(London 1577–1664 Utrecht)
Dutch ships in front of a rocky coast with figures, buildings beyond,
monogrammed and dated lower centre left: A. W 1633,
oil on canvas, 99 x 117 cm, framed

bears an old inventory number on the reverse: Bema B/01124

Provenance:
Private European collection

Bustling harbor scenes, full of genre-like details, such as the present, were a specialty of Adam Willaerts and earned him early recognition. Here, the artist shows three large ships, so called man o’ wars, with Dutch flags on a choppy sea, under a cloudy sky. Next to them, two smaller boats are anchored in front of a rocky coast. The figures in the left foreground, who seem to have just stepped off a boat, appear on the shore in various scenes of greeting; a young man embraces his beloved, next to him a man holds out his hand to his wife, and the simple barefoot shepherd tips his hat to the figure on horseback. Willaerts combines influences from Southern Netherlandish art, especially Jan Brueghel the Elder and Hendrick Vroom, thereby forming his own unmistakable pictorial language. The stylised rendition of the figures and many details, such as the small white-crested waves, the trees and the fortifications add a naïve charm to the painting’s appeal.

Adam Willaerts was one of the central figures of Dutch marine painting. However, only little is known about his origin and family. Since he stated that he was from London when he married in 1605, it can be assumed that his family had emigrated to England due to the conquest of Antwerp by the Spanish in 1585. In 1602 Willaerts is first mentioned in Utrecht where received the commission for the decoration of one of the organs in the cathedral together with his painter colleague Salomon Vredeman de Vries. The artist spent his career there and held leading positions in the Guild of Saint Luke, running a busy studio where he trained numerous pupils, including his three sons Abraham, Cornelis and Isaac.