Review: The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea

I've visited the exhibition of The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea twice now. However while referencing it extensively in relation to the Landscape Artist of the Year Commission, I've added the review to my long list of "things to do/blog about" without striking it off the very long list.

So this is my review.

What's the exhibition about?

The exhibition celebrates two two Dutch Golden Age artists Willem van de Velde the Elder and his son, Willem van de Velde the Younger - some 350 years after they came to Greenwich following an economic meltdown in Holland.

a corner of the exhibition showing both drawings and paintings
by both father and son

It highlights:

• their maritime drawings (by father) and paintings ( by son_ and 
• their connections to both 
• the Netherlands, England and its King in general and 
• Greenwich and the Queens House in particular
• how they influenced other painters - including WM Turner.

It also draws upon the largest collection of the Van de Veldes’ artwork in the world. This is held at the The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich which is recognised as a longstanding centre of Van de Velde expertise.

In addition, the Queen’s House at Greenwich became the home of the studio granted to the two artists by Charles II.

Details of the Exhibition

The exhibition is:

• AT: The Queen’s House, Greenwich - which was designed by Inigo Jones and you may recognise from more than a few historical dramas on film and television!
• BETWEEN: 2 March 2023 – 14 January 2024
• Admission: FREE
• Website: www.rmg.co.uk/van-de-velde

The Queen's House, Greenwich - March 2023

London from Greenwich Hill (1672)
attributed to Johannes Vorsterman 
- a dutch painter who also worked for Charles II
The painting is currently in an exhibition at the Guildhall Gallery, City of London
It shows the Queens House on the extreme left
at the time the Van der Veldes arrived in London
(and which I saw the morning before my second visit!)
Note the ships on the River Thames

Who were the Van de Veldes?

To my mind, this exhibition is much more interesting once you know who the Van de Veldes are and something of the historical context for all the sea battles. This helps to make sense of the diversity of artwork - albeit it's all about ships and battles at sea!

Willem van de Velde the Elder and Willem van de Velde the Younger were the most important and influential marine painters of the seventeenth century. 

Father and son moved from the Netherlands to England after Het Rampjaar, or "the Disaster Year" of 1672 when the Netherlands were invaded or threatened from all sides and the economy crashed. This in turn severely affected the art market. Vermeer, for example, was unable to sell any of his work. 

The Van de Veldes moved to England at the invitation of Charles II. He awarded them:

• a salary equivalent to that of his ‘Principal Painter’, Sir Peter Lely; and 
• a studio at the Queen’s House - where they worked for the next 20 years.

Together, they became the founders of the English school of marine painting - and established a new genre of painting which persists today.

Both remained in London and are buried at St James, Piccadilly.

Willem van de Velde the Elder (1610 - 1693)

Van de Velde the Elder was the son of a Leiden bargemaster who became the official artist of the Dutch fleet for a period. He was a self-taught draughtsman who pioneered the technique of ‘pen painting’, allowing him to capture a ship’s likeness or a naval battle in astonishing detail. He specialised in documenting the action in a Dutch Sea Battle - of which there were more than a few!

Van de Velde the Elder sat drawing the Battle of Scheveningen

- the last battle of the first Anglo-Dutch War - from a ship at sea

- pen and ink (extract from the drawing below)

The Battle of Scheveningen, 10 August 1653
a pen painting or grissaille by Willem van de Velde the Elder
(the boat he's sat in is shown bottom left of centre)

Subsequently, after his move to London, he is described in his portrait as a "Ships Draughtsman to King Charles II".

It's certainly the case that he preferred to draw rather than paint - and that he sat on ships in the middle of a battle recording what went on around him - as is recorded in one of his drawings on display.

He is perhaps most remarkable for the very large pen and ink drawings of ships in battle which pay meticulous attention to the detail of masts, rigging and sails. (see below).

He drew in both graphite - on scrolls of paper - and on very large supports for his pen and ink drawings of large battles with very many ships.

Willem van de Velde the Younger (1603 - 1707)

The son was the painter of the two - and I got the impression that he didn't draw a lot. There again who would want to compete with a draughtsman like his father?

I found his portrait - showing him handling drawings of sea battles - to be very curious. To my mind it was clear, that he used his Dad's drawings to construct his own paintings of sea battles and expeditions.

Painting of Willem van de Velde the Younger

What I thought about the exhibition

Van de Velde the Elder's drawings in the midst of battle are just jaw-dropping. I've never ever seen anything like it. 

