The support, a plain-weave canvas, has been lined. Cusping is visible on all sides. A white ground was followed by thin paint layers for the sky, sea and foreground. The figures and ships were executed in more opaque paint. Impasto was used for highlights, particularly in the waves. There are a few pentimenti. A figure was painted out in the group on the right, just to the left of the boat. Small changes are visible in the positioning of the principal figure in the centre of the canvas.

Poor. There are large areas of abrasion, particularly in the sky. The entire painting shows numerous small losses and many retouchings, and has a discoloured and irregularly applied
varnish.

…; recorded in East India House, Amsterdam in the mid-19th century;¹¹Van Luttervelt 1957b.…; transferred to the museum from the Nederlandsch Museum voor Geschiedenis en Kunst, The Hague, 1887

Object number: SK-A-1361

The centrepiece of this painting is a remarkably large four-master, of which there were only two in the Republic’s fleet around 1600. The arms of Amsterdam on one of the flags identify it as De Hollandse Tuyn, which was built in Amsterdam, whereas one of the other ships, De Leeuw, was from Rotterdam.³³Van Luttervelt 1957b. In 1603, Paulus van Caerden sailed to Brazil in De Hollandse Tuyn to fight the Spanish, and returned two years later. He is probably the man who is being welcomed on the beach by a number of dignitaries.⁴⁴Van Luttervelt 1957b. It is not clear exactly where this event is taking place.

Although undated, the painting may have been made around 1605, the year in which the expedition returned. De Hollandse Tuyn was sold to Tuscany in 1606, so Vroom probably painted the scene before that happened. It is as if the artist is viewing the scene from an imaginary, high vantage point. He used this device at both the beginning and end of his career, so unfortunately it is of no help in establishing the date.

It is possible that the work was commissioned by the Amsterdam Admiralty, since some of the contents of East India House originally came from the Admiralty’s conference building.⁵⁵See Provenance; Van Luttervelt 1957b; cf. Russell 1983, p. 155. It is less plausible that it was commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, because De Hollandse Tuyn never sailed in one of its fleets.⁶⁶In view of the painting’s provenance from East India House, the headquarters of the Dutch East India Company, it was long thought that the painting depicted the return of Cornelis and Frederik Houtman from the first expedition to the East Indies in August 1597. See coll. cat. 1887, p. 186, no. 1599.

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. 335.

Van Luttervelt 1957b; Keyes 1975, I, p. 29; Russell 1983, p. 155

1887, p. 186, no. 1599 (as The Return of Houtman’s Expedition to the East Indies, August 1597); 1903, p. 292, no. 2606; 1934, p. 311, no. 2606; 1960, p. 335, no. 2606; 1976, p. 592, A 1361 (as The Amsterdam Four-Master ‘De Hollandse Tuyn’ and Other Ships Entering the IJ on their Return from Brazil under Command of Paulus van Caerden); 2007, no. 335

E. Korthals Altes, 2007, 'Hendrik Cornelisz. Vroom, The Amsterdam Four-Master ‘De Hollandse Tuyn’ and Other Ships on their Return from Brazil under the Command of Paulus van Caerden, c. 1605 - c. 1640', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20026919