A Frozen Waterway with Three Icebound Ships
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Oil painting in landscape format of a frozen waterway with three icebound ships. The figures are the work of Adriaen van de Velde. They wear thick coats, hats and mittens. In the foreground there are two mooring buoys on the far left and right, the latter with a ship's rope attached. On the left, there is a three-masted ships with an ornate stern, seen side on with the prow to the right. The front sail is half unfurled. It flies the double-prince Dutch flag. Two men stand behind the ship. On the right, there is a man carrying a barrel on his back, walking on the ice. To the left, a man pulls a package on a sledge. A man bends over the sledge and another man carries a package. A man stands in front of the figures. He holds a pole and stretches out his legs to test the ice.
In the midground, on the left and in the centre four men push packages on sledges. In the centre, a small sailing boat with a red sail containing five men is being pulled on two ropes by six men. A man stands before them with a pole to test the ice. To the right there is a rowing boat with four men. A rope attaches the boat to an anchor. On the far right, there is a three-masted ship flying the Dutch flag.
In the background there is a low landscape with houses to the left of centre and five windmills, a church and houses to the right of centre. Clouds fill the sky.
Signed by Willem van de Velde the Younger on the mooring buoy in the left foreground, this is a rare painting of an ice scene by an artist more usually associated with ships brought to a standstill by calm seas. It is thought that the figures are by Adriaen van de Velde, Willem's brother, who did depict winter scenes. The painting may be evidence of how their collaboration produced an innovative subject, not repeated in Willem's later years.
This composition combines careful observation of ships flying the Dutch flag with the human drama of trying to save the cargo from these ice-bound ships. Several men test the ice with sticks as they attempt to ferry barrels and packages on sledges and even in a small rowing boat pulled across the ice.
Willem and Adriaen's father, Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-1693), made observational drawings of ships and sea battles, often from on board the Dutch fleet. Whilst his elder son Willem followed his example, Adriaen did not specialise in marine painting. He preferred pastoral landscapes, beach scenes and also winter subjects such as ice skaters. He settled in Amsterdam in 1657, where his older brother had moved by 1652. Adriaen's work from the 1660s reveals his skill with figures; he was often employed by other artists to add staffage to pictures. Willem the Younger painted atmospheric scenes with well-balanced compositions rather than adopting his father's documentary approach. He made many pictures of calm seas in his twenties and early thirties, before leaving for England where he painted more dramatic compositions of storms and battles.
Phillippa Plock, 2012
Dimensions (mm) / weight (mg)
370 x 548 - sight
Signature & date
signed, lower left on slat of mooring buoy: W. V. Velde
Inscriptions
North Blue Lobby opposite Bedroom door
Inscription
Top of frame
Labels
93
Printed label
Lower right side of frame
Provenance
- Acquired by Alice de Rothschild (b.1847, d.1922); inherited by her great-nephew James de Rothschild (b.1878, d.1957); inherited by his wife Dorothy de Rothschild (b.1895, d.1988); bequeathed to Waddesdon (National Trust) in 1988.
Collection
- Waddesdon (National Trust)
- Bequest of Dorothy de Rothschild, 1988
Subjects
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Snow or Ice
- Nature, Landscape & The Elements/Water
- Objects/Industrial & Maritime Equipment/Ship
- Objects/Industrial & Maritime Equipment/Boat
- Objects/Flags/Ensign
- Objects/Vessels & Containers/Package
- Objects/Vessels & Containers/Barrel
- Architecture/Buildings/Religious
- Architecture/Buildings/Workspaces
- Architecture/Buildings/Domestic
- Architecture/Town or Village Scape