After the Storm
Willem van de Velde the Younger·c. 1700
Historical Context
This After the Storm by Willem van de Velde the Younger and his studio, dating to around 1700, depicts the calm aftermath of a tempest at sea. Van de Velde the Younger was the greatest marine painter in the history of European art, and his studio in Greenwich continued to produce highly accomplished seascapes until his death in 1707. He and his father settled in England in 1672 under the patronage of Charles II, transforming English marine painting.
Technical Analysis
The oil on canvas shows the van de Velde studio's mastery of atmospheric marine painting, with subtle gradations of light across calm waters and clearing skies. The precise rendering of ship architecture and rigging, combined with the poetic treatment of post-storm light, exemplify the studio's technical excellence.
Provenance
Robert Napier [1791-1876], Glasgow, by 1865;[1] (his sale, Shandon Collection, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 13 April 1877, no. 469); J. M. Anderson.[2] (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 15 June 1901, no. 42); Wallis.[3] (V. G. Fischer Fine Art Co., Washington);[4] purchased by May 15, 1905 by William A. Clark [1839-1925], New York;[5] bequest April 1926 to the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, as _Marine_; acquired 2016 by the National Gallery of Art. [1] The painting is no. 413 in the _Catalogue of the Works of Art Forming the Collection of Robert Napier, of West Shandon, Dumbartonshire_, London, 1865, compiled by J. C. Robinson. [2] According to M.S. Robinson, _Van de Velde: A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Velde_, 2 vols., London, 1990: 2:842-843, repro. [3] See Algernon Graves, _Art Sales from Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century_, 3 vols., London, 1921: 3:278. [4] According to Dana H. Carroll, _Catalogue of Objects of Fine Art and Other Properties at the Home of William Andrews Clark, 962 Fifth Avenue_, part 1, unpublished manuscript, no. 135. The work is no. 495 in C. Hofstede de Groot, _A Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the Most Eminent Dutch Painters of the Seventeenth Century_, 8 vols., London, 1923: 7: 126. It is mistakenly identified as having been acquired by Clark from Gottfried von Preyer of Vienna. See Robinson 1990 for more information. [5] Althought records from the Corcoran indicate that Clark purchased the work in 1906, a 1905 review of his collection on loan to the Corcoran Gallery refers to "a marine by Van de Velde." (James Henry Moser, “American Collections: The W. A. Clark Collection at the Corcoran Art Gallery," _The Collector and Art Critic_Vol. 3, No. 7 (May 15, 1905):104.
