The Battle of the Sound with the Eendracht Engaging Two Swedish Warships, 1658

Entry

This painting has hitherto been described by the museum as signed with initials ‘P.V.V.’ and dated ‘167.’, and on this basis catalogued as by the Antwerp artist Peter van den Velde (1634-after 1687). But the only part of the signature on the spar at bottom centre that is securely legible is the first two letters ‘P.V.’. The rest, beneath the leg and arm of the mariner on the spar, is too rubbed to hazard a guess as to what may have been present. Its highly unusual placement in relation to the mariner and the doubtful status of the marks forming the two numbers opens the matter up to unresolvable speculation, which might be clarified by cleaning.

As has been recognized, The Dutch raid on the Medway (SK-A-307) seems to be by the same hand, which, however, bears no resemblance to that evident in the homogeneous group signed by Peter van den Velde, a fairly prolific, but naive artist.¹ The manner of the artist responsible here is distinctive but not distinguished, and there seems to be no good reason for believing that he was southern rather than northern Netherlandish. Indeed, his style seems similar to that of a painting of a large sea battle uniquely signed by David Ludeking, which was exhibited in Detroit in 1942.² That obscure artist whose surname is given by the RKD as Lundekint, is recorded as from the Livendau near Kassel and as active in Amsterdam from 1657 to 1664, but this last date is not secure.³ At all events, a comparison with only one signed work, poorly reproduced, is insufficient to warrant an attribution for SK-A-307 and SK-A-3271, so taking into account the earlier view of the museum, both are here ascribed to the ‘Netherlandish school’. As there is no means of dating the present painting beyond the date (1658) of the incident depicted, it is here dated, on the grounds of the stylistic similarity with SK-A-307, to the same approximate time frame of circa 1670. The prototype or source for the rendering of this sea battle has not been identified, but it was probably a print of Dutch authorship.

The Battle of the Sound (Øresund), between the Dutch and Swedish fleets, took place off Kronborg Castle, on 8 November 1658. It was occasioned by the States General’s determination to protect the Republic’s Baltic trade which was threatened by King Charles X Gustav of Sweden’s (r. 1654-60) obtaining control of both sides of the Sound.⁴ The commander of the Dutch fleet was an ex-cavalry officer and republican, Lieutenant Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer (1616-1665), Heer van Obdam. The action of the Dutch fleet forced Charles X Gustav to abandon the siege of Copenhagen.⁵ Van Obdam’s campaign was recorded by Willem van de Velde I (1611-1693)⁶ who had his berth in the Stavoren,⁷ one of the vessels named in the present picture, the other being Van Obdam’s flagship, the Eendracht.

The Dutch ships wear the Dutch tricolour at their main masts; two, the Eendracht and Stavoren, fly at their sterns the Bloody Flag or Flag of Defiance (Bloedvlag) decorated with an emblem of a raised arm holding a sabre.⁸ The Swedish ships wear at their main masts not the national flag but one decorated with three open crowns Or on a blue field, a traditional, national emblem of Sweden and part of its coat of arms.⁹

The main action shows the Eendracht on a port reach heavily engaged between two Swedish ships on a starboard reach and tack. A comparable episode also placed in the left foreground of the composition was depicted by Willem van de Velde I in a grisaille at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich,¹⁰ in which one of the Swedish battleships is seen from the stern on a port reach. Robinson has identified the Swedish ships as probably the Mercurius (seen from the stern) and the Carolus.¹¹

In the foreground, a Swedish ship and nearby a Dutch ship are all but sunk with sailors struggling to save themselves; beyond is the Stavoren engaged with a Swedish ship. As Van de Velde had also shown, among the masts to the right can probably be made out those of the Viktoria, the flagship of the Swedish Lord High Admiral Karl Gustav Wrangel (1613-1676), disabled early in the battle and making for the castle of Kronborg, which is inaccurately depicted¹² in the right background.

The Stavoren of 48 guns was in service from 1653 to 1672 at which latter date she was captured by the English;¹³ at the Battle of the Sound she was captained by Jans Caullery.¹⁴ The Eendracht of 76 guns, only part of whose coat of arms – the rampant lion of the United Provinces¹⁵ – is depicted here, was built at Dordrecht in 1653¹⁶ and blew up in 1665 at the Battle of Lowestoft shortly after Van Obdam, again her commander, had lost his life. Other views of the Battle of the Sound are by the Dutch painter Arnoldus van Anthonissen (c. 1630-1703)¹⁷ and possibly Jan Abrahamsz Beerstraten (1622-1666).¹⁸

Gregory Martin, 2022