Ships off a Coast

Adam Willaerts (signed by artist), 1628

Strandgezicht met enkele Hollandse schepen voor de kust. Op de kust een baken en meerdere figuren.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-1430
  • Dimensionsouter size: depth 7 cm (support incl. frame), support: height 43.8 cm x width 81 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoil on panel

Discover more

more by Adam Willaerts

The Defeat of the Spanish at Gibraltar by a Dutch Fleet under the Command of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, 25 April 1607

Adam Willaerts (signed by artist), 1639

The Defeat of the Spanish at Gibraltar by a Dutch Fleet under the Command of Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, 25 April 1607

Victory over the Spanish near Gibraltar by a Fleet Commanded by Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, 25 April 1607

Adam Willaerts (signed by artist), 1617

Victory over the Spanish near Gibraltar by a Fleet Commanded by Admiral Jacob van Heemskerck, 25 April 1607

Ships off a Rocky Coast

Adam Willaerts (signed by artist), 1621

Ships off a Rocky Coast

Adam Willaerts

Ships off a Coast

1628

Inscriptions

  • signature, bottom right:Ad Willa [...]
  • signature and date, with monogram, bottom centre:A.W. 1628: A.W. 1628

Technical notes

The support consists of two horizontally grained oak planks and is bevelled on all sides. The ground is white. The beach and some of the clouds were rapidly underdrawn, but the figures and the ships were not. The paint layers are smooth, apart from the rather heavy impasto used for the figures and the foam of the sea. The figures were painted last, even over the highlights, which show through here and there.

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: I. Verslype, RMA, 23 maart 2005
  • infrared reflectography: I. Verslype, RMA, 23 maart 2005

Condition

Fair. Some retouchings and the varnish are discoloured.

Conservation

  • H.H. Mertens, 1964: complete restoration

Provenance

…; collection H.M. Otto, Amsterdam;1Note RMA.…; sale, v.d. Cr. te V. and W. te O., Amsterdam (C.F. Roos), 1 November 1887, no. 52, fl. 69, to the museum; on loan to the Marinestafschool, The Hague, 1964-?; on loan to the Mauritshuis, Galerij Prins Willem V, The Hague, since 1991

Object number: SK-A-1430

The artist

Biography

Adam Willaerts (London 1577 - Utrecht 1664)

According to De Bie and Houbraken, Adam Willaerts was born in Antwerp, but recently discovered documents show that he was the son of a Flemish immigrant in London. The baptismal register of Austin Friars Church shows that he was baptized on 21 July 1577. The family probably moved to Amsterdam around 1589. In 1602, Adam Willaerts and Salomon Vredeman de Vries were commissioned to paint the organ shutters in Utrecht Cathedral. He became a citizen of Utrecht six years later, and it was around then that he painted his first known dated work, The Dutch East India Company Fleet near an Island off the Coast of West Africa, in 1608 or 1609.2Amsterdams Historisch Museum; illustrated in Bol 1973, p. 63, fig. 59.

That Willaerts was an important figure among Utrecht artists is clear from his active involvement in founding the city’s Guild of St Luke in 1611, and from the fact that he served as its dean for many years. He was in regular touch with other Utrecht artists, such as Roelant Savery, Cornelis van Poelenburch, Herman Saftleven and Bernard Zwaerdecroon.

It can be deduced from the guild accounts that he taught a large number of ‘apprentice boys’. He was married and had six children, three of whom also became painters: Cornelis (?-1666), Abraham (c. 1613-69) and Isaac (c. 1620-93).

Much of Willaerts’s oeuvre consists of marines and coastal landscapes. He also made seascapes featuring biblical figures. Willaerts regularly received specific commissions, among others from the burgomasters of Utrecht, the Dordrecht Chamber of Justice3Dordrechts Museum, View of Dordrecht; illustrated in Nelemans 1999, II, fig. 3. and the States of Utrecht (SK-A-1387). Through the artist Simon de Passe he also received a request from King Christian IV of Denmark to contribute to a series of paintings for Kronborg Castle. He also painted for the open market. Adam Willaerts died in 1664. His last known dated work, Shipwreck in a Violent Storm, is from 1656.4Private collection.

Everhard Korthals Altes, 2007

References
De Bie 1661, pp. 111-12; Von Sandrart 1675 (1925), p. 176; Houbraken I, 1718, p. 60; Schulz in Thieme/Becker XXXVI, 1947, pp. 8-9; Muller 1880, pp. 92, 96, 98, 126; Bok in Amsterdam 1993, pp. 325-26; Giltaij in Rotterdam-Berlin 1996, p. 113; Briels 1997, pp. 407-08

Entry

A number of Dutch warships and fishing boats are lying just off the coast, where various figures on the beach and the dunes are going about their work or watching the ships. On the right is an English fishing boat. A beacon closes the composition off on the far left. The location of the scene is not clear. The rocks on the left make it unlikely that the scene is set in the Netherlands. Beaches and coastlines often figure in 17th-century Dutch painting. Willaerts was one of the first artists to treat the beach as a subject in its own right.5Giepmans 2004, p. 14.

The panel displays Willaerts’s distinctive manner, with the foam on the waves being typical of his hand. It is interesting that he first made an extremely sketchy underdrawing for the breakers but then painted them fairly painstakingly.

Willaerts monogrammed and dated the painting twice, as well as signing his name in full. One can only guess at the reason, but this is by no means an isolated instance in 17th-century Dutch art. Another example is a Still Life with Fruits and Flowers by Balthasar van der Ast (SK-A-2152).6Wallert 1999, pp. 53-54. which the artist signed and dated twice, but in that case there is a difference of one year between the dates. It is possible that the finished painting was later modified and then acquired the second signature and date. In the case of the Willaerts there is no good explanation for the surfeit of signatures.

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. 346.

Literature

Bol 1973, p. 71

Collection catalogues

1903, p. 300, no. 2684; 1934, p. 319, no. 2684; 1976, p. 606, no. A 1430; 2007, no. 346

Citation

E. Korthals Altes, 2007, 'Adam Willaerts, Ships off a Coast, 1628', in J. Bikker (ed.), Dutch Paintings of the Seventeenth Century in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027359

(accessed 6 December 2025 12:38:33).

Footnotes

  • 1Note RMA.
  • 2Amsterdams Historisch Museum; illustrated in Bol 1973, p. 63, fig. 59.
  • 3Dordrechts Museum, View of Dordrecht; illustrated in Nelemans 1999, II, fig. 3.
  • 4Private collection.
  • 5Giepmans 2004, p. 14.
  • 6Wallert 1999, pp. 53-54.