Bonaventura Peeters (I)

Imaginary Inlet in Southern Arctic Waters in Summer

c. 1640 - c. 1650

Inscriptions

  • signature, with initials, bottom centre, on the side of the rowing boat:BP·

Scientific examination and reports

  • technical report: W. de Ridder / L. Nijkamp, RMA, 16 maart 2006

Provenance

…; collection F. Poupe Serrane, Brussels; from whom, fl. 309, to the museum, 1910; on loan to the Scheepvaartmuseum, Amsterdam, 1921-30

ObjectNumber: SK-A-2518

The artist

Biography

Bonaventura Peeters I (Antwerp 1614 - Hoboken 1652)

The land- and seascape artist, Bonaventura Peeters I, the younger brother of Gillis (see SK-A-834), was baptized on 23 July 1614 in the Antwerp Sint-Walburgiskerk, the son of Cornelis Peeters and Catherina van Eelen ‘en van beter famille’.1François Mols’s transcript relayed by C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, 6 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, II, p. 1263. He became a master in the Antwerp guild of St Luke in 1634/35 (although he may have been active earlier)2See below; a painting dated 1631 was with the Galerie Sanct Lucas in 1964/65 (photograph in Rubenianum); L. Slavícek, The National Gallery of Prague: Flemish Paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries: Illustrated Summary Catalogue, Prague 2000, nos. 237/38 is/are dated 1632. and subsequently shared a studio with this brother. He remained in Antwerp until circa 1650, when because of a falling out with the Jesuits he moved with his younger brother and sister to Hoboken.3Mols’s transcript relayed by C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, 6 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, II, p. 1263. The rubric to Hollar’s print after Meyssens, see below, which was published in 1649, refers to the artist in the present tense as a native of Antwerp, so the move to Hoboken seems likely to have taken place later. There he died on 25 July 1652. His epitaph, erected by his younger brother, also a painter, described him as ‘een des wereldts wonderheide Zee-schilder en Poëet’.4A photograph of the epitaph is in the files of the Rubenianum, a transcript was published by F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1043 ff. Peeters never married, and the few records that refer to him usually describe him in the company of one or other of his siblings. Like his elder brother, he seems to have remained at a distance from the life of the guild.

As is the case of his elder brother, there is no record of Bonaventura’s apprenticeship. It seems likely that he was taught in the northern Netherlands, possibly by Jan Porcellis (c. 1584-1632), active there from 1622, but previously in Antwerp where his work was collected.5No. 307 of the sale of Rubens’s collection after his death was ‘Vne mer, sur toile, de Perseles’; paintings by Porcellis are listed in other Antwerp estates from 1625-64, E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, II-VII, passim; in one list, of 1646, of works to be exchanged, paintings by Porcellis and Peeters were listed together, Ibid., V, p. 328. Two seascapes – known from a photograph and a reproduction, one signed ‘B.Petri’ and dated 16296Anonymous sale, London (Sotheby’s), 18 June 1977, no. 64 (photograph in the Witt Library). (thus exceptionally early if by our Bonaventura) and the other signed and also dated 16297Anonymous sale, Munich (Helbing), 15 June 1909, no. 97 (reproductions in Witt Library and Rubenianum). – seem northern Netherlandish in character, as does a landscape in the Brussels museum.8H. Pauwels (ed.), Catalogue inventaire de la peinture ancienne, Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 1984, p. 226, no. 6047.

