Beach with Fishermen
1627.Not on display
This painting is illustrative of the beach scenes monopolised in Utrecht by the Willaerts family, who combined the two typical genres of Dutch painting in their work: seascapes and genre scenes. They are derived from similar compositions by Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom (ca. 1566-1640), although the lower horizon line employed by Adam Willaerts endows the scenes with greater spatial depth which is further accentuated by the strip of light blue sea just below the horizon. The canvas has been cut down on two sides and, therefore, the scene may have been enclosed on either side by rocky shores, fortresses or other compositional elements, as was common in Willaerts`s works.
The seascape appears to be intended to illustrate the various vessels belonging to the Dutch fleet: a rowing boat, fishing boats, galleys and frigates characteristic of the Dutch East India Company - the stern of one of which displays the coat of arms of the city of Amsterdam at different stages in the manoeuvres to hoist and take down the sails.
The compositional structure based on parallel planes of colour is drawn from the seascapes of Hendrick Cornelisz. Vroom (P2159).
Willaerts continues to employ this structure even after the new naturalist trend that swept through Dutch painting in the 1620s had caused it to become outdated. The space is arranged more skilfully than in other similar scenes painted by Willaerts, such as Coastal Landscape with Ships, dated 1616 (Vaduz, collection of the Prince of Lichtenstein). The handling of the water`s surface using parallel bands of small foam-crested waves is a typical formal device of Willaerts, which he first used in his famous scene Defeat of the Spaniards at Gibraltar by a Dutch Fleet, dated 1617.
The genre scene on the shore depicts the arrival of the day`s catch, which is carted ashore and spread out on the sand by the fishermen to be sold. The array of fish to the right of the foreground is another of the idiosyncratic features of these Willaerts scenes. From 1650 onwards he was aided by his son-in-law Willem Ormea (1591/1611-1673), a painter specialised in fish still lifes (Posada Kubissa, T.: Pintura holandesa en el Museo Nacional del Prado. Catálogo razonado, 2009, pp. 154-155).
