The Dutch van de Velde influence on JMW Turner

Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-1693) and his son Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707) are commonly seen as the main influence on British maritime art. In fact both JMW Turner and Clarkson Stanfield painting over a hundred years later were still known to have looked to the van de Velde's for influence. This can be seen from the fact that many of their paintings had Dutch settings.

Van de Velde the Elder was originally from Holland but ended up in the service of King Charles II of England in around 1672. He was commissioned to paint naval battles and even had the current Queen's House which is part of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich as his studio. The distinct realistic nature of the sea, boats and sky were new to the English maritime scene and left a lasting legacy on marine art in this country. His son continued his father's passion for art of this style and at the Turner & the Sea exhibition a couple of his famous paintings are on the display. The one shown below is a picture of a brigantine style of ship that is drifting towards a rocky outcrop. If you look closely van de Velde the Younger has concentrated on the plight of those who are on board the ship and you can even see some figures on the rigging. The realistic nature of the painting and the dramatic waves of the sea are very reminiscent of the 19th century marine artists this blog will mainly look at. However, it is worth seeing the original masters of this style, and how if at all it has developed.

It is worth taking a moment just to take in the brilliance of van de Velde the Younger and to see why the likes of Turner held him in such high esteem...

Willem van de Velde the Younger, A Mediterranean Brigantine Drifting onto a Rocky Coast Storm, c.1700, oil-on-canvas: 63.5 x 72.4 cm, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.

John Constable on the BBC, Fake or Fortune?

I hope other people managed to watch the latest episode of 'Fake or Fortune?' on BBC1 this evening, if you missed it here is the link on iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03srsjl/Fake_or_Fortune_Series_3_Constable/ , it is definitely worth viewing as it looks at two potential Constable seascapes which are examined for their authenticity. The show is also a major insight into the art world and has given me a lot to think about in future art auctions I am interested in. The difference between attributing a painting to someone such as Constable and saying it is by Constable could be a difference of thousands or even millions of pounds. I think this will be worth exploring this in future blog posts as I know auction houses often do not disclose the provenance of a painting which I can now see is more important than ever.

To start looking at the Turner exhibition I will look at Constable himself through his famous Chain Pier, Brighton (Figure 1) painting which is on display here. The canvas itself is Constable's only large scale painting that came about from his visits to Brighton in the 1820s. It compares interestingly to JMW Turner's painting from a slightly different angle of the pier called Brighton from the Sea (Figure 2). Turner focuses more on the sea than Constable and portrays the pier against a sunset whilst Constable has a decidedly more storm focused backdrop to his painting. I would be interested to see what people thought of the two paintings and which version of the pier they prefer as both artists use their own skills very differently but both achieve very memorable seascapes of Brighton.

Figure 1. John Constable, Chain Pier, Brighton ( (1827, oil-on-canvas, 127 x 183cm, Tate).

Figure 2. JMW Turner, Brighton from the Sea ((c.1828-30, oil-on-canvas, 63.5 x 132cm, Tate and the National Trust (Pentworth House)).

Welcome to the blog of British Maritime Art!

Having grown an interest more and more in Maritime art I think a blog will be a great way to meet others interested in this form of fine art and also give an opportunity for discussions that could be useful on many levels.

I recently went to the Turner and the Sea exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich and will be doing a continuous review of what I thought of the collection on show. Therefore if you have been to this exhibition I would be interested to see what you thought of it and what your highlights were.

Can anyone guess which British artist painted the scene I have used for the background of the blog? If you can, leave a comment and explain why you think it was done by a particular artist! I will try to update the blog regularly and welcome any feedback and people from all over the world as I want to grow my knowledge too. For now I will leave another painting of the artist I have used for my background to try and help you guess (another clue is that the painting below is on display at the Turner and the Sea exhibition).