Opinion differs as to whether the artist later travelled outside the southern Netherlands.9Stuckenbrock (in E. Mai and H. Vlieghe (eds.), Von Bruegel bis Rubens: Die goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei, Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1992-93, p. 448) and Wieseman (in P. Sutton et al., The Age of Rubens, exh. cat. Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Toledo (Museum of Art) 1993-94, under no. 88) believe that he did not travel extensively; for the contrary view, see D.B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV: The Earlier British Drawings: British Artists and Foreigners Working in Britain before c. 1775, Oxford 1982, p. 109. His apparently weak constitution10F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, III, p. 67. notwithstanding, evidence provided by his oeuvre suggests that he did, even allowing for his South American subjects being inventions at second hand. Views of Copenhagen,11Anonymous sale, London (Sotheby's), 7 February 1979, no. 39; now Museum of Copenhagen. Stockholm12G. Seelig, Jan Brueghels Antwerpen: Die flämischen Gemälde in Schwerin, Schwerin (Staatliches Museum) 2003, no. 42 (dated 1636). and what is presumed to be Archangel,13J. Gaschke (ed.), Turmoil and Tranquility: The Sea through the Eyes of Dutch and Flemish Masters 1550-1700, exh. cat. London (National Maritime Museum) 2008-09, no. 29 (dated 1644); drawings in the Print Rooms of the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and the Courtauld Institute Galleries (Witt Collection no. 2436r). point to a voyage to northern waters. Views of the northern Netherlands suggest he travelled there (irrespective of his schooling),14A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 427 inscribed Reynburch (Rijnburg), between Leiden and Katwijk aan Zee; no. 426 has been identified as a view of the Maas at Dordrecht. as do views, inter alia, of Dover,15D.B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV: The Earlier British Drawings: British Artists and Foreigners Working in Britain before c. 1775, Oxford 1982, nos. 198-99, pp. 109-10, where a view of the cloisters at Evesham Abbey (formerly Grahl collection, Dresden) is also accepted. the island of Oléron,16A. Riether, Die sichtbare Welt: niederländische Bilder des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: Sammlung Christoph Müller Tübingen, Ulm (Ulmer Museum) 1996, no. 76. Monte Felix17A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 431. (Canary Isles) and San Sebastian18L. Stainton and C. White, Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1987, no. 81, with a later incorrect inscription that Peeters died at sea. suggest voyages south.

His only known commission was from Jacob Edelheer (1597-1657), the pensionary of the city of Antwerp, to execute scenes from the battle of Kallo (20 June 1638, not far distant from Antwerp) in 1638, followed by a larger picture of the battle, executed with this brother, for which they were paid in 1639. Peeters was quite prolific, and there are records of paintings dated in every year of his career.19Photographs chiefly consulted in the Rubenianum. He also was a frequent contributor of figures to church interiors by Peeter Neeffs I (c. 1578-1656/61).20F. Klauner and G. Heinz, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie, I: Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer, II: Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, 2 vols., Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1958-60, II, p. 90, no. 260.

Two of his poems are inscribed on the reverse of sea-storms which he had executed in gouache.21A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 432; with the Galerie Sanct Lucas 1983/84, no. 9, ex-The Earl Spencer, Althorp (photograph in the Rubenianum).

His portrait by Johannes Meyssens (1612-1670) was engraved by Wenceslaus Hollar (1607-1677). It was first published in Image de divers hommes d’esprit sublime of 164922F. Klauner and G. Heinz, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie, I: Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer, II: Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, 2 vols., Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1958-60, II, p. 90, no. 260. and then in Cornelis de Bie’s Het gulden cabinet of 1662.23C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. (1662), p. 171.

REFERENCES
P. Rombouts and T. van Lerius, De Liggeren en andere historische archieven der Antwerpsche Sint Lucasgilde, ondere zinspreuk: ‘Wt Ionsten Versaemt’, 2 vols., Antwerp/The Hague 1864-76 (reprint Amsterdam 1961), II, pp. 59, 67, 133; F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1046ff.

