Ludolf Backhuysen

With D. Komter, Amsterdam;

His sale, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 9 March 1926, lot 3, for 1,125 Dutch florins to Bruyne (as ‘The visit of Czar Peter the Great to Amsterdam’);

J.W.F. Haverkamp (b. 1870), The Hague;

By whom sold, Amsterdam, Sotheby Mak van Waay, 5 June 1928, lot 166 (as 'A dignitary's visit to Amsterdam');

Possibly with Kunsthandel S. Nystad, The Hague (according to a mount at the RKD, The Hague);

Private collection, Europe;

Anonymous sale (‘The Property of a Gentleman’), London, Sotheby's, 14 December 2000, lot 54, for £102,500 (as ‘A Seascape’);

With Richard Green, London, 2000;

Private collection, USA.

‘Czaar Peter de Grooter als zeiler’, in De Watersport, vol. XI, no. 6, 1922, p. 117, no. 6, reproduced (as 'Czar Peter's boeier before Amsterdam');

G. de Beer, Ludolf Backhuysen 1630–1708, Zwolle 2002, pp. 145–46, no. 91, reproduced in colour fig. 178 (as 'Czar Peter's boeier before Amsterdam in August 1697');

B. Bakker, E. Schmitz and J.E. Abrahamse, Het aanzien van Amsterdam: plattegronden en profielen uit de Gouden Eeuw, Bussum 2007, pp. 255 and 295, n. 51 (as 'Czar Peter's boeier before Amsterdam in August 1697').

Oxnard, California, Channel Islands Maritime Museum, on loan.

Tsar Peter the Great (1672–1725) visited Amsterdam in 1697 – the same year in which this work was executed – at the age of only twenty-seven. He was accompanied by a group of Russian ambassadors, as part of the Great Embassy: a diplomatic mission organised to study the customs and technological advances of Western Europe, in particular the maritime powers of The Netherlands and England, and the countries’ resultant economic prosperity. The City of Amsterdam spared no expense in welcoming the Tsar, even staging a mock battle on the river Ij for his entertainment and displaying over 40 ships for him to inspect.

It has been suggested, therefore, that the figure wearing blue with a white cravat at the bow of the sprit-rigged boeier by the jetty, here, may be Peter the Great himself, who travelled to Amsterdam incognito under the name of Peter Mikhailov.¹ The man standing at the mast has been identified as Nicolaes Witsen (1641–1717): mayor of Amsterdam and an important contact of the Tsar and his ministers, with whom Backhuysen was also acquainted.² One of the figures between the two men appears to be wearing a Russian hat, while the lady behind is wearing a tall headpiece that was popular all over Europe in the late 17^th century, though not specifically identifiable as Russian.

Witsen had written a publication about shipbuilding in 1671, titled Aeloude en Hedendaegsche Scheepsbouw en Bestier (Past and Present Shipbuilding and Ship Handling). He arranged for Peter the Great to assist with the construction of an East India Company ship at its dockyard and the biographer Arnoud Houbraken (1660–1719) recorded that the Tsar even received drawing lessons from Backhuysen. On the right of this painting is the Blaauw Hoofd: the fortification topped with a windmill on the approach to Amsterdam harbour. The small statensloep on the left flies the flag of the City of Amsterdam and appears to be a passenger boat for taking the group into the city.

¹ De Beer 2002, p. 146.

² De Beer 2002, pp. 145–46.