Object data
oil on panel
support: height 42.2 cm × width 80 cm
outer size: depth 8.5 cm (support incl. frame and climate box)
Aert Anthonisz
Ships off IJsselmonde
1617
Inscriptions
- signature, centre right, on a flag: Aert. An. To.
- label, on the reverse: passeren van ’t Staten Yacht voorby Iselmonde Augustus MD & CXVII (The States’ yacht passing IJsselmonde, August 1617)
Technical notes
The support is a single, horizontally grained oak panel. The left and right side of the panel are slightly bevelled, while the top and bottom have been trimmed a little. The ground is off-white. The paint layers are smooth. Impasto was used only for the highlights.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 15 December 2004
Condition
Fair. There are two stable cracks in the panel and partly in the paint layer. The retouchings and varnish are discoloured.
Conservation
- H.H. Mertens, 1966: complete restoration
Provenance
...; sale, H.G. Mulder (†), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 28 September 1869, no. 1, fl. 40, to C.F. Roos;...; sale, S.B. Bos (Harlingen), Amsterdam (F. Muller and Van Pappelendam & Schouten), 21 February 1888, no. 1, as Aart van Antum, fl. 205, to the museum1
Object number: SK-A-1446
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Aert Anthonisz (Antwerp 1580 - Amsterdam 1620)
Aert Anthonisz is one of the many artists born in the southern Netherlands who worked in the Dutch Republic for their entire lives. He was born in Antwerp in 1580, but was already living in Amsterdam in 1591, where he married Baycken Koetemans of Mechelen in 1603. In 1604 the painter purchased citizenship of Amsterdam. He died in 1620. His earliest dated work is from 1604, A Sea Battle.2 His surviving oeuvre is quite small, and consists mainly of marines. The stylistic affinity with the work of Hendrick Vroom has led to suggestions that the latter was his teacher. Both have a similar draughtsman-like, colourful style. In his later work, though, Anthonisz adopted a looser manner. At one time it was thought that his name was Aert van Antum, but that has turned out to be incorrect.
Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
References
Moes in Thieme/Becker I, 1907, p. 553, II, 1908, p. 20; Trauzeddel in Saur III, 1990, p. 441; Briels 1997, p. 293
Entry
In 1864 not only the signature but the date 1617 was visible on this painting,3 but the latter has since vanished. According to the inscription on an old, possibly 18th-century label on the back of the painting, this is a depiction of the States’ yacht passing IJsselmonde, and the date is also given as August 1617. As Bol has rightly pointed out, however, the large ship in the background is not a yacht but a man-of-war.4 There is a small yacht in the left foreground with Amsterdam’s coat of arms on its stern.
De Balbian Verster suggested that the large vessel might be De Eendraght in which Schouten and Le Maire discovered Cape Horn and the Straits of Le Maire.5 In 1618 De Eendraght was part of the fleet that returned to the Netherlands. It is impossible to identify the large ship in the painting because its transom is not visible, so the occasion must also remain a mystery.
No authors have doubted the accuracy of the topographical information on the label. A drawing of the castle and church of IJsselmonde by Roeland Roghman shows buildings that are very similar to those in the background here.6
Aert Anthonisz painted the waves in this painting more skillfully than he did in The Battle of Cadiz (SK-A-1367). The reflections in the water, most notably of some of the flags, are very subtle but not faithful to reality, since a strong wind creates waves that break up reflections on the surface of water.7
Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007
See Bibliography and Rijksmuseum painting catalogues
See Key to abbreviations and Acknowledgements
This entry was published in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, I: Artists Born between 1570 and 1600, coll. cat. Amsterdam 2007, no. 2.
Literature
S.P.L. 1864, p. 79; Willis 1911, p. 23; Bol 1973, pp. 38-39; Kloek/Niemeijer 1990, pp. 58-59; Giltaij in Rotterdam 1996, no. 17; Briels 1997, pp. 387-88
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 32, no. 369; 1934, p. 30, no. 369; 1960, p. 21, no. 369; 1976, p. 84, no. A 1446 (as The ‘Eendraght’ off IJsselmonde, 1618); 2007, no. 2
Citation
E. Korthals Altes, 2007, 'Aert Anthonisz., Ships off IJsselmonde, 1617', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5793
(accessed 10 November 2024 04:31:05).