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Ships in a Stormy Sea

Artist Willem van de Velde the Younger (Dutch, 1633 - 1707)
Place of OriginNetherlands
Date1671-2
DimensionsPainting: 52 × 75 1/2 in. (132.1 × 191.8 cm)
Frame: 65 3/4 × 89 1/4 × 3 3/4 in. (167 × 226.7 × 9.5 cm)
Mediumoil on canvas
ClassificationPaintings
Credit LinePurchased with funds from the Libbey Endowment, Gift of Edward Drummond Libbey
Object number
1977.62
On View
Toledo Museum of Art (2445 Monroe Street), Gallery, 36
Collections
  • Paintings
Published ReferencesForster, Edward, The British Gallery of Engravings: from Pictures of the Italian, Flemish, Dutch and English Schools, Now in the Possession of the King, and Several Noblemen and Gentlemen of the United Kingdoms with Some Account of Each Picture , London, 1807.

Ottley, W.Y., Engravings of the Most Noble the Marquess of Stafford's Collection of Pictures in London, etc., London, 1818, Class III, no. 125.

Smith, J., 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; a Statement of the Prices at which Such Pictures Have Been Sold at Public Sales on the Continent and in England; a Reference to the Galleries and Private Collections, in which a Large Portion are at Present; and the Names of the Artists by Whom They Have Been Engraved; to which is Added, a Brief Notice of the Scholars & Imitators of the Great Masters of the Above Schools, 1835, VI, pp. 319-320, no. 1.

Waagen, G., Treasures of Art in Great Britain, II, 1854, p. 50 (n.l.).

Kugler, F.T., Handbook of Painting, 1860, p. 465.

Illustrated London News, Jan. 17, 1857, p. 41, repr. p. 42.

Bridgewater House Catalogue, 1892, no. 258.

Hofstede de Groot, C., A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters, 1923, VII, pp. 129-130, no. 488.

Catalogue of the Collection of Pictures and Stationery of the ... Earl of Ellesmere at Bridgewater House, 1926, no. 196.

"Dutch Pictures at the Royal Academy," Burlington Magazine, vol. 95, Feb. 1953, p. 34, no. 587 (as "probably by L. Backhuysen, according to J.G. van Gelder).

Rothenstein, J. and M. Butlin, Turner, New York, 1969, p. 15.

Butlin, M., "Turner's Bridgewater Sea Piece," Christie's Review of the Season, London and New York, 1976, pp. 13, 70, 72.

Butlin, M. and E. Joll, The Paintings of J.M.W. Turner, New Haven and London, 1977, pp. 11, 12, pl. 15. (The most detailed summary of the relation of Turner's Dutch Boats in a Gale, ["The Bridgewater Seapiece"] of 1801 to the Van de Velde; the Turner was painted as a pendant to the latter.).

"For the record," Art Gallery, vol. 21, no. 4, Apr./May 1978, p. 14.

"Acquisitions," Art Journal, vol. 38, no. 1, Fall 1978, p. 60, 62.

Gage, John, J.M.W. Turner, "A Wonderful Range of Mind," New Haven, 1987, p. 110, fig. 157.

"1978 Annual Report," Toledo Museum of Art Museum News, vol. 21, no. 1, 1979, p. 6, repr. p. 11.

Andrews, Peter, "A View of Toledo," Connoisseur, vol. 212, no. 849, Nov. 1982, p. 110, repr. (col.).

Wilson, Michael, Second Sight, London, National Gallery, 1980, p. 7, repr. p. 6.

[Cumming, Robert], "The Anglo Dutch Garden in the Age of William and Mary," Christie's International Magazine, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan/Feb 1989, p. 8.

Robinson, M.S., Van de Velde: a Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and Younger Willem van de Velde, Greenwich (Eng.), 1990, vol. 2, pp. 828-830, repr. p. 828 (as "A Kaag at Sea in a Fresh Breeze").

Great Dutch Paintings from America, The Hague, 1990, p. 106.

Keyes, George, Mirror of Empire, Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts,1990, no. 38, p. 169, repr. (col.) p. 171.

Walsh, John "Los Angeles: Dutch Marine Art," Burlington, vol. 133, no. 1062, Sept. 1991, p. 646.

Hall, Nicholas H. J., ed. Colnaghi in America, New York, 1992, p. 133.

Leger: a Century of Art Dealing 1892-1992, London, 1992, p. 40, repr. p. 41 (col.), as "Dutch Shipping Offshore in a Rising Gale."

The Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Treasures, Toledo, 1995, p. 99, repr. (col.).

Taylor, James, Marine Paintings: Images of Sail, Sea and Shore, London, 1995, p. 93, repr.

Bachrach, Fred G.H., Turner's Holland, London, 1994, pp. 28-29, fig. 1b.

Golden, Marco, ed., Turner e gli impressionisti: la grande storia del paesaggio moderno in Europa, Conegliano, Linea d'ombra, 2006, p. 60, repr. p. 61.

Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate, Nineteenth Century European Art, Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall, 2002, p. 187, fig. 8-12; 2nd ed., 2006, p. 193, fig. 8-14, p. 194.

Koltzsch, Georg W., William Turner: die Wahrheit der Legende, Cologne, Du Mont, 2002, p. 49, repr. (col.) p. 48.

Spencer-Longhurst, Paul, The Sun Rising Through Vapor: Turner's Early Seascapes, London, Third Millennium in association with The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, 2003, p. 64, fig. 40 (as "Kaag close hauled in a Fresh Breeze').

Meslay, Oliver, Turner: l'incendie de la peinture, Paris, Gallimard, 2004, p. 30, repr. (col.).

Büttner, Nils, Landscape Painting: a History, New York, Abbeville, 2006, pp. 183, 187, no. 90, repr. (col.).

Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate, Nineteenth Century European Art, Upper Saddle River, Prentice Hall, 2nd ed., 2006, p. 193, fig. 8-14, p. 194.

Smiles, Sam, The Turner Book, London, Tate Publishing, 2006, p. 41, fig. 22, p. 43 (col.).

Toledo Museum of Art, Toledo Museum of Art Masterworks, Toledo, 2009, p. 181, repr. (col.).

Solkin, David, ed., Turner and the Masters, London, Tate Britain, 2009, no. 19, pp. 73, 118-120, repr. (col.) (det.) p. 73, repr. (col.), p. 118.

Gage, John, Turner, Paris, Citadelles & Mazenod, 2009, repr. (col.) p. 183, no. 149.

Meslay, Olivier, "Turner et ses peintres," Dossier de l'art, Dijon, No. 172, February 2010, repr. (col.) p. 28.

The Fresh Breeze by Willem Van de Velde the Younger, London, John Mitchell Fine Paintings, 2010, p. 11, fig. 1 (col.) p. 9.

Chu, Petra ten-Doesschate, Nineteenth-Century European Art, 3rd ed., Upper Saddle River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 2012, p. 193, fig. 8-16 p. 192.

Roach, Catherine, "The Turner Inheritance", Art History, v. 34, no.3, June 2011, p. 595, repr. (col.) p. 596.

Shanes, Eric, Young Mr. Turner: The First Forty Years, 1775-1815, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016, p. 207, repr. (col.) fig. 250, p. 208.

Hughes, Elaeanor ed., Spreading Canvas: Eighteenth-Century British Marine Painting, New Haven, Yale University Press, 2016, p.92, repr. fig. 69.

National Gallery of Art, Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, 2018, p. 5, repr. (col). fig. 10, p. 6. [exh. cat]

de Beer, Gerlinde, The Golden Age of Dutch Marine Painting: The Inder Rieden Collection vol. III, Leiden, Primavera Press, 2019, p. 973, fig. 62.7 (col.) p. 974.

Exhibition HistoryLondon, British Institution, Old Masters Exhibition, 1837.

London, Royal Academy, Dutch Pictures, 1952, no. 587.

Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, exchange loan for Hal Portrait of a Gentleman, Nov. 1985-May 1986.

Toledo, The Toledo Museum of Art; Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mirror of Empire, 1990-1991, no. 38 (as A Kaag Close-hauled in a Fresh Breeze).

Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, The Glory of the Golden Age, April 15 - Sept. 17, 2000.

London, Tate Britain, Turner and the Masters, Sept. 23, 2009-Jan. 31, 2010, no. 19.

Washington D.C., The National Gallery of Art, Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age, July 1-November 25, 2018.

Label TextThis dramatic image captures the excitement and danger of sea travel in the 17th century. Willem van de Velde the Younger, son of a prominent painter of naval battle scenes, had first-hand knowledge of sailing, and his paintings were valued for their realistic depictions of ships and sailing tactics. The spotlighted ship in the foreground is a kaag, a light fishing vessel. Van de Velde shows it sailing close-hauled in the strong breeze: one of the most difficult sailing maneuvers, in which the vessel sails into the wind as directly as it can without causing the sails to flap uselessly. Images of ships at sea became popular in Dutch art in the 17th century. Seafaring—for fishing and whaling, for trade with the Americas, Asia, and Africa (including the trade in enslaved Africans), and for the activities of the dominant Dutch naval fleet—was essential to the economy and power of the Dutch Republic and thus a common subject for displaying Dutch prosperity.
Ship Becalmed
Willem van de Velde the Younger
2nd half of 17th century
Lily Pond
Willem de Kooning
1959
A Summer Landscape with Harvesters
Joos de Momper the Younger
about 1610
The Lowlands
Willem Maris
about 1880-1890
Sheep in Pasture
Willem Steelink
1899
Portrait of a Scholar
Willem Moreelse
1647
Potter at Saint Amand
Nils Forsberg the Younger
1907
The Music Lesson
Gerard ter Borch, the younger
1660s
Still Life with a View of the Sea
Jan Davidsz. de Heem
1646
Shipping off the Coast
Jan van de Cappelle
after 1651

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