Jan van Goyen was the first exponent of the ‘beach view’ as an independent theme in the Dutch Golden Age. Among around forty painted beach scenes in his œuvre, he depicted Egmond-aan-Zee in at least ten examples. Views of the fishing village, about six miles from Alkmaar, are immediately identifiable by the ruined tower of the Sint Agneskerk, the only part of the church left standing after it was sacked and burned by pirates in 1571. Following a storm in 1741, the tower was destroyed and the village itself engulfed by the sea – the spot from where this view is taken now lies underwater, just off the Dutch shoreline.
Van Goyen painted Egmond-aan-Zee from a variety of vantage points over a period of twenty years, between 1633 and 1653. The earliest portrayal of the church, dated 1633, takes the ruin as its subject more than the surrounding landscape;1 later works, one dated 1642 and another 1646, depict figures in the dunes from the north, with the beach busy with fisherfolk to the right;2 another painting, dated 1643, represents the view from much further east, the church tower and sea just visible on the horizon.3 The present composition, dated 1641, is the earliest of four paintings depicted from the south – a viewpoint later chosen by artists including Jacob van Ruisdael and Salomon van Ruysdael.
The other versions of this view are dated 1644 (New York, Sotheby’s, 29 January 2016, lot 479);4 1645 (State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, inv. no. 993);5 and 1653 (London, Christie’s, 6 December 2018, lot 15).6 This painting is notable for its elongated horizontal format, which is unique among any of Van Goyen’s beach scenes. He uses the panorama to full effect, encompassing the broad sweep of the dunes, flat expanse of sand—where fishermen tend to a boat and their catches—the stretch of sea beyond, and vast cloudy sky above. The darker foreground and figures on each side of the composition serve to frame the receding view and heighten the contrast with the bright middle-ground.
Although Van Goyen is known as a landscapist, his facility for portraying a variety of characters is manifest here, where some figures are built up in thick, bright colours and others are described with a mere handful of strokes and fainter tonality, depending on their position within the scene. They demonstrate Van Goyen’s skill as a draughtsman and indeed, underdrawing is visible in the main group of figures, in the sand dunes and boat, and on the far left, where the position of the man on the edge of the group has shifted. Van Goyen produced a number of drawings of the beach at Egmond-aan-Zee, dating from the late 1620s to the early 1650s.
1 Oil on panel; 31.7 x 52.7 cm.; Beck 1973, vol. II, p. 415, no. 925.
2 Respectively oil on panel; 63.5 x 81.3 cm.; Beck 1973, vol. II, p. 422, no. 943; and oil on panel; 45 x 65 cm.; Beck 1973, vol. II, p. 429, no. 956.
3 Oil on panel; 40 x 58 cm.; Beck 1973, vol. II, p. 425, no. 949.
4 Oil on panel; 39.3 x 59.7 cm.; Beck 1973, vol. II, p. 426, no. 951.
5 Oil on panel; 53 x 71 cm.; Beck 1973, vol II, p. 427, no. 954.
6 Oil on panel; 49 x 74.5 cm.; Beck 1973, vol. II, p. 433, no. 963.