I very much liked the room devoted to the pen and ink drawings best of all. You just never ever see anything like this anywhere else.

Quite apart from his stature as a maritime artist, he should rank very highly as a war artist. I looked through lists of war artists and I couldn't find anybody with dates who was recording wars and battles before him. 

So was he the first ever "on the spot" war artist who drew what he saw? I rather think he might be. 

He worked in graphite (which is of course not affected by water!) on scrolls of sheets of paper joined together which allowed him to work on small areas at one time. Plus it allows his to record the same view at different times. He then completed his subsequent extraordinarily detailed drawings of complete battles in pen and ink.

They are the sort of drawings which could only ever be completed by somebody who understands ships and recognises what he's looking at as his draws it. His recording of masts and rigging and the type of events which happen during sea battles are absolutely meticulous.

an extract of another pen and ink drawing of a battle
by Willem van de Velde the Elder
which illustrates some of the awful things that happen to ships and people in battles

Of the two, I much preferred his work - but then I'm somebody who likes to draw using line and I particularly appreciate those who do it really well as I know something of the skill involved when working in a media you can't erase or paint over.

Also, some of the other remarkable artwork in the exhibition - such as The Battle of Sole Bay Tapestry - which had been restored for this exhibition - are absolutely amazing. A complete wall of a room near the entrance to the exhibition records a complete sea battle with both sides lined up and engaged in battle.(Note the figure by the window for scale!)

The Burning of the Royal James at the Battle of Solebay, 28 May 1672

returning to display in this exhibition will be The Burning of the Royal James at the Battle of Solebay, 28 May 1672, otherwise known as ‘The Solebay Tapestry’. Originally part of a set of six, it is the only Solebay Tapestry in the collection at the Queen’s House, where the original cartoons were first designed by Van de Velde the Elder. In February 2022, Royal Museums Greenwich partnered with the Art Fund to crowdfund £15,000 to save the Solebay Tapestry. The campaign broke records, reaching its target in a single day. This monumental tapestry has been saved from further deterioration and is able to return to display for the first time in over twenty years.

Van de Velde the Younger's paintings are also impressive - not least the very large ones. 

He worked in oils, often using his father's extraordinarily detailed drawings as source material. He was also capable of producing very large paintings such as the one below. Mind you I could get picky about the consistency of lighting in the one below!

A Royal Visit to the Fleet in the Thames Estuary, 1672
by Willem Van de Velde the Younger

One of the most important objects in the exhibition will be the newly conserved painting, A Royal Visit to the Fleet. It was worked on in their studio at the Queen’s House in the 1670s and, at almost four metres across, was the largest seascape Van de Velde the Younger had painted to date. The scale of the painting coupled with a low viewpoint lends it a dramatic, panoramic quality. Following two years of conservation, this commanding painting shows why the legacy of the Van de Veldes helped define English marine painting for the next two hundred years.

However, overall for me, they looked much more dramatic, romantic and sanitised than his Dad's drawings. Maybe it's the addition of colour which makes them look visually attractive? Maybe it's the customisation for what the market for such paintings liked to see?

However what we should be grateful for is that his very moody seascapes and skyscapes influenced JMW Turner who reportedly said ‘this made me a painter’.

The studio

The reconstruction visualisation of their studio - in the rooms the Van de Veldes actually used was interesting - albeit it lacked easels big enough for the size of works they produced! 

For me, I'd have liked more emphasis on how they worked and the materials they used. Although I did appreciate the number of working studies and drawings by Velde the Elder seen throughout the exhibition.

The end room

I found the contemporary artwork included at the end of the exhibition to be a bit odd. I wasn't quite sure why it was there - except for the fact one of them was by Turner to demonstrate their influence on him

"The Ship of Fools" by Kehinde Wiley

The Ship of Fools by Kehinde Wiley is less obvious as to the reason why it's there until you read the narrative text which accompanies it which highlights an 18th century warship on the horizon and reminds us that many of the Van de Veldes patrons made their money due to enforced labour and forced migration in the East Indies.

Ship of Fools is a response to the history of Maritime painting, and in a very strong way is about trying to come to terms with the project I have had over the past 10 to 12 years, which is to delve into the history of painting – Gainsborough, Turner, Bosch. To delve into those people whose shoulders I try to stand on. To justifiably create a space for myself.

Kehinde Wiley