View of Tunis

Reinier Nooms (signed by artist), 1662 - 1668

In the second half of the seventeenth century, Tunis was a haven for pirates and privateers who lay in wait for Dutch merchant ships. To protect Dutch merchantmen, the navy patrolled the Mediterranean Sea. Nooms painted the ships and the topography of the shore with remarkable detail. He probably used drawings made on site as inspiration for this painting.

  • Artwork typepainting
  • Object numberSK-A-1397
  • Dimensionsdepth 6 cm, support: height 63 cm x width 110 cm
  • Physical characteristicsoil on canvas

Reinier Nooms

View of Tunis

Amsterdam, Amsterdam, 1662 - 1668

Inscriptions

  • signature, on a flag:R. Zeeman

Conservation

  • H. Kat, december 1999: cleaned; paint consolidated

Provenance

…; Admiraliteit van Amsterdam (Admiralty of Amsterdam);1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, p. 173. transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: SK-A-1397


Entry

View of a harbour with town and ships, seen from the sea.

The Amsterdam Admiralty commissioned Reinier Nooms to make four paintings (this painting and SK-A-1396, SK-A-1398 and SK-A-1399) after peace with Algiers and other North African states was achieved. It is thought that they were intended as a present for Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter, but instead they remained with the Amsterdam Admiralty. In 1663, the Amsterdam-based captain Joris de Caulery received a chain worth a hundred silver ducats from the Staten Generaal in return for his present of these four paintings made by Nooms.2G. Sanders, Het present van staat. De gouden ketens, kettingen en medailles verleend door de Staten-Generaal, 1588-1795, Hilversum 2013, pp. 249-50.


Literature

J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, p. 173; P.J.J. van Thiel et al., All the Paintings of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: A Completely Illustrated Catalogue, coll. cat. Amsterdam 1976, p. 419; K. Bejjit, ‘Merchants, Diplomats, and Corsairs: The Dutch in Barbary in De Ruyter’s Time’, in J.R. Bruijn et al. (eds.), De Ruyter: Dutch Admiral, Rotterdam 2011, pp. 57-75


Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'Reinier Nooms, View of Tunis, Amsterdam, 1662 - 1668', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/20027352

(accessed 6 December 2025 10:15:54).

Footnotes

  • 1J.M. Obreen, Catalogus der verzameling modellen van het Departement van Marine, The Hague 1858, p. 173.
  • 2G. Sanders, Het present van staat. De gouden ketens, kettingen en medailles verleend door de Staten-Generaal, 1588-1795, Hilversum 2013, pp. 249-50.