Object data
oil on canvas
support: height 102.5 cm × width 206.2 cm
outer size: depth 8 cm (support incl. frame)
Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen
The Spanish Armada off the English Coast
c. 1620 - c. 1625
Inscriptions
- signature, on the boat in the middle: C.C.W
Technical notes
The support, a plain-weave canvas, has been lined. The tacking edges have been preserved at the bottom and top. On the left and right the paint extends to the very edge of the canvas, which suggests that it may have been trimmed here a little. Cusping is visible on the left, suggesting that the painting’s dimensions may have been reduced only slightly. The ground is white. The small ships and the animals were painted over the sea, while reserves were left for the larger ships.
Scientific examination and reports
- technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 8 December 2004
Condition
Poor. The painting is worn, particularly in the sky, which has been heavily retouched. The masts and rigging were restored in an inconsistent manner. There is an old, restored tear of approximately 12 cm close to the large ship.
Conservation
- W.A. Hopman, 1874: canvas lined
- H. Plagge, 1963: complete restoration
Provenance
...; ? collection C.M.E.C. Graaf van Bylandt (?-1893), London;1...; sale, Henrik Houck (1820-93, Deventer), Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 7 May 1895, no. 133 (‘Les Espagnols en Amérique. Scène extrêmement curieuse, représentant de formiables bâtiments de guerre espagnols, débarquant sur la côte de l’Amérique leurs chargements de chevaux. Les équipages hissent ces animaux par dessus le bord, pour les faire gagner la terre, en nageant. Signé du monogramme. Toile 104 x 207 cm’), fl. 130, to the conservator W.A. Hopman, Bussum; from whom, fl. 152, to the museum, May 18952
Object number: SK-A-1629
Copyright: Public domain
The artist
Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen (Haarlem before 1577 - Haarlem 1633)
It is not known precisely when the marine artist Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen was born. Karel van Mander states that he was from Haarlem, and that at first he followed his father’s trade of seafarer. Van Wieringen enrolled in the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1597, and since the minimum age of admission was 21 it has been assumed that he was born before 1577. It is generally believed that he was taught by Hendrick Vroom, but that is not documented, nor can the suspicion that he was a pupil of Hendrick Goltzius be substantiated. Van Wieringen’s earliest known work dates from 1616, A Dutch Merchantman Attacked by an English Privateer, off La Rochelle.3 In addition to marine paintings, he also made many drawings of a variety of subjects.
Van Wieringen was made a warden of the guild around 1610, and in 1630 he was involved in drawing up a new guild charter that never came into effect. He died on 29 December 1633 and was buried a few days later in Haarlem’s Grote Kerk. He received his last major commission in 1629 from the Haarlem authorities to design a monumental tapestry of The Capture of Damietta, which still hangs in the council chamber of the town hall. Van Wieringen’s son Claes was also a painter, and joined the Guild of St Luke in 1636.
Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007
References
Van Mander 1604, fol. 300; Ampzing 1621, [p. 33]; Schrevelius 1648, p. 389; Obreen I, 1877-78, p. 235; Bredius II, 1916, p. 671, VII, 1921, pp. 89-93; Thieme/Becker XXXV, 1942, p. 537; Keyes 1979, pp. 1-2; Miedema 1980, I, pp. 84, 85, 93, 136, 139, 194, II, pp. 423, 1033, 1037, 1056-57; Brand 1995, pp. 194-207; Miedema VI, 1998, p. 120; Van Thiel-Stroman 2006, pp. 343-46
Entry
Like Hendrick Vroom Van Wieringen usually depicted events from the recent past which must have had a special significance for the original owners of the paintings. In this case it was probably the Armada, which was routed by the English at Gravelines in 1588 and then scattered by a violent storm.4 The painting shows several Spanish men-of-war sailing just off a rocky coast. The large ship in the middle is flanked by two three-masters placed a little further to the background. Van Wieringen painted a very unusual subject, and that is the moment when horses and mules were thrown overboard to conserve the stocks of water and food.5 The work was probably commissioned, and because the English drove off the Armada it is not inconceivable that it was painted for an Englishman.6
Van Wieringen’s style is distinctive. The deep blue-green water and the dark tone of the two galleons contrast with the bright colours of the setting. The precision with which the masts, rigging and sails are depicted is at marked variance with the light sky and clouds. The horses and mules are not very lifelike, being rather schematic. The painting can be dated to the early 1620s, given its affinity with Van Wieringen’s works from that period.
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. 340.
Literature
Willis 1911, p. 21; Bol 1973, p. 33; Keyes 1979, p. 5
Collection catalogues
1903, p. 299, no. 2678; 1934, p. 318, no. 2678; 1960, p. 342, no. 2678; 1976, p. 604, no. A 1629; 2007, no. 340
Citation
E. Korthals Altes, 2007, 'Cornelis Claesz. van Wieringen, The Spanish Armada off the English Coast, c. 1620 - c. 1625', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.6554
(accessed 18 May 2024 09:26:42).