The drawings in this exhibition by Willem van de Velde the Younger, Abraham de Verwer, and Allart van Everdingen are testimony to an intense interest in the sea, and the Dutch relationship to it. For example, van de Velde's father, also a distinguished marine painter, carefully "reported" the Four-Day Sea Battle between England and the Netherlands in 1662, as well as many other events that became familiar to every Dutch adult and child. This sensitive drawing by Willem the Younger, whose brother Adriaen is also represented in this exhibition, is apparently not a preparatory study for a painting; it is, in fact, similar to many such calm seascapes by Willem. This appears to be a morning scene with a weyschuit in the right foreground unfurling its sails and preparing to lift anchor. It is particularly close to a drawing (Fig. 1) of almost the same size (85 x 305 mm), with a sailboat in the left foreground, other boats and larger ships in the right background, with a cloudy sky and the shore just visible in the distance; it is signed in the lower right. In this way, the drawing, in a private collection, England, becomes a virtual pendant to the present drawing, signed in the lower left, and the two sheets, probably made in the studio from Willem's great familiarity with such scenes, were no doubt intended to be sold together. Further, the paper can be dated to 1662-5, and the drawing can be related to other works by the artist from about 1665 to 1675. Back to Gallery