RKD STUDIES

Remmelt Daalder

An early work by William Turner (1775-1851), known as the Bridgewater Sea Piece (1801), can be seen in the National Gallery in London [1].¹ This marine painting is named after its first owner, Francis Egerton, the third Duke of Bridgewater (1736-1803), who commissioned Turner to make it. Shortly after completion it was shown in the Royal Academy's 1801 exhibition, under the caption 'Dutch boats in a gale: fishermen endeavouring to put their fish on board’.² The Duke of Bridgewater owned a huge collection of paintings, which he could afford due to his great wealth, acquired as an entrepreneur during the Industrial Revolution in England. He owned coal mines, for example, and his name lives on in the Bridgewater Canal, which he had built to transport coal to Manchester. The commission to Turner sheds an interesting light on the appreciation of maritime subjects in the visual arts around 1800 in Britain. Visitors to the National Gallery won't be much wiser about this, if the wall label is their only source of information. It reads: 'The painting was commissioned by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater as a companion piece to a 17th century seascape in his possession'. But it is precisely that relationship with a seascape that makes this painting even more interesting. The unmentioned painter was Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707), the Dutch artist who lived in England from 1672 onwards [2]. His canvas, which dates from shortly before his departure from Amsterdam to Greenwich, is unfortunately not on display in combination with Turner's work, as it was in Bridgewater's painting gallery, after the exhibition at the Royal Academy. Indeed, it was sold by Bridgewater's heirs to the Art Museum of Toledo, Ohio, in 1977.³

That Turner was commissioned to paint a pendant to Van de Velde's painting is remarkable. After all, until then the duke had devoted himself entirely to collecting old masters, which he acquired at a feverish pace. Among them were works by Italian painters such as Titian and Raphael, but also by Claude Lorrain and a large number of Dutch masters, including Rembrandt and Aelbert Cuyp and, as it turns out, by Willem van de Velde the Younger. In total, he owned more than 300 paintings. So Turner's contemporary canvas was actually an oddity. It hung in Bridgewater's London home, Cleveland House, close to the Van de Velde and among works by Claude, Van Dijk and Poussin. What presumably motivated Bridgewater in his collecting frenzy and also for this commission was his urge to distinguish himself from other collectors. He did this with his purchases, but also by having Turner dueling with Van de Velde.⁴ Competition was in Bridgewater's genes; he also did so by betting on horse races. Turner, in turn, wanted to outdo Van de Velde. Whereas the Dutchman strove for a harmonious balance between nature - the sea, sky and light in this case - and the accurately depicted ships, Turner was concerned with the drama, the details being less relevant. His choppy paint strokes show that he was primarily concerned with exploring a painterly problem, the rendering of light and atmosphere in oil, rather than documenting a maritime situation. Turner’s admiration for Van de Velde is well known. A quote from Walter Thornby's 1862 biography is regularly cited in this regard. 'This made me a painter' Turner is said to have exclaimed when he saw a print after Van de Velde [3].⁵ The source for that statement is a bit suspect though, as Thornby had it from the son of a student of Turner.

This duel in oil paint tells us a lot about the appreciation of Van de Velde, at least on the part of Turner and his patron. But was this admiration shared more widely in England? Was he the only Dutch marine painter to be admired, and what exactly was the reason for this? And what about a wider audience, of collectors, or just lovers of a maritime picture on the wall? Answering those questions requires resorting to a variety of sources, such as statements by artists and critics, descriptions of collections and prices at auctions. The popularisation of the work of Van de Velde and other marine painters can further be measured to some extent through print editions. Finally, it is interesting to make a comparison with the Netherlands in the same period, i.e. in the 18th century. What was the appreciation level for Van de Velde and his colleagues in his country of origin, among artists and among enthusiasts? All these questions warrant extensive further research. Here, some preliminary impressions will suffice.

1 (cover image)
Joseph Mallord William Turner
Dutch Boats in a Gale, dated 1801
London (England), National Gallery (London), inv./cat.nr. L297

2
Willem van de Velde (II)
A kaag at sea with other shipping in a fresh breeze, between 1665 and 1672
Toledo (Ohio), Toledo Museum of Art, inv./cat.nr. 1977.62

3
Elisha Kirkall after Willem van de Velde (II) printed by Elisha Kirkall
Ship scudding in a gale, c. 1725-1730
Greenwich, National Maritime Museum (Greenwich), inv./cat.nr. PAG6881