- NameWillem Velde d.ä.
- Activity/Titledraughtsman, painter
- Sexmale
- Variant namesWillem van den Velde d.ä.
- Nationality/DatesDutch, born 1611, dead 1693
- PlacesPlace of birth: Leiden, Nederländerna
Place of death: London, England, Storbritannien
BiographyThe two Willem van de Veldes, father and son, collaborated closely for half a century, and distinguishing their hands has proved difficult. Willem the Elder followed the Dutch and English fleets and sketched the ships and their positions in series of panoramas. These were later used for more elaborated representations of specific events, relying in addition on ships’ portraits and verbal descriptions. A speciality of his was grisailles, which were sought after by an international public. Willem the Younger seems to have been responsible for a lion’s share of the paintings based on this material, although he also produced drawings, both ships’ portraits and sketches made at sea. This is borne out by documentary evidence, showing where the two artists were at any given time. It seems that neither signatures nor inscriptions in their respective hands are always sufficient to determine authorship. Following the practice in other catalogues, the drawings described