Ships and Militia by a Rocky Shore - YCBA Collections Search

Willem van de Velde the Elder, ca. 1611–1693, Dutch, active in Britain (from 1672), Ships and Militia by a Rocky Shore, ca. 1680

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Creator:

Willem van de Velde the Elder, ca. 1611–1693

Title:

Ships and Militia by a Rocky Shore

Former Title(s):

English and Dutch Ships with Armed Men by a Rocky, Fortified Shore [1985, Cormack, YCBA Concise Catalogue]

Date:

ca. 1680

Materials & Techniques:

Pen and ink on prepared canvas

Dimensions:

25 5/8 x 38 7/16 inches (65.1 x 97.6 cm)

Inscription(s)/Marks/Lettering:

Signed and dated, lower left, under rock: "W.V.V.P [??]" [monogram]

Credit Line:

Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

Copyright Status:

Public Domain

Accession Number:

B1976.7.78

Classification:

Paintings

Collection:

Paintings and Sculpture

Link to Frame:

B1976.7.78FR

Subject Terms:

Associated Places:

Mediterranean Sea

Access:

Not on view

Link:

https://collections.britishart.yale.edu/catalog/tms:311

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IIIF Manifest:

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William van de Velde came to London in 1672 at the invitation of Charles II, who granted him a pension and a studio at Greenwich. There he established the taste for marine paintings, including battle pictures representing the Anglo-Dutch naval wars of the 1660s and early 1670s, many of which Van de Velde witnessed at first hand. This grisaille panel is an example of a penschilder, a painting made with brush and pen to imitate engraving. The scene itself is imaginary, showing a combined force of English and Italian ships off the North African coast. But the Barbary pirates on this coast were very real and harassed ships in the Mediterranean, selling captives into slavery in the Ottoman Empire. The British navy mounted offensive operations against the pirates in the 1670s, forcing the Barbary states to sue for peace, which protected British shipping but allowed the pirates to continue their operations against Britain’s commercial rivals.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2016

The scene may represent a joint expedition by Dutch, English, and Italian ships against Barbary pirates in the Mediterranean. Van de Velde the Elder used this engraving-like technique of painting often; if there were reasons for it beyond the decorative effect, they are unknown.

Gallery label for installation of YCBA collection, 2010

This picture may depict a joint expedition by Dutch, English, and Italian ships against Barbary pirates. The monochromatic technique of drawing with pen and ink on canvas, known in Holland as penschilderingen, was a specialty of Willem van de Velde the Elder.

Gallery label for Pearls to pyramids: British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1820 (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28)

Pearls to Pyramids: British Visual Culture and the Levant, 1600–1830 (Yale Center for British Art, 2008-02-07 - 2008-04-28) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Behold the Sea (Yale Center for British Art, 2003-06-14 - 2003-09-07) [YCBA Objects in the Exhibition] [Exhibition Description]

Malcolm Cormack, Concise Catalogue of Paintings in the Yale Center for British Art, Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, 1985, pp. 230-231, N590.2 .A83 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830 [wall labels], Yale Center for British Art, 2008, pp. 6-7, V 2576 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Pearls to pyramids : British visual culture and the Levant, 1600-1830, , Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, 2008, pp. 8, 14, V1880 [ORBIS]

Michael Strang Robinson, Van de Velde: A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and the Younger Willem Van de Velde, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 1990, pp. 80-81, no. 69, NJ18 V574 A12 +R62 1990 v.1-2 (YCBA) [YCBA]

Sotheby's sale catalogue : Catalogue of Important Old Master Paintings : 3 December 1969, Sotheby's, London, December 3, 1969, pp. 20-21, lot 21, Auction Catalogues (YCBA) [YCBA]

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