Ships in a Gale on the IJ before the City of Amsterdam
Ludolf Bakhuizen
(Dutch, 1631–1708)
1666
Medium/TechniqueOil on canvas
Dimensions77.5 x 108 cm (30 1/2 x 42 1/2 in.)
Framed: 100 x 130.8 x 7.6 cm (39 3/8 x 51 1/2 x 3 in.)
Framed: 100 x 130.8 x 7.6 cm (39 3/8 x 51 1/2 x 3 in.)
Credit LineGift of Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo in support of the Center for Netherlandish Art
Accession number2017.4197
On View
On viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
With Amsterdam in the background, fringed by a forest of masts, ships, and boats, people go about their business on the windy IJ, the body of water that was the city’s link to the wider world. The sun plays hide-and-seek behind the clouds, tracing a pattern of light and dark on the water and drawing our attention to the variety of vessels, from small fishing boats to armed, oceangoing ships. Each was its own world, filled with the strong smells of life at sea and the chatter of men from nearby fishing villages and faraway ports alike.
ProvenanceBy 1801, George Craufurd (Crawford), Esq, Rotterdam [see note 1]; April 26, 1806, Crawford sale, London, lot 17, sold for 60 guineas to Sir Matthew White Ridley (b. 1745 - d. 1813), 2nd Bt., London; by descent through the family; by 1923, Sir Matthew White Ridley (b. 1902 - d. 1964), 3rd Viscount Ridley, Blagdon Hall, Northumberland [see note 2]. April 28, 1933, sale, Christie's, London, lot 54, sold for £50.8 to William M. Sabin (dealer), London [see note 3]. 1936, Vermeer Gallery, London [see note 4]. March 17, 1936, sold by Leggatt Brothers, London, to Lt. Col. Thomas Reginald Badger (b. 1882 - d. 1957), Biddlesden Park, Brackley, Northamptonshire; by inheritance to his widow, Elizabeth Maud Badger, later Elizabeth Maud Gordon (b. 1900 - d. 1985), Biddlesden Park [see note 5]; April 11, 1986, Gordon estate sale, Christie's, London, lot 44. French and Co., New York. Shearson and Lehman Brothers, New York. Hirschl and Adler, New York. 1994, Jack Kilgore (dealer), New York; 1995, sold by Jack Kilgore to Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo, Marblehead, MA [see note 6]; 2017, gift of Eijk and Rose-Marie van Otterloo to the MFA. (Accession Date: December 14, 2017)
NOTES:
[1] George Craufurd identified by Getty Research Index in the description of his 1806 sale. According to Smith, Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, vol. 6 (1835), cat. no. 27, p. 421, the painting was in the Crawford collection in 1801. Smith states "a picture corresponding with the preceding is in the collection of Sir M. W. Ridley, Bart."
[2] According to Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the most eminent Dutch painters, vol. 7 (1923), cat. no. 75, the painting was in the collection of Viscount Ridley. The title Viscount Ridley was created in 1900 for Sir Matthew White Ridley (b. 1895-1900), 5th Baronet.
[3] According to a handwritten note in the catalogue.
[4] According to the Witt Library photomount.
[5] According to Frederik Duparc et al., Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (New Haven, 2011), cat. 6, p. 78.
[6] Provenance after 1986 is taken from Duparc 2011 (as above, n. 5), cat. 6, p. 78.
NOTES:
[1] George Craufurd identified by Getty Research Index in the description of his 1806 sale. According to Smith, Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French Painters, vol. 6 (1835), cat. no. 27, p. 421, the painting was in the Crawford collection in 1801. Smith states "a picture corresponding with the preceding is in the collection of Sir M. W. Ridley, Bart."
[2] According to Hofstede de Groot, Catalogue Raisonné of the Works of the most eminent Dutch painters, vol. 7 (1923), cat. no. 75, the painting was in the collection of Viscount Ridley. The title Viscount Ridley was created in 1900 for Sir Matthew White Ridley (b. 1895-1900), 5th Baronet.
[3] According to a handwritten note in the catalogue.
[4] According to the Witt Library photomount.
[5] According to Frederik Duparc et al., Golden: Dutch and Flemish Masterworks from the Rose-Marie and Eijk van Otterloo Collection (New Haven, 2011), cat. 6, p. 78.
[6] Provenance after 1986 is taken from Duparc 2011 (as above, n. 5), cat. 6, p. 78.
Ludolf de Jongh