Entry

This is a seemingly early, painted evocation of the Arctic world, a region which had received great publicity following Gerrit de Veer’s illustrated, 1598 account of the voyage of Willem Barentsz, Jacob Heemskerk and Jan Cornelisz Rijp in 1596, in which Spitsbergen was discovered and Dutchmen overwintered for the first time in the Arctic (on Novaya Zemlya).24Gerrit de Veer, Waerachtige beschrijvinghe van drie seylagien … deur de Hollandtsche ende Zeelandtsche schepen by noorden …, Amsterdam 1598. Detailed maps of the area were quickly published by Johannes van Doetecum (c. 1530-1605),25H.J. Nalis, G. Luijten, C. Schuckman, The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: The Van Doetecum Family 1554-1606, 4 vols., Rotterdam 1998, IV, nos. 967-82. and there soon followed illustrated descriptions, both in English and Dutch, of other voyages to the region and feats of endurance including the Journael by Jacob van der Brugge of 1634.26J. Segersz van der Brugge, Journael, of dagh-register/gehouden by seven matroosen, in haer overwinteren op Spitsbergen in Maurtis-bay, Amsterdam 1634, translated by J.A.J. de Villiers in W.M. Conway (ed.), Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century, London 1904, pp. 79-165; Conway gives a bibliography of contemporary publications up to 1652, the year of Peeters’s death, in W.M. Conway, No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of Scientific Exploration of the Country, Cambridge 1906, p. 317. Peeters does not here depict any ice, and the rocky peaks are snowless, so it would appear to be summer in the south of the region. Spitsbergen itself was treeless27H.G.A. (Hessel Gerritsz. van Assum), ‘Histoire du Pays nommé Spitsberghe’, Amsterdam 1613, translated by B.H. Soulsby in W.M. Conway (ed.), Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century, London 1904, pp. 11-38, esp. p. 25. and perhaps because a few trees can be made out in the present work, the 1934 museum catalogue described the locality with qualification as the Norwegian coast.

Whaling was vigorously pursued in Spitsbergen in the first half of the seventeenth century, first by several nations and then primarily by the Dutch.28W.M. Conway, No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of Scientific Exploration of the Country, Cambridge 1906, pp. 32ff.; J.T. Jenkins, A History of the Whale Fisheries: From the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date, London 1921, pp. 59-136. Cornelis de Bie refers to Peeters’s whaling subjects.29C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. (1662), p. 171. Extant by him is a whale hunt in a private Norwegian collection.30Collection PierCöff, Krugerø, Norway, 1956; photograph in the RKD. Another showing a seemingly realistic whale hunt in which the hunters in rowing boats circle a harpooned whale was with the dealer Julius Weitzner, London, in 1931; its date has been read as 1645.31Photograph in the Rubenianum. The picture was ex-Williams sale, New York, 17-18 April 1928, no. 253; the catalogue incorrectly stated that it was signed in full. A view by him, said to be of Archangel and certainly of a port in northern waters of 1644, in which is prominent a ship flying the Danish flag, is in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.32Concise Catalogue of Oil Paintings in the National Maritime Museum, London (Greenwich) 1988, p. 304(b).

The scene in the Rijksmuseum picture, which is signed with Peeters’s initials, is not specific enough to be identifiable, and is only partially generic of what had been published about life in Arctic waters experienced during the whaling season in summer months. A single whale, not a school as would normally have been the case, is shown in the distance.33Evidence given in 1654 before the Lord Protector; J.T. Jenkins, A History of the Whale Fisheries: From the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date, London 1921, p. 144. It is not being hunted. While Peeters has included the typical huts, or ‘tents’ as they were called,34Pellham describes these cabins, ‘which we call the Tent’, in E. Pellham, God’s Power and Providence: Shewed, in the Miraculous Preservation and Deliverance of Eight Englishmen, Left by Mischance in Green-land, Anno 1630, Nine Moneths and Twelve Dayes … with a Description of the Chiefe Places and Rarities of that Barren and Cold Countrey …, London 1631, p. 17; Conway also provides a description, in W.M. Conway, No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of Scientific Exploration of the Country, Cambridge 1906, p. 137. none of the technology necessary for exploiting chiefly the whale blubber – furnaces, coppers, coolers and barrels – is depicted as is the case in Cornelis de Man’s painting of 1639 (SK-A-2355).35An account of 1662/63 given to the Royal Society based on memories of 1630; Jenkins is especially detailed, see J.T. Jenkins, A History of the Whale Fisheries: From the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date, London 1921, pp. 152-54. Confrontations with ‘white’ bears are a frequent subject of illustration in the pamphlets referred to above.36Such an episode was first illustrated in De Veer (Gerrit de Veer, Waerachtige beschrijvinghe van drie seylagien … deur de Hollandtsche ende Zeelandtsche schepen by noorden …, Amsterdam 1598, no. 13), which formed the template for future depictions. H.G.A. (Hessel Gerritsz. van Assum) noted that the ‘white bears’ were larger than oxen, in H.G.A. (Hessel Gerritsz. van Assum), ‘Histoire du Pays nommé Spitsberghe’, Amsterdam 1613, translated by B.H. Soulsby in W.M. Conway (ed.), Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century, London 1904, pp. 11-38, esp. p. 26. The Dutch man-of-war moored offshore would also have been an accepted occurrence, as warships were despatched to the area to protect Dutch whaling operations.

