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Lot 71
Willem van de Velde the Elder

A Ship?s Portrait of a Dutch Merchantman


Inscribed on the verso, in pen and ink: ii9 (119), and further inscribed with pencil on the verso: W.v.d.Velde.d.A. and
293/44/29 and L.2603b
Pen and brown ink on vellum
128 by 164 mm.


This intimate and delicate drawing of a ship is drawn in pen and brown ink on a piece of vellum (parchment made from
calf skin); admire especially the wonderful details of the ship, a Dutch merchantman, sailing in coastal waters, with her
crew hoisting up a sail, we see the rigging clearly, as well as the details of its cannons on the side. On the right the same
merchantman is depicted, but then as seen from its stern, sailing away from us. These kind of drawings were called ?ship?s
portraits?, a portrait of a ship depicted from various angles, and this is made by one of the best marine artists of the 17th
Century, Willem van de Velde the Elder.
As described by Martin Bijl in a recent article, Van de Velde?s earliest dated works bear the dates 1638 and 1639. Recently a
group of small works including the present drawing, all in pen and ink on vellum or prepared paper, which have always been
credited to De Heer, have been convincingly (re?)attributed to Van de Velde the Elder. These are dated around 1635 and are
predominantly portraits of ships. It is probably one of Van de Velde?s earliest attempts to produce his drawings on a more
stable material than ordinary paper (see M. Bijl, ?Willem van de Velde. Marine draughtsman?, in: The Rijksmuseum Bulletin,
no. 58, 2010, pp. 191 and 197, under note 3). This drawing, together with a few other drawings, represents an important
transitional phase in the development of the innovative technique re?invented by Van de Velde in the 1640s, known as ?pen
painting? or penschilderij (pen and ink on a panel or canvas prepared with a white ground; see also R. Daalder, Van de Velde
& Son. Marine Painters, Leiden 2016, pp. 42?50).


Willem van de Velde was born in 1611 in Leiden into a Flemish seafaring family. At the age of twelve he already boarded
a ship captained by his father. Seventeenth?century documents generally refer to him as ?Const ende Scheepsteijkenaer?,
indicating that he was both an artist and a drawer of ships. Van de Velde?s maritime drawings may be divided roughly into
two groups: those which record events at sea or off the coast?such as naval battles?and those which portray ships. In most
cases he was actually present at the battles he depicted, so that these drawings may be considered as eye?witness reports;
he was effectively one of the fi rst ?embedded? war correspondents. It was probably around 1634 that Willem van de Velde
the Elder moved from his native Leiden to Amsterdam together with his young family, including his son, Willem van de Velde
the younger (1633?1707), who would later become a famous marine painter in his own right.


As we can deduce from the collector?s mark on the reverse of the drawing, this drawing was once in the collection of Dr.
Walter Beck. Dr. Beck, who was a surgeon in Berlin from 1926 onwards, assembled a fi ne and representative collection of
17th?century Dutch drawings with a focus on Jan van Goyen. This collection clearly left an indelible impression on his son,
Hans?Ulrich Beck who not only inherited the drawings but devoted his energies as an art historian to Jan van Goyen, Pieter
Molyn, and a galaxy of lesser known masters working in the manner of Van Goyen (see F.L. Lugt, Les marques de collections
de dessins & d?estampes [reprint], The Hague 1956). Eduard Trautscholdt of C.G. Boerner in Leipzig was Dr. Beck?s advisor
for acquisitions in the graphic domain.


Provenance:
Probably with C.G. Boerner, Leipzig;
Dr. Walter Beck, Berlin (1895?1968), Berlin (Lugt 2603b);
Probably by descent to his son, Dr. Hans?Ulrich Beck (1930?2010).
Anonymous sale, Z?rich, Schuler Auktionen, 6 December 2010, lot 4620 (all the above as Margaretha de Heer);

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