Abraham Hendricksz. van Beyeren

(The Hague 1620-circa 1690 Overschie)

Sailing boats in choppy seas

Footnotes

Provenance
Netherlands, private collection
with Hoogsteder Gallery, The Hague, 1974-1982, where acquired by
Mr and Mrs Anthony Inder Rieden
Collection of a Family Trust

Exhibited
Mauritshuis, The Hague, 19 February-9 March, 1982, Terugzien in bewondering. A Collector's Choice, cat. no. 12
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The Toledo Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 23 September 1990-11 August 1991, The Mirror of Empire. Dutch Marine Art of the Seventeenth Century, no. 9, ill. (text by G.S Keyes)

Literature
Terugzien in bewondering. A Collector's Choice, The Hague, 1982, exh. cat, cat. no. 12
H.U. Beck, Künstler um Jan van Goyen Maler und Zeichner, Doornspijk, 1991, p. 33, no.36, ill
ed. G. S. Keyes, The Mirror of Empire. Dutch Marine Art of the Seventeenth Century, exhib. cat., Cambridge, 1990, p. 100, cat. no. 9, ill. p. 101
G. de Beer, The Golden Age of Dutch Marine Paintings. The Inder Rieden Collection, Leiden, 2019, vol. 2, pp. 480-484, cat. no.25, ill

Jan Porcellis was one of the first to elevate the damloper, or single master, to the main subject in marine painting, as depicted in plate 3 of his Icones varium navium Hollandicarum. Indeed it was Jan Porcellis who was one of the first influences on the young Abraham van Beyeren. In her entry for the present painting in her catalogue of the Inder Rieden collection, Gerlinde de Beer suggests that it may well be one of the earliest marine paintings known by the young van Beyeren. She points to the careful technique and the inclusion of an old-fashioned type of three-master, of the kind used by Jan Porcellis, to suggest that this painting may date before 1640. The earliest dated marine by van Beyeren is from 1641 - A River View with a Threatening Thunderstorm, previously with Rob Kattenburg, 1986.

It is generally thought that van Beyeren started out as a marine painter and then moved on to depicting still-lifes around 1650. However there is at least one highly coloured, undated marine painting by him (offered Christie's, London, 7 December 2007, lot 105) which suggests that he may have continued to paint marines after this date.