The present picture, executed perhaps in the 1640s, and Peeters’s other pictures of northern waters, were something of a novelty for a south Netherlandish artist to have undertaken. Whether he made a journey to the Arctic is debatable and is discussed above in his biography. His idiom seems to have been that of Adam Willaerts (1577-1664, active in Utrecht), though the latter’s coastal scenes were situated in lower latitudes.37Cf. the picture of 1620 in the Hamburg Kunsthalle (T. Ketelsen et al., Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle. Band II: Die niederländischen Gemälde 1500-1800, Hamburg 2001, pp. 311-12, no. 336) where Savery’s drawings in Bohemia and the Tyrol are suggested as a possible influence. Willaerts depicted one whaling scene – in which men flench a beached whale, with shipping ashore nearby, on a rocky coast – which was engraved by Magdalen van der Passe (F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, Amsterdam/Roosendaal 1948-, XVI, no. (20)). But the location seems not to have been the Arctic.

Gregory Martin, 2022

Collection catalogues

1934, p. 220, no. 1847a (A Bearhunt on the coast of Norway?); 1976, p. 437, no. A 2518

Citation

G. Martin, 2022, 'Bonaventura (I) Peeters, Imaginary Inlet in Southern Arctic Waters in Summer, c. 1640 - c. 1650', in Flemish Paintings in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: hdl.handle.net/10934/RM0001.COLLECT.5019

(accessed 26 April 2025 08:13:53).

