Willem van de Velde, 'A Small Dutch Vessel close-hauled in a Strong Breeze', about 1672

A Small Dutch Vessel close-hauled in a Strong Breeze

Willem van de Velde

Not on display

About the work

Overview

An angry light breaks through threatening clouds, illuminating a wave that beats up against the side of a galjoot, the small boat keeling over with the wind. An explosion of white spray looks almost as if it is reaching up to swallow the man hauling in the foresail. The blue and white flag at the masthead indicates that the boat is from Texel, a busy island city in North Holland; it may be a pilot going out to assist an incoming ship. Ahead is a huge warship, its pennant flying – one in a fleet of Dutch naval vessels that disappear into the distance.

The storm scene was painted in the Amsterdam studio of Willem van de Velde the Elder by his son, Willem the Younger. Such pictures may seem unlikely as decorative items but they were popular, perhaps because they were exciting. In this one there is also a touch of reassurance from the hint of blue in the sky and the sun on the sail of the galjoot.

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Full title: A Small Dutch Vessel close-hauled in a Strong Breeze
Artist: Willem van de Velde
Artist dates: 1633 - 1707
Date made: about 1672
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 32.7 × 40.3 cm
Inscription summary: Signed
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1871
Inventory number: NG876
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Bt
Frame: 19th-century English Frame

Provenance

In the Daniel de Jongh sale, Rotterdam, 26 sqq. March 1810 (lot 32), bought by Le Brun (300 guilders); later apparently in an unidentified French(?) sale. In the collection of Comte de Pourtalès, Paris, and among the pictures bought from that collection in 1826 by John Smith and Thomas Emmerson. By 1835 in the collection of Sir Robert Peel, Bart.; purchased with the Peel collection, 1871.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Neil MacLaren, revised and expanded by Christopher Brown, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School: 1600–1900’, London 1991; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Bibliography

1830

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters: In Which is Included a Short Biographical Notice of the Artists, with a Copious Description of Their Principal Pictures […], vol. 2, London 1830
1844

A.M. Jameson, Companion to the Most Celebrated Private Galleries of Art in London: Containing Accurate Catalogues, Arranged Alphabetically, for Immediate Reference, Each Preceded by an Historical & Critical Introduction […], London 1844
1907

C. Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century, 10 vols, London 1907
1960

Maclaren, Neil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 2 vols, London 1960
1991

Maclaren, Neil, revised by Christopher Brown, National Gallery Catalogues: The Dutch School, 1600-1900, 2nd edn (revised and expanded), 2 vols, London 1991
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

More works by Willem van de Velde

(Showing 6 of 17 works)

A Dutch Ship and Other Small Vessels in a Strong Breeze

Willem van de Velde

A warship keels over in the face of an advancing storm, a Dutch flag flying boldly at its mainmast, the arms of the Province of Holland on its stern. The gun ports are open, the cannon out at the ready – probably for practice. A small fishing boat is tossed about on the crest of the wash left beh...

Not on display

A Dutch Ship coming to Anchor

Willem van de Velde

A merchant ship, probably an Indiaman, comes to anchor. After a long and dangerous journey, perhaps to the Far East or the West Indies, the white sails are being lowered one by one. The flag on the foremast suggests that this is the vessel of the vice admiral of a small fleet. The crew is busy an...

Not on display

A Dutch Ship, a Yacht and Smaller Vessels in a Breeze

Willem van de Velde

Small waves scud across the sea, the boats running before the stiff breeze. In the centre, its white sail straining, is a Statenjacht (state yacht), a vessel used by the ‘States General’, the Dutch chamber of provincial delegates in The Hague. It flies the Dutch colours and the arms of the Provin...

Not on display

A Dutch Vessel in a Strong Breeze

Willem van de Velde

An angry tide surges around two small transport boats heading for disaster under a stormy sky. The crew of the kaag, desperate to avoid collision with the fast approaching smalschip, have released the horizontal spar to take the wind out of the mainsail. This way, the vessel will slow and – with...

Not on display

A Dutch Yacht saluting

Willem van de Velde

This is the largest and most elaborate of the pictures by Willem van de Velde the Younger in the National Gallery’s collection. Painted with the artist’s usual accuracy and fine detail, the depiction of a marine occasion fairly common in a seafaring nation like seventeenth-century Holland becomes...

