Van de Velde exhibition Scheepvaartmuseum Amsterdam

[Maarten]

Untill the end of March in Amsterdam you can visit the Van de Velde exhibition. After March it will move to NMM in London.

I visited the exhibition last Tuesday and I can really recommend to go and see it.

Willem van de Velde de oude and Willem van de Velde de jonge, father and son are the expert in maritime paintings in the 17th century.
Especially father is an expert in ships and makes extremely detailed inkt paintings of ships which are still used till today to reconstruct ships of the 17th century.
His son is an expert painter and makes large paintings. There work was sold all over Europe.
They even worked at the royal court in London and had there workshop in the current building of the maritime museum in Greenwich.

Van de Velde de oude as said his specialty is inkt paintings.

These paintings are made with an ink pen scratching on a white oil paint background.
If you zoom



If we then zoom in to the ship.

And zoom into that


Incredible isn't it. You can imagine that this is a hudge source of information on details of ships.

Much more to follow.









What is this lion tail? Any one knows?


If you have rigging questions, how detailed do you want it.


Man working on the sails.

 

[Uwek]

I would like to visit and see the originals - so interesting to see these details

For everybody not able to go, maybe this print(s) could be interesting

Book review - Book Review: "The Willem van de Velde drawings in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum" - 3 Volume Box

Book Review: The Willem van de Velde drawings in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum MUSEUM BOYMANS-VAN BEUNINGEN Foundation Rotterdam (1. Januar 1979) Box / Slipcase with 3 Volumes in English One Textvolume with 187 Pages and two Volumes with plates with 357 pages (historic events) and 335...

shipsofscale.com

Book review - Book Review: "Van de Velde & Son - Marine Painters" by Remmelt Daalder

Book Review: Van de Velde & Son - Marine Painters The Firm of Willem van de Velde the Elder and Willem van de Velde the Younger, 1640-1707 by Door Remmelt Daalder Gebundene Ausgabe: 224 Seiten Verlag: Primavera Pers; Auflage: 01 (15. Juni 2016) Sprache: Englisch ISBN-10: 9059971795 ISBN-13...

shipsofscale.com

 

[Maarten]

As mentioned before Van der Velde de oude was one of the first embedded war journalists. With his galjoot he was joining the Dutch fleet during sea battles to make drawings of the ships and ship positions during the battles.

Here he painted himself in his galjoot on the lefts side of the painting.


Zoomed in he sits just below the edge of the Dutch vlag.
.

The sketches he made on paper he glued together to make it a roll to easy sketch wide scenes.


You can still see the glue joint.


Text with the ships names etc were written on the paper, here st. joris.


And explenations of the situation.


At sea he also made quick water colours.




The sketches were used as info for the navy but mainly to create large pen and ink paintings.

Next time an overview of these.

 

[polydoc]

As mentioned before Van der Velde de oude was one of the first embedded war journalists. With his galjoot he was joining the Dutch fleet during sea battles to make drawings of the ships and ship positions during the battles.

Here he painted himself in his galjoot on the lefts side of the painting.
View attachment 291851

Zoomed in he sits just below the edge of the Dutch vlag.
View attachment 291850.

The sketches he made on paper he glued together to make it a roll to easy sketch wide scenes.
View attachment 291852

You can still see the glue joint.
View attachment 291853

Text with the ships names etc were written on the paper, here st. joris.
View attachment 291854

And explenations of the situation.
View attachment 291855

At sea he also made quick water colours.
View attachment 291856
View attachment 291857
View attachment 291858

The sketches were used as info for the navy but mainly to create large pen and ink paintings.

Next time an overview of these.
View attachment 291860View attachment 291861

I've always loved the Van de Velde's work and your photos made my day. Thanks for posting. The book Uwek mentioned was apparently printed in small quantities and copies seem to be available only on the auction market.

 

[Maarten]

I've always loved the Van de Velde's work and your photos made my day. Thanks for posting. The book Uwek mentioned was apparently printed in small quantities and copies seem to be available only on the auction market.

The first book Uwe posted is a rather old one, I do have it in my lybrary and it is certainly a fantastic book but rarely for sale now.

The second one they sell at the maritime museum in Amsterdam and they had plenty on stock. If you can t purchase it I am more then willing to help you, just send me a pm.