Footnotes

  • 1François Mols’s transcript relayed by C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, 6 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, II, p. 1263.
  • 2See below; a painting dated 1631 was with the Galerie Sanct Lucas in 1964/65 (photograph in Rubenianum); L. Slavícek, The National Gallery of Prague: Flemish Paintings of the 17th and 18th centuries: Illustrated Summary Catalogue, Prague 2000, nos. 237/38 is/are dated 1632.
  • 3Mols’s transcript relayed by C. Kramm, De levens en werken der Hollandsche en Vlaamsche kunstschilders, beeldhouwers, graveurs en bouwmeesters van den vroegsten tot op onzen tijd, 6 vols., Amsterdam 1857-64, II, p. 1263. The rubric to Hollar’s print after Meyssens, see below, which was published in 1649, refers to the artist in the present tense as a native of Antwerp, so the move to Hoboken seems likely to have taken place later.
  • 4A photograph of the epitaph is in the files of the Rubenianum, a transcript was published by F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, p. 1043 ff.
  • 5No. 307 of the sale of Rubens’s collection after his death was ‘Vne mer, sur toile, de Perseles’; paintings by Porcellis are listed in other Antwerp estates from 1625-64, E. Duverger, Fontes historiae Artis Neerlandicae Bronnen voor de Kunstgeschiedenis van de Nederlanden: Koninklijke Academie voor Wetenschappen, Letteren en Schone Kunsten van België, Antwerpse kunstinventarissen uit de zeventiende eeuw, 13 vols., Brussels 1984-2004, II-VII, passim; in one list, of 1646, of works to be exchanged, paintings by Porcellis and Peeters were listed together, Ibid., V, p. 328.
  • 6Anonymous sale, London (Sotheby’s), 18 June 1977, no. 64 (photograph in the Witt Library).
  • 7Anonymous sale, Munich (Helbing), 15 June 1909, no. 97 (reproductions in Witt Library and Rubenianum).
  • 8H. Pauwels (ed.), Catalogue inventaire de la peinture ancienne, Brussels (Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) 1984, p. 226, no. 6047.
  • 9Stuckenbrock (in E. Mai and H. Vlieghe (eds.), Von Bruegel bis Rubens: Die goldene Jahrhundert der flämischen Malerei, Cologne (Wallraf-Richartz-Museum)/Antwerp (Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten)/Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1992-93, p. 448) and Wieseman (in P. Sutton et al., The Age of Rubens, exh. cat. Boston (Museum of Fine Arts)/Toledo (Museum of Art) 1993-94, under no. 88) believe that he did not travel extensively; for the contrary view, see D.B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV: The Earlier British Drawings: British Artists and Foreigners Working in Britain before c. 1775, Oxford 1982, p. 109.
  • 10F.J. van den Branden, Geschiedenis der Antwerpsche schilderschool, 3 vols., Antwerp 1883, III, p. 67.
  • 11Anonymous sale, London (Sotheby's), 7 February 1979, no. 39; now Museum of Copenhagen.
  • 12G. Seelig, Jan Brueghels Antwerpen: Die flämischen Gemälde in Schwerin, Schwerin (Staatliches Museum) 2003, no. 42 (dated 1636).
  • 13J. Gaschke (ed.), Turmoil and Tranquility: The Sea through the Eyes of Dutch and Flemish Masters 1550-1700, exh. cat. London (National Maritime Museum) 2008-09, no. 29 (dated 1644); drawings in the Print Rooms of the Boymans van Beuningen Museum, Rotterdam, and the Courtauld Institute Galleries (Witt Collection no. 2436r).
  • 14A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 427 inscribed Reynburch (Rijnburg), between Leiden and Katwijk aan Zee; no. 426 has been identified as a view of the Maas at Dordrecht.
  • 15D.B. Brown, Ashmolean Museum Catalogue of the Collection of Drawings, IV: The Earlier British Drawings: British Artists and Foreigners Working in Britain before c. 1775, Oxford 1982, nos. 198-99, pp. 109-10, where a view of the cloisters at Evesham Abbey (formerly Grahl collection, Dresden) is also accepted.
  • 16A. Riether, Die sichtbare Welt: niederländische Bilder des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts: Sammlung Christoph Müller Tübingen, Ulm (Ulmer Museum) 1996, no. 76.
  • 17A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 431.
  • 18L. Stainton and C. White, Drawing in England from Hilliard to Hogarth, exh. cat. London (British Museum) 1987, no. 81, with a later incorrect inscription that Peeters died at sea.
  • 19Photographs chiefly consulted in the Rubenianum.
  • 20F. Klauner and G. Heinz, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie, I: Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer, II: Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, 2 vols., Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1958-60, II, p. 90, no. 260.
