Willem van de Velde the Elder

In an album of drawings primarily by William van de Velde the Elder and the Younger

M.S. Robinson, A Catalogue of Drawings in the National Maritime Museum made by the Elder and the Younger Willem van de Velde, Cambridge 1958, vol. I, p. 172, under no. 596

Laid down on paper. The work is made up of three joined sheets which meet vertically at the centre left and right of the composition. There is light brown staining to the left and right edges as well as to the lower right corner. The paper has buckled in places due to the way it is currently laid down, predominantly affecting the edges. There is some light brown staining to the lower left corner and two small red stains to the left centre. The medium is fresh throughout.
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This lively, freely executed drawing is a quintessential example of a Van de Velde 'ship portrait', a type of drawing that constitutes a significant part of the work of both Van de Veldes, but is almost unknown from the hand of any other artist.  The function of these 'ship portraits' is discussed in the note to lot 27. 

The Tiger was first built in 1647, and was rebuilt twice, in 1681 and 1702.  It is seen here as it was after the first rebuilding, an event that led to a remarkable series of drawings by Willem van de Velde the Elder.  The artist often accompanied the King on his journeys, and would keep a visual record of the trips.  On 17/27 August 1681, the King sailed down the Thames to Woolwich to see the newly rebuilt Tiger, before she set sail for the Mediterranean, under the command of Lord Charles Berkeley.  After dining aboard the Tiger, the King and his party sailed with her downstream as far as Sheerness and Chatham, before returning to London.  During a period of only three days, Van de Velde made over 80 drawings of their voyage, many of which he numbered; some 23 of these are in public collections, and two others, both spectacular and monumental, animated works, were sold in 2006 as part of the major, rediscovered group of Van de Velde drawings from the collection of John Pierpont Morgan, 2nd.¹ 

Van de Velde made more detailed studies of the Tiger than of almost any other ship: at least ten other 'portraits' are known, six at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, and four in Rotterdam.² 

1.  Sale, New York, Sotheby's, 25 January 2006, lots 9 & 11
2.  Robinson, op. cit., vol. I, pp. 171-2, nos. 595-6, vol. II, pp. 83-4, nos. 1106, 1219, 1220, 1221; idem, The Willem van de Velde Drawings in the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum Rotterdam, 3 vols., Rotterdam 1979, vol. I. pp. 120-121