And I will post more on the exhibition in the comming days.

 

[Maarten]

I've always loved the Van de Velde's work and your photos made my day. Thanks for posting. The book Uwek mentioned was apparently printed in small quantities and copies seem to be available only on the auction market.

Here you can order the English version directly from the publisher.

Van de Velde & Son, Marine Painters

Painting naval battles, view of harbours and coasts, as well as detailed ‘portraits’ of battleships, yachts and merchant vessels was the core business of the van de Velde family firm. Father and son van de Velde had flourishing workshops, first in Amsterdam, and later in England. The present...

www.primaverapers.nl

 

[Maarten]

Ok up to the Van der Velde de oude master pieces. His large pen and ink drawings called "grisailles".

The first one is the Dutch fleet leaving the roads of Vlieland. Van de velde made 6 versions of this painting which are all at just a different point in time.
I show you two, the first one is actually in another Dutch museum and I made a tile tableau of it for our kitchen.


Nearly the same but clearly different the one from a private collection and now in the exhibition.

And zoomed in at the vessel Brederoode.
An interesting feature is the additional lantern.


Next the battle at the Sont. The painting is recently restored especially the clouds which were damaged during previous restorations. You can clearly see the painted clouds and smoke and the ships drawn by ink pen.


As mentioned before Van der Velde painted himself in the painting working on his sketches.


A detail from the dutch ship on the left.
If you want to check how the bolts for the stern were fitted you can check it here.


We go to Italy the battle of Leghorn (Livorno). The Dutch against the English.


Two prominent ships on this painting, one of them "de witte olifant" the white elephant.


Yes this is actually how an elephant was pictured in the 17th century . Actually Rembrandt was one of the first making a proper picture of an elephant which was put on show in Amsterdam in 1637 and had the name Hansken.


These are so detailed you can see that the stern windows are open and you can look inside the cabin.


The English ship is burning and the crew is escaping from the ship via the beakhead.


We travel to Norway, the battle at Bergen.




The ship "de rijzende zon" or rising sun.


Next is during the four days battle from June 11th to 16th 1666. It is up to now the longest sea battle ever. The scene is taking the "Royal Prince". This painting was especially made for Cardinal Leopold de Medici



See all these amazing details. People crawling in and out of the gun ports.


The details on the carvings. Check how the windows were made with stained glass.


The lamps where the two smaller lanterns are covered with cloth, I guess these were used for signaling at night, nice details you can use on your models.


And the full stern.


Next time we take a look at the drawings.

 

[frankieg]

Amazing, thank you

 

[Gebirgsmarine]

Thank you for that blog Maarten!
Very interesting and informative, love the details and your descriptions!
More of this please!
Christian

 

[Uwek]

I fully agree with Christian and the others - these details and information are highly interesting

 

[polydoc]

The first book Uwe posted is a rather old one, I do have it in my lybrary and it is certainly a fantastic book but rarely for sale now.

The second one they sell at the maritime museum in Amsterdam and they had plenty on stock. If you can t purchase it I am more then willing to help you, just send me a pm.

And I will post more on the exhibition in the comming days.

Thanks for the info. I found it was available on Amazon and will order a copy ($43 including cost of delivery from Europe).

 

[Maarten]

Van de Velde de oude is the specialist in drawings. Most probably you all know is fantastic ship drawings.


You can see his talent in his studies below some people in their 17th century clothing.


Or these small boats on the beach in brown colours.


He also studies things like rigging blocks or gun port situations.



Van der Velde de jonge even made a desogn for his own yacht.


But off course the sole purpose of this all is drawing ships and that is what he did. He made a hudge number of drawings of which the book Uwe posted above shows a perfect overview.


The dutch ship "burcht van Leiden" from stern and bow in pencil drawing.



And the details on the hoekman.


This English ship in water colour


Next time paintings.

 

[donfarr]

WHAT AN AMAZING POST JUST UNBELIVABLE THANK YOU SO, SO VERY MUCH NOT ONLY FOR THE SHIPS BUT FOR THE ART ITSELF GOURGOUS. GOD BLESS STAY SAFE YOU AND YOURS DON

 

[Gennaro]

Ok up to the Van der Velde de oude master pieces. His large pen and ink drawings called "grisailles".

