Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 136 cm × width 204.5 cm
outer size: depth 5.5 cm (support incl. frame)
Adam Willaerts
The Defeat of the Spanish at Gibraltar by a Dutch Fleet under the Command of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, 25 April 1607
1639
Inscriptions
- signature and date, bottom right: A. Willarts 1639
Technical notes
The support, a plain-weave canvas, has been lined. The tacking edges are intact, and cusping is visible on all sides. The ground is greyish-brown, followed by paint layers which were smoothly applied, with some impasto for the highlights.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: M. van de Laar, RMA, 25 November 2004
Condition
Good. There are some discoloured retouchings. The varnish is discoloured and irregular.
Conservation
- H.H. Mertens, 1961: complete restoration; canvas lined
Provenance
? Collection Van Heemskerck family;1 ? by descent to Jonkheer H. Tedingh van Berckhout (on loan to the Museum der Stad Haarlem until 1907); his sale, Amsterdam (F. Muller), 27 (29) June 1905 sqq., no. 125, fl. 1,000, to the museum
Object number: SK-A-2162
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Adam Willaerts (London 1577 - Utrecht 1664)
According to De Bie and Houbraken, Adam Willaerts was born in Antwerp, but recently discovered documents show that he was the son of a Flemish immigrant in London. The baptismal register of Austin Friars Church shows that he was baptized on 21 July 1577. The family probably moved to Amsterdam around 1589. In 1602, Adam Willaerts and Salomon Vredeman de Vries were commissioned to paint the organ shutters in Utrecht Cathedral. He became a citizen of Utrecht six years later, and it was around then that he painted his first known dated work, The Dutch East India Company Fleet near an Island off the Coast of West Africa, in 1608 or 1609.2
That Willaerts was an important figure among Utrecht artists is clear from his active involvement in founding the city’s Guild of St Luke in 1611, and from the fact that he served as its dean for many years. He was in regular touch with other Utrecht artists, such as Roelant Savery, Cornelis van Poelenburch, Herman Saftleven and Bernard Zwaerdecroon.
It can be deduced from the guild accounts that he taught a large number of ‘apprentice boys’. He was married and had six children, three of whom also became painters: Cornelis (?-1666), Abraham (c. 1613-69) and Isaac (c. 1620-93).
Much of Willaerts’s oeuvre consists of marines and coastal landscapes. He also made seascapes featuring biblical figures. Willaerts regularly received specific commissions, among others from the burgomasters of Utrecht, the Dordrecht Chamber of Justice3 and the States of Utrecht (SK-A-1387). Through the artist Simon de Passe he also received a request from King Christian IV of Denmark to contribute to a series of paintings for Kronborg Castle. He also painted for the open market. Adam Willaerts died in 1664. His last known dated work, Shipwreck in a Violent Storm, is from 1656.4
Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007
References
De Bie 1661, pp. 111-12; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), p. 176; Houbraken I, 1718, p. 60; Schulz in Thieme/Becker XXXVI, 1947, pp. 8-9; Muller 1880, pp. 92, 96, 98, 126; Bok in Amsterdam 1993, pp. 325-26; Giltaij in Rotterdam-Berlin 1996, p. 113; Briels 1997, pp. 407-08
Entry
In 1639, more than 20 years after Willaerts had first painted the Battle of Gibraltar from which the Dutch emerged as the victors (SK-A-1387), he returned to the subject. Here he has devoted far more attention to the actual battle, which was relegated to the background in the painting of 1617. As far as the style is concerned, though, there is no real departure from the earlier work. This shows just how little Willaerts’s style evolved over the years. One important difference is that the later work is not as colourful and looks a little mechanical. It is possible that his sons contributed to the painting. Abraham’s hand, in particular, is hard to distinguish from his father’s. The detailed execution and the rather draughtsman-like nature of the scene, especially the stiff little waves that are so typical of Willaerts’s studio, were old-fashioned at the time compared to the tonal paintings of Porcellis and Van Goyen, which are far freer and sketchier, and place more emphasis on the general ambience than on the precise description of the surroundings. However, Willaerts’s style was more suitable for depicting a historical event, where the primary aim is to present the viewer with a recognizable picture of the ships and the setting of the battle.
The composition has parallels with prints of the Battle of Gibraltar, although they have a higher horizon.5 Another version of this painting was at auction in 1995 and 2000.6
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. 347.
Literature
Bol 1973, p. 73; Bolten 1999, pp. 53-54, 57
Collection catalogues
1934, p. 319, no. 2682a; 1960, p. 343, no. 2684 A 1; 1976, p. 606, no. 2162; 2007, no. 347
Citation
E. Korthals Altes, 2007, 'Adam Willaerts, The Defeat of the Spanish at Gibraltar by a Dutch Fleet under the Command of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, 25 April 1607, 1639', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6570
(accessed 23 November 2024 01:27:47).