  • 21A. Delen, Stedelijk Prentenkabinet: Catalogue des dessins anciens: écoles flamande et hollandaise, Cabinet des estampes de la ville d’Anvers, 2 vols., Brussels (Musée Plantin Moretus) 1938, I, no. 432; with the Galerie Sanct Lucas 1983/84, no. 9, ex-The Earl Spencer, Althorp (photograph in the Rubenianum).
  • 22F. Klauner and G. Heinz, Katalog der Gemäldegalerie, I: Italiener, Spanier, Franzosen, Engländer, II: Vlamen, Holländer, Deutsche, Franzosen, 2 vols., Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) 1958-60, II, p. 90, no. 260.
  • 23C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. (1662), p. 171.
  • 24Gerrit de Veer, Waerachtige beschrijvinghe van drie seylagien … deur de Hollandtsche ende Zeelandtsche schepen by noorden …, Amsterdam 1598.
  • 25H.J. Nalis, G. Luijten, C. Schuckman, The New Hollstein Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts, 1450-1700: The Van Doetecum Family 1554-1606, 4 vols., Rotterdam 1998, IV, nos. 967-82.
  • 26J. Segersz van der Brugge, Journael, of dagh-register/gehouden by seven matroosen, in haer overwinteren op Spitsbergen in Maurtis-bay, Amsterdam 1634, translated by J.A.J. de Villiers in W.M. Conway (ed.), Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century, London 1904, pp. 79-165; Conway gives a bibliography of contemporary publications up to 1652, the year of Peeters’s death, in W.M. Conway, No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of Scientific Exploration of the Country, Cambridge 1906, p. 317.
  • 27H.G.A. (Hessel Gerritsz. van Assum), ‘Histoire du Pays nommé Spitsberghe’, Amsterdam 1613, translated by B.H. Soulsby in W.M. Conway (ed.), Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century, London 1904, pp. 11-38, esp. p. 25.
  • 28W.M. Conway, No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of Scientific Exploration of the Country, Cambridge 1906, pp. 32ff.; J.T. Jenkins, A History of the Whale Fisheries: From the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date, London 1921, pp. 59-136.
  • 29C. de Bie, Het gulden cabinet van de edel vrij schilder const, inhoudende den lof vande vermartste schilders, architecte, beldtowers ende plaetsnijders van deze eeuwe, Antwerp s.a. (1662), p. 171.
  • 30Collection PierCöff, Krugerø, Norway, 1956; photograph in the RKD.
  • 31Photograph in the Rubenianum. The picture was ex-Williams sale, New York, 17-18 April 1928, no. 253; the catalogue incorrectly stated that it was signed in full.
  • 32Concise Catalogue of Oil Paintings in the National Maritime Museum, London (Greenwich) 1988, p. 304(b).
  • 33Evidence given in 1654 before the Lord Protector; J.T. Jenkins, A History of the Whale Fisheries: From the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date, London 1921, p. 144.
  • 34Pellham describes these cabins, ‘which we call the Tent’, in E. Pellham, God’s Power and Providence: Shewed, in the Miraculous Preservation and Deliverance of Eight Englishmen, Left by Mischance in Green-land, Anno 1630, Nine Moneths and Twelve Dayes … with a Description of the Chiefe Places and Rarities of that Barren and Cold Countrey …, London 1631, p. 17; Conway also provides a description, in W.M. Conway, No Man’s Land: A History of Spitsbergen from its Discovery in 1596 to the Beginning of Scientific Exploration of the Country, Cambridge 1906, p. 137.
  • 35An account of 1662/63 given to the Royal Society based on memories of 1630; Jenkins is especially detailed, see J.T. Jenkins, A History of the Whale Fisheries: From the Basque Fisheries of the Tenth Century to the Hunting of the Finner Whale at the Present Date, London 1921, pp. 152-54.
  • 36Such an episode was first illustrated in De Veer (Gerrit de Veer, Waerachtige beschrijvinghe van drie seylagien … deur de Hollandtsche ende Zeelandtsche schepen by noorden …, Amsterdam 1598, no. 13), which formed the template for future depictions. H.G.A. (Hessel Gerritsz. van Assum) noted that the ‘white bears’ were larger than oxen, in H.G.A. (Hessel Gerritsz. van Assum), ‘Histoire du Pays nommé Spitsberghe’, Amsterdam 1613, translated by B.H. Soulsby in W.M. Conway (ed.), Early Dutch and English Voyages to Spitsbergen in the Seventeenth Century, London 1904, pp. 11-38, esp. p. 26.
  • 37Cf. the picture of 1620 in the Hamburg Kunsthalle (T. Ketelsen et al., Die Sammlungen der Hamburger Kunsthalle. Band II: Die niederländischen Gemälde 1500-1800, Hamburg 2001, pp. 311-12, no. 336) where Savery’s drawings in Bohemia and the Tyrol are suggested as a possible influence. Willaerts depicted one whaling scene – in which men flench a beached whale, with shipping ashore nearby, on a rocky coast – which was engraved by Magdalen van der Passe (F.W.H. Hollstein et al., Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450-1700, Amsterdam/Roosendaal 1948-, XVI, no. (20)). But the location seems not to have been the Arctic.