The first one is the Dutch fleet leaving the roads of Vlieland. Van de velde made 6 versions of this painting which are all at just a different point in time.
I show you two, the first one is actually in another Dutch museum and I made a tile tableau of it for our kitchen.
View attachment 292229

Nearly the same but clearly different the one from a private collection and now in the exhibition.
View attachment 292230
And zoomed in at the vessel Brederoode.
An interesting feature is the additional lantern.
View attachment 292231

Next the battle at the Sont. The painting is recently restored especially the clouds which were damaged during previous restorations. You can clearly see the painted clouds and smoke and the ships drawn by ink pen.
View attachment 292241

As mentioned before Van der Velde painted himself in the painting working on his sketches.
View attachment 292242

A detail from the dutch ship on the left.
If you want to check how the bolts for the stern were fitted you can check it here.
View attachment 292243

We go to Italy the battle of Leghorn (Livorno). The Dutch against the English.
View attachment 292255

Two prominent ships on this painting, one of them "de witte olifant" the white elephant.
View attachment 292257

Yes this is actually how an elephant was pictured in the 17th century . Actually Rembrandt was one of the first making a proper picture of an elephant which was put on show in Amsterdam in 1637 and had the name Hansken.
View attachment 292324

These are so detailed you can see that the stern windows are open and you can look inside the cabin.
View attachment 292259

The English ship is burning and the crew is escaping from the ship via the beakhead.
View attachment 292261

We travel to Norway, the battle at Bergen.
View attachment 292285

View attachment 292286

The ship "de rijzende zon" or rising sun.
View attachment 292287

Next is during the four days battle from June 11th to 16th 1666. It is up to now the longest sea battle ever. The scene is taking the "Royal Prince". This painting was especially made for Cardinal Leopold de Medici
View attachment 292291
View attachment 292292

See all these amazing details. People crawling in and out of the gun ports.
View attachment 292295

The details on the carvings. Check how the windows were made with stained glass.
View attachment 292294

The lamps where the two smaller lanterns are covered with cloth, I guess these were used for signaling at night, nice details you can use on your models.
View attachment 292296

And the full stern.
View attachment 292293

Next time we take a look at the drawings.

You certainly are the craftsman par excellence. How on earth did you transfer painting (print) onto tiles?

 

[Steef66]

Wow love this

 

[Heinrich]

Thank you very much for sharing this Maarten. I am glad to see that the Brederode has made it into your selection - my all-time favorite ship.

 

[Bryian]

Hello Maarten,
this is a fabulous post you have started. There are incredible drawings giving so much detail.

 

[Graham]

What a talent he had, thanks for sharing.

 

[Maarten]

You certainly are the craftsman par excellence. How on earth did you transfer painting (print) onto tiles?

This is done by a technique called sublimation. It is done with a sublimation printer which prints the picture onto the tiles, after that they are glaced and baked.
I didn t do this myself, I just downloaded a hogh resolution picture from the museum website and I know a tile supplier who can do this. He can print any picture on tiles, even full color.

 

[Maarten]

Now on to the paintings. The painter is mainly Van de Velde de Jonge. He worked of the drawings and sketches of his father.
Paintings are good to get an idea about the colors on a ship, but they are far less detailed then an pen and ink grisaille.



This is Van de Velde de jonge himself, holding on to a drawing of his father.


Now I will show you some very famous Van der Velde paintings, each time zooming into the main ship and you notice directly the difference in detailing to the work of his father.
This is more about colour and composition.

















To show you father and son shared their drawings and sketches.
The pen and ink drawing from de oude.


The painting of de jonge


Now the details. De jonge.


De oude.


So for building a model van de velde de oude gives you the details, de jonge shows you the colors.

They also worked together with other artists like here in a famous painting of Netherlands most famous admiral Michiel de Ruyter painted by Ferdinant Bol.


The ship in the background is de zeven provincien and was painted by Van de Velde.


Actually Ferdinant Bol wasn t a bad painter either , see a detail of the belt.


It is stil debated if Van de Velde painted the famous picture of the Sovereign of the Seas on the Lely painting of Sir Peter Pett, this as he also worked together with Lely.