Ludolf Backhuysen

Johann I Goll van Franckenstein, Amsterdam (1722-1785);

His son, Johann II Goll van Franckenstein (1756-1821);

His son, Pieter Hendrik Goll van Franckenstein (1787-1832);

His deceased sale (designated as the Collection of Johan I Goll van Franckenstein), Amsterdam, De Vries, Roos et al, 1 July 1833, lot 2, purchased by W. Gruyter for 1210 Florins;

Charles O'Neil, by 1835;

Miss Emily Charlotte Talbot (1840-1918), Margam Castle, Glamorganshire, Wales;

By order of whose Trustees sold, Margam Castle, Port Talbot, Christie's, 29 October 1941, lot 359, where acquired by the grandfather of the present owners;

Thence by descent.

J. Smith, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VI, London 1835, p. 433, cat. no. 96;

C. Hofstede de Groot, A Catalogue Raisonné..., vol. VIIl London 1923, p. 251, cat. no. 153, where described as "...one of the master's best works".

The following condition report is provided by Sarah Walden who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: This painting has quite an old lining and strong old stretcher, perhaps from the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Many partial semi restorations seem to have slightly blurred the surface over time, but beautifully intact areas can be seen through a certain amount of largely superficial confusion. The sea itself is opaque under ultra violet light, with layers of old varnish but appears to have remained rich and unworn in the darks beneath, which often tend to be vulnerable. Equally the dramatic light and crisp brushwork in the rowing boat on the left, as well as in the sailing boat on the right, seems to be finely preserved almost throughout, with perhaps slight thinness in some of the rigging on the right. The galleon itself on the left has had a certain amount of wear, which is particularly noticeable in the flags and the rigging. The sun seems to be shining distantly through the upper part of the central sail, which is unusual and would be fully effective only once the brilliance of the surrounding sunlight became clearer. The underlying condition in the lighter, cooler area in the centre and on the left seems to be largely beautifully preserved beneath a certain amount of discoloured varnish and irregular films of tinted retouching. Here and there groups of birds have been suddenly cleaned and sometimes strengthened. On the right the stormy sky seems to have rather more unevenness and wear, with surface repaint especially in the upper right corner. The beautiful distant horizon can only be seen faintly through the dim surface, but appears to be finely intact. This report was not done under laboratory conditions.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

This impressive and atmospheric shipping scene was painted in the 1680s by Ludolf Backhuysen, one of the leading marine painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Not seen on the market since its sale at auction in 1941 (see Provenance), the work beautifully combines all the artist’s most successful topoi, such as his interest in how different ships cope with the elements, his fascination with light and how it cuts through clouds and hits the sails, and his acute observation of rough seas. Indeed, arguably the protagonist of the scene, as with many of the artist's other works, is the rolling wave with its white foam spilling over, shown here at the very centre of the painting.

Dr Gerlinde De Beer supports the identification of the work as the one listed by Hofstede de Grote as catalogue number 153 (see Literature). Though that catalogue entry evocatively captures the mood of the scene, its description of the various boats is incorrect since no single type of vessel in the fore- and middleground is shown twice. Indeed, Backhuysen delighted in depicting a wide variety of different types of boats. In the right foreground we see a kaag, a vessel used for cargo or as a small ferry in coastal or inland waters. Hofstede de Groot describes her as turning: in fact she is head-to-wind in the middle of tacking from starboard to port, her headsail backed to push the bow through the heavy seas onto the new tack.  This allows Backhuysen to focus on the flogging spritsail onto which a beam of sunlight casts shadows of the sprit, rigging and blocks. Behind the kaag is a wider small cargo vessel with a shorter topmast, which might be identified as a smalschip or a wijdschip, and in the distance is another kaag.

The boat in the left foreground, clearly the smallest vessel shown, finds itself in the worst situation. It is probably a type of fishing boat known as a Pink and with its single mast is ill-prepared for a squall of this type. Presumably the weather must have turned quite suddenly for such a small boat to be so far from the coast in such a heavy sea. Its mast has just splintered, and while the helmsman fights to keep her steady, the other two crew struggle to gather in the sail before it becomes waterlogged and threatens to capsize the vessel. The threemaster in the left middle distance is probably a man-of-war, with the statue of a female figure and child on her stern.  She is heeled on port tack, the large lower sail on her mainmast furled because of the strength of the wind. The large threemaster in the right distance is a Flute (fluitschip), the most successful large transport vessel of its day.

Both Smith and Hofstede identify the coastal town in the background as Vlissingen, in the province of Zeeland, but Dr De Beer does not exclude that it might be Enkhuizen, on the western shore of the Zuider Zee north of Amsterdam. Though further away from Amsterdam, where he was mostly based, Vlissingen can be made out in the distance in the artist's signed work from circa 1680 in the Staatlisches Museum in Schwerin.¹ The picture is also reminiscent of the artist’s seascapes around Enkhuizen, whose churchtower, like Vlissingen’s, is also tall and slender.²

We are grateful to Dr Gerlinde De Beer for suggesting a date of execution in the 1680s.

PROVENANCE
Johann I Goll van Franckenstein, a banker from Frankfurt who settled early in Amsterdam, is best known as a collector of drawings.  His collection, numbering between five and six thousand sheets, each inscribed on the reverse with his unique numbering system, was not merely large, but also of extremely high quality, and is to be regarded as the greatest drawings collection ever assembled in The Netherlands.  He enriched it by the acquisition of entire cabinets of drawings, most notably that of Valerius Roever in Delft, whose paintings went en bloc to the Dukes of Hessen-Kassel.  Not surprisingly, his reputation as a drawings collector completely overshadowed his collecting of Old Masters, but the catalogue of the sale of his collection that followed the death of his grandson in 1832, gives some insight into this taste.³   About a quarter of the collection comprised works by 18th Century artists whom Goll admired, and of whom he owned vast numbers of drawings, while the remaining works are Old Masters which reveal a bias towards Dutch Italianate artists such as Berchem, Dujardin, Lingelbach and Adriaen van de Velde, and artists of the Leiden Fijnschilders tradition and those influenced by them, including several works each by Dou, Van Mieris, Metsu, Van Musscher, Eglon van der Neer, Ochtervelt and Ter Borch.  The most expensive works were the celebrated Gabriel Metsu The Hunter's Gift, acquired for12,400 Florins on behalf of Van der Hoop who presented it to the City of Amsterdam (who gave it to the Rijksmuseum where it is now) and an Aelbert Cuyp of Ships on a River (described as of the Merwede with Dordrecht) which fetched 10,200 Florins, and is now at Waddesdon Manor. His most famous painting today is the Vermeer Geographer in the Städel, Frankfurt. In his sale however, it fetched only 195 Florins, less than a sixth of the price of the present Backhuysen.  

1. See R. Kromhout (ed.), Ludolf Backhuizen, exhibition catalogue, Amsterdam 1985, p. 47, cat. no. S22, reproduced in colour.
2. See the work sold Christie's, London, 4 March 2004, lot 338.
3.  Although it is long on purple passages of praise and short on essential details such as signatures and dates, all of which are omitted.