Sailing Ships in a Gale

Simon de Vlieger (Dutch, 1600 or 1601–1653)

about 1645–50

Medium/TechniqueOil on panel

Dimensions47.6 x 61 cm (18 3/4 x 24 in.)
Framed: 68.6 x 81.9 cm (27 x 32 1/4 in.)

Credit LineGift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo, in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art

Accession number2019.2088

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsPaintings

Collections

Europe

InscriptionsSigned on the spar lower right: S. VliegerProvenanceSir John Griffin Griffin (b. 1719 – d. 1797), later 1st Baron Baybrooke, Audley End, Essex [see note 1]; by descent to Richard Griffin (b. 1750 – d. 1825), 2nd Baron Baybrooke, Audley End [see note 2]; to his son, Richard Griffin (b. 1783 – d. 1858), 3rd Baron Baybrooke, Audley End [see note 3]; by descent within the family to Robin H.C. Neville (b. 1932 – d. 2017), 10th Baron Baybrooke, Audley End [see note 4]. 1980, Thomas Agnew and Sons, London [see note 5]; 1981, sold by Agnew to Mr. and Mrs. Michal Hornstein, Montreal [see note 6]; January 30, 1998, anonymous (Hornstein) sale, Sotheby’s, New York, lot 32. By 1998, Noortman Master Paintings, London; 1999, sold by Noortman to Eijk to Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA [see note 7]; 2019, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 11, 2019)

NOTES:
[1] According to Thos. Agnew and Son, Old Master Paintings and Drawings, Autumn Exhibition (London, 1980), cat. no. 1, where it is noted that the painting is said “by tradition” to have come from the collection of Sir Peter Lely (b. 1618 – d. 1680), London. Frederick Duparc, Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (New Haven, 2011), cat. no. 64, suggests this painting was one of several “Landskips” attributed to Danckerts (later Van Diest) in the April 28, 1682, Lely estate sale, though none of the dimensions match those of this painting and no further descriptions are given. See also “Sir Peter Lely’s Collection,” Burlington Magazine, vol. 83 (Aug. 1943), p. 187.

[2] Lent by Lord Baybrooke to the British Institution exhibition of Pictures of the Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch and English Schools (London, 1824), cat. no. 29.

[3] Published in The History of Audley End (London, 1836), cat. no. 16, as hanging in the Drawing Room.

[4] According to the 1998 Sotheby’s catalogue, the painting was owned by Robin H.C. Neville.

[5] Published in Thos. Agnew and Son, Old Master Paintings and Drawings (as above, n. 1).

[6] According to George S. Keyes, Mirror of Empire: Dutch Marine Art of the Seventeenth Century (Cambridge, 1990), cat. no. 47. The 1998 Sotheby’s catalogue notes that the painting was sold by Agnew in 1981 to the consignor.

[7] Provenance related to Noortman Master Paintings, London, is according to Duparc 2011 (as above, n. 1).