brother-in-law the Prince of Orange provided substantial aid to the Royalist cause. On 8 May 1660, at the Declaration of Breda, seat of the widowed Mary, Charles was reinstated as lawful sovereign to the throne. To mark his return to power, Charles II was promised a prominent art collection with Italian Renaissance paintings and sculptures, Dutch paintings and furniture, presented in the Mauritshuis in The Hague.[9] One of the paintings, Gerrit Dou’s The Young Mother of 1658, may have hinted at Holland’s hope for Charles to look after the House of Orange and his nephew William III in particular.[10] Gratitude for the diplomatic Dutch Gift and the three million guilders loan from the House of Orange were short-lived: Charles II soon declared two wars on the Dutch Republic in an effort to rail in their economic dominance.

Amsterdam, center of the international trade and financial center of the world, was home to the Dutch mega trading companies like the East India Company (VOC) and the West India Company (GWC). By virtue of its strategic location, ships travelled to the Far East in search of exotic goods to be traded, and established settlements in the West, such as New Amsterdam, Brazil, and Surinam. In the Americas, fur and sugar were the most important trade goods, while African settlements traded gold, ivory, and the enslaved. The GWC’s established trade routes across the Atlantic included the transportation of 600,000 slaves from the African west coast to the New World where they were forced to work in colonies established by European settlers. Sailors at the other hand, were allowed to invest in the cargo they transported, an incentive to be vested in the goods they carried, tightening allegiances to the merchants. By the mid-seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic dominated the worldwide trade, helping the economy achieve the highest standard of living in Europe. This economic boom abruptly came to an end by a combination of political-military upheavals and adverse economic developments, motivating the Van de Veldes to emigrate to England.

[1] Michael Strang Robinson, Van de Velde Drawings: A Catalogue of Drawings in the National Maritime Museum Made by the Elder and Younger Willem van de Velde, Cambridge 1958), IX

[2] Robinson, op.cit., XX

[3] Arnold Houbraken, De Groote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en Schilderessen, The Hague 1753 (reprint 1976, Vol. 1, p. 355

[4] Van de Velde produced at least 87 pen paintings and 43 oil paintings, whereas his son painted about 800 paintings, being by far more prolific.

[5] R. Daalder, Van de Velde & Son. Marine Painters. The firm of Willem van de Velde the Elder and Willem van de Velde the Younger, 1640-1707, Leiden 2016, p. 7

[6] Daalder, op.cit., p. 19

[7] The identification was first suggested by Dr. Remmelt Daalder in an email correspondence in August 2021. Van de Velde the Younger’s drawing presumably of the Mary in the British Museum, London, inv.no. 1874,0808.97, includes the British flag [https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1874-0808-97]

[8] Denis Mahon, “Notes on the 'Dutch Gift' to Charles II”, The Burlington Magazine, Vol. 91, No. 560 (Nov. 1949), pp. 303-305

[9] P.J.J. van Thiel, Het Nederlandse Geschenk aan Koning Karel II van Engeland 1660, exh.cat. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam 1965, p. 4

Fourteen of the paintings from the Dutch Gift remain in the Royal collection until today.

[10] Ironically, the Dou is one of the paintings repatriated by William III, now in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, inv.no. 32