Not on display

An English Vessel and Dutch Ships Becalmed

Willem van de Velde

In this picture, Willem van de Velde the Younger displays his skills as an exceptionally gifted painter of ships. Each vessel here is accurately depicted. An English ketch in the foreground flies the flag of Saint George, and a weyschuit (a small open boat) moves almost alongside it. To the left,...

Not on display

Boats pulling out to a Yacht in a Calm

Willem van de Velde

During the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic was frequently at war, often with England. It’s possible that this is a picture of a fleet preparing for battle.The sea is quiet, but there is a sense of urgency in the scene. A crowd of small boats pull out from the shore, the men rowing powerfu...

Not on display

Dutch Ships and Small Vessels Offshore in a Breeze

Willem van de Velde

High, scudding clouds and a restless sea bring a feeling of freshness to Willem van de Velde’s painting. Two lowered white sails seem to tumble towards the water, and echo the froth on the tops of the waves. The breeze is almost palpable, with spars, masts and vessels all leaning at different ang...

Not on display

Dutch Ships in a Calm

Willem van de Velde

This exquisite little picture evokes the tranquillity of the early morning, perhaps – judging by the low, clear light and puffiness of the clouds – at the beginning of spring. The reflections in the calm water are perfect, undisturbed by the porpoises in the shadows. Two fishing boats appear on t...

Not on display

Dutch Vessels Inshore and Men Bathing

Willem van de Velde

High, light clouds drift across the wide sky. All seems quiet at the end of the day. A man with a fishing basket strapped to his back squelches across the wet sand left by the ebbing tide, and the sun is still warm enough for a group of men and boys to skinny-dip in the shallow water. Clothes are...

Not on display

Dutch Vessels lying Inshore in a Calm, one Saluting

Willem van de Velde

Willem van de Velde, usually so interested in the detailed depiction of individual vessels, seems to be more concerned in this painting with atmosphere and the emotion evoked by a view of the sea in the evening light. The warm glow of a low sun casts the vessels close to us into shadow, leaving t...

Not on display

Small Dutch Vessels Aground at Low Water in a Calm

Willem van de Velde

Four small boats are gently run aground in an inlet on a sandy shore. The tide is out, the sea is calm and a man with a basket wades into the picture. Some fishermen are barefoot, others tend their craft without hurry. Sails hang up to dry in the sun and the Dutch flags on the mast tops droop. In...

Not on display

The Shore at Scheveningen

Willem van de Velde

A brisk wind brings a small fleet of fishing pinks to shore, tossed and buffeted by the choppy waves. A fitful sun breaks through the fast moving clouds. It lights up the long curve of the wide bay and the high dunes, but there’s a sense of mistiness, suggesting a fine spray from the sea and sof...

Not on display

Three Ships in a Gale

Willem van de Velde

The merchant ships we see here are in some peril. The wind is so strong that they have been forced to take down their sails and are drifting at the mercy of the gale and the surging sea. Our attention is focused on the nearest ship, a man-of-war, as it ploughs into a breaking wave. A sudden shaft...

Not on display

Two Small Vessels and a Dutch Man-of-War in a Breeze

Willem van de Velde

Willem van de Velde was the leading Dutch marine painter of the later seventeenth century. This is one of his smallest paintings – it’s only about the size of a sheet of A4 paper.In the foreground, two boats known as kagen speed shorewards before a stiff breeze. These were sturdy, flat-bottomed v...

Not on display

Calm: Two Dutch Vessels

Studio of Willem van de Velde

The low horizon gives a vast sky – very much how a sailor in a small boat at sea experiences the world. But the men working on the vessels seem unconcerned with the view: these are inshore working craft.In the centre is a smalschip, a transport vessel carrying a Dutch ensign. Beached on the spit...

Not on display

Small Dutch Vessels in a Breeze

Studio of Willem van de Velde

Two sailing boats – a flat-bottomed kaag and smaller, more open weyschuit, which had a similar rig – are shown in the foreground. They appear to be at the mouth of a harbour or estuary. One sails towards and the other away from a black buoy. This is a similar composition to another van de Velde p...

Not on display

You've viewed 6 of 17 works