Smaller Sailboats Pulling Up to a Ship

Artist Ludolf Bakhuizen (Dutch, 1630-1708)

Date1701

MediumEtching on laid paper

Dimensions6 3/4 x 9 1/2 in. (17.1 x 24.1 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Frame: 17 1/2 × 21 1/2 in. (44.5 × 54.6 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LinePurchase, with funds provided from the Walter P. Chrysler, Jr., Art Purchase Fund

Object number2001.34.1.8

Terms

Sailboats
Boat
Ships
Sails
Seascape
Black
White

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a set of ten etchings with the title plate. This shows a ship, with sails down, tipped to one side with smaller sailboats pulled up next to it. There are several other boats in the river.

Label TextLudolf Bakhuizen Dutch, 1630–1708 The River IJ and Seascapes, 1701 Etchings (prints) on laid paper By the 1600s, Western Europe became one of the most technologically advanced regions of the world and its wealth soared. Printmakers produced series celebrating this natural bounty, material abundance, and technological achievement. Here, Ludolf Bakhuizen catalogues the seafaring prowess of his native Holland with a survey of Dutch nautical craft—from men-of-war and royal yachts to mere rowboats—under weather conditions ranging from windless calm to howling tempest. The series begins with the title page, in Dutch, at upper left. The next print depicts the female personification of Amsterdam riding the waves in the city’s harbor in the triumphal car of the sea-god Neptune—a proud declaration of Amsterdam’s role as Holland’s premier port. Museum purchase 2001.34.1.1–.11