(Antwerp 1614–1652 Hoboken) A flotilla before a southern coast, oil on canvas, 54.5 x 84.7 cm, framed

Exhibited: Antikbeurs, Delft, 1964; “Aus Wohnzimmern und Sammelmappen”, Schloss Rheydt, Mönchengladbach, 2002; “Ein Fest der Malerei”, museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf, 2005.

Provenance: Netherlandish private collection (before 1964); Galerie Nystad, The Hague; Netherlandish private collection; art market, Amsterdam (1999); Rhinish private collection.

Literature: Rheydter Jahrbuch, 26, 2002, p. 127. This painting (which is documented in the RKD, The Hague) is probably a fantastical view of the harbour at Ceuta in Spanish-North Africa (see the painting by Peeters in the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich, sister gallery to the Würzburg Residenz). Bonaventura Peeters was an important marine painter. After training with Andries Eertvelt and Simon de Vliegher he became a free master in Antwerp in 1634. He ran a workshop there with his brother, Gillis. He must have been a tremendous connoisseur of ship building, since his paintings of ships are extremely precise. In this painting the following types of ships can be seen: “bootship” (left background), a frigate (foreground), below the frigate a boat or “sloep”, in the middle a “galjot”, two galleys, below the galleys a sloop, hidden in the background a "East Indiaman”, at its side a fluyt and another frigate.

Exhibited: Antikbeurs, Delft, 1964; “Aus Wohnzimmern und Sammelmappen”, Schloss Rheydt, Mönchengladbach, 2002; “Ein Fest der Malerei”, museum kunst palast, Düsseldorf, 2005. Provenance: Netherlandish private collection (before 1964); Galerie Nys