Reputedly Baron Alphonse de Rothschild (1827-1905), and possibly the 'Marine' by Van de Velde recorded in his Paris inventory of 1903;
August Berg, Portland, Oregon;
Fernand Stuyk, Antwerp, 1930;
His sale, Brussels, Paleis voor Schone Kunsten, 17 December 1960, lot 127;
Dr. Hans Wetzlar, Amsterdam.

 

Liège, Grande saison Internationale de l'eau, 1939, no. 9;
Laren 1966, no. 56.

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VII, London 1923, p. 98, no. 368;
Voorkeuren, 1985, p. 68, reproduced p. 69.

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting has a very old lining and stretcher, although these are still firm. There has been a light fairly recent restoration with a few minor surface retouchings, including some tiny touches along the horizon and in some rather thinner places in the sky where the black ground can be seen. Some small older retouchings are visible in the right base corner and over two little vertical fillings in the central cloud, and rather wider older reinforcements seem to have been made to the clouds and distant horizon at lower left as also to the figures, with other old patchy strengthening of the blue of the upper sky and perhaps of some other clouds, where the dark ground may have become more visible. The foreground and seascape generally with the ships and the fine figure at lower right have been well preserved, as have certain areas of the cloudscape. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

It is surprising that this picture seems to have eluded the attentions of Michael Robinson when compiling his catalogue raisonné of paintings by Willem van de Velde the Elder and Younger.¹  It is close in style, handling and composition to a group of inshore calm scenes with fishing boats unloading their catch or preparing to depart that Willem van de Velde the Younger painted in the early 1670s.  Several of these incorporate two weyschuits very similarly arranged; for example the picture at Petworth House, which is known in further variants.²

We are grateful to Professor Jan Kelch and Dr. Michael Hall for their help in cataloguing this lot.

1.  M.S. Robinson, Van de Velde.  A Catalogue of the Paintings of the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Velde, Greenwich 1990.
2.  See Robinson, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 446-50, no. 185, reproduc🌸ed (no. 185 2).