Signaling the Boats, Scheveningen
Signed lower right
Oil on canvas
120 by 90 cm.
Hendrik Willem Mesdag was one of the key members of ?The Hague School?, a movement which swept Dutch painting in the?last quarter of the 19th century. Mesdag was born into a wealthy family and seemed destined to become a banker. However,?Mesdag had other plans for his future, and having benefited from an inheritance he was able to follow his preferred?path. Mesdag turned to his cousin Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema for advice, who suggested he serve his apprenticeship with?Willem Roelofs?the famous Dutch landscape artist. As a result, Mesdag stayed in Brussels for four years and under Roelof?s
guidance he adopted a broad, distinctive style of painting en plein air.
In the summer of 1868 Mesdag visited the German island of Norderney; here he became fascinated with the sea. Contrary
to the minutely detailed seascapes of the Romantic School, Mesdag?s seascapes were painted with brutal realism. His
unbiased depiction of the sea seemed to come straight from nature and Mesdag thus created a new standard for Dutch
painting.
In 1859 Mesdag settled in The Hague, which enabled him to work upon the sands of Scheveningen. The present lot is one
of Mesdag?s many seascapes painted at Scheveningen. Ships are sailing on the far horizon, as well as nearer to the shore
and landing on the beach. There was no harbour in Scheveningen until 1894, so the flat bottomed boats were moored on
the beach. The man waving a blue flag is actually signalling the incoming ships. The horseman near the beached bomschuit
is ready to bring the anchor to the beach, then to immediately return to pick up the steersman. The painting is a wonderful
example of Mesdag?s seascapes.
The success of Mesdag?s seascapes was secured after he won a gold medal at the Paris Salon (1870) with a large seascape,
Les Brisants de la Mer de Nord, which was applauded by Jean?Fran?ois Millet, F?lix Ziem and Charles Chaplin (who actually
bought the painting).
Provenance:
Edward Fox White, London, by 1891, his deceased sale, Christie?s, London, 24 March 1900, lot 132 to Boussod (180 gns.);
Boussod, Valadon & Cie, London, 1900;
With The Holland Fine Art Gallery, London, no. 123 (according to a label on the reverse);
Sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby?s, 7 November 1978, 339
Sale, Amsterdam, Christie?s, 21 November 2013, lot 344
Private collection, Belgium
Exhibited:
Arnhem, Gemeente Museum (on loan), no. 12.
Literature:
J. Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831?1915), Wassenaar, 1989, p. 398, no. 34.01.
J. Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag 1931?1915 Oeuvre catalogus in beeld, Wassenaar, 2001, p. 58, no. 922 (erroneously
illustrated)
