Charles Ferdinand de Bourbon, Duc de Berry (1778-1820), Palais de l'Elysée, Paris;
His widow Marie Caroline de Bourbon, Duchesse de Berry (1798-1870), Château Rosny-sur-Seine;
Exhibited for private sale, London, Christie's, April 1834 (unsold at £280);
Anonymous sale, Paris, Bataillard en Paillet, 4-6 April 1837, lot 44, for 3,948 Francs;
Edmund Higginson Esq., Saltmarsh Castle, by 1842;
His sale, London, Christie's, 6 June 1846 (=3rd day of the sale), lot 209, for 190 guineas to Emery;
Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. (1817-1901), Doughty House, Richmond, by whom bought in 1872 for £73 10s;
Thence by descent to his grandson, Sir Herbert Cook 3rd Bt. (1868-1939);
Inherited by his son, Sir Francis Cook 4th Bt, (1907-78) & the Trustees of the Cook Collection;
From whom acquired shortly thereafter by Thomas Agnew and Sons, and certainly with them by 1946;
Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Private Collector'), New York, Christie's, 12 January 1996, lot 183, for $288,500;
Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesmann (inv. no. A-83);
His sale, London, Christie's, 11 April 2002, lot 563, for £201,750;
With P𒁏. de Boer, Amsterdam, by 2004, from whom acquired by the present owner in 2007.

Amsterdam, Royal Palace, Backhuysen aan het roer! Zeeschilder 1630-1708, 1 July – 12 September 2004, no. 10

J. Smith, A Catalogue raisonné..., vol. IX, London 1835, p. 450, no. 147;
J. Smith, Supplement..., London 1842, p.780, no. 15;
Abridged Catalogue of Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, London 1907 & 1914 editions, p. 21, no. 70 (as hanging in the Long Gallery at Doughty House); 
J.O. Kronig, A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, & Elsewhere within the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, Bt., vol. II, 1914, p. 4, no. 205 (Long Gallery, Doughty House);
C. Hofstede de Groot, Beschreibendes und kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke, vol. 7, Esslingen 1918, p. 266, no. 69;
C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné...., London 1923, vol. VII, p. 276, no. 266;
M. Brockwell, Abridged Catalogue of the Pictures at Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, in the collection of Sir Herbert Cook, Bart, 1932, p. 37, no. 205 (Long Gallery, Doughty House);
G. de Beer, Backhuysen aan het roer! Zeeschilder 1630 -1708, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam 2004, p. 5𓃲5, no. 10, reproduced in colour.

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 secure older lining and stretcher. There is a fine even craquelure. The exquisite condition of this painting is rare. Every finest line of rigging is preserved intact, as are the rich darks in the waves and the hulls of the ships. The perfectly judged tonal recession in the complex layers of masts and rigging receding into the distance on the left is preserved completely unworn. Even the impossibly delicate rigging in the further ships, which appears to have been painted with a single hair, is intact. There is slight scuffing from the frame along the base edge and one or two minuscule surface retouchings, mainly at the outer edge of the base, and occasionally muting a tiny corner in the craquelure of the sky, with the only wider retouching being a small patch of surface strengthening (about a centimetre wide) in the blue band of the flag beneath the signature, possibly over a pentiment. 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."

The view depicted is the river Ij at Amsterdam seen from the north bank and looking to the west, the city largely hidden from view by the looming bulk of the Dutch East India Company Magazine in the left distance.  The windmill in the centre distance sits on the bulwark of Het Blauwhoofd (named for the blue stone from which it was built), close to the Magazine.  The high-roofed square building to the right is the Tolhuis (Customs House), built in 1662, next to it is an inn, and near it is the so-called gallows, actually a frame for raising a lantern or a signal.  The area, or to be more specific the large tract of marshy land either side of and behind the Tolhuis and bordered by the Ij, was known as the Volewijk.  This was a popular view, painted on more than one occasion by Backhuysen, and also by Hendrick Dubbels and Abraham Storck.¹  Drawings by Backhuysen showing the same view, but with different arrangements of vessels, are in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, and the Kunsthalle, Hamburg.²

To the left, near to the viewer, is a flute (or fluyt), a merchant vessel characterized by a high narrow stern and a pronounced tumblehome.  Beyond are two Men-O'-War at anchor in the Roads, probably both from the Dutch East India Company.  The one to the right, firing a salute, and flying the flag and pennant of an Admiral of the Main, bears the arms of Amsterdam: this may be the Amsterdam, a 64-gun ship buil♉t in Amsterdam in 1688 and serving until 1712.  The small vessel in the foreground is a ferry crossing the Ij from Amsterdam🐬.

By the 1680s, when Backhuysen painted this picture, his palette had become lighter and t﷽he colouring brighter.  His technique is idealꦕly suited to this gentle depiction of a familiar scene on a sunny day, with a southerly breeze kicking up a short chop in the shallow waters in the foreground.     

We are very grateful to John Somerville for his help in clarifying the Cook provenance of this lot.  When sold in 2002, Dr. Gerlinde de Beer confirmed Backhuysen's authorship, and dated this picture to the 1680s.

1.  For a painting by Dubbels of Volewijk, with the Tolhuis in the distance, see U. Middendorf, Hendrik Jacobsz. Dubbels (1621-1707), Freren 1989p. 130, no. 71, reproduced.
2.  For the Teylers drawing, see G. de Beer, under literature, 2004, p. 81, no. 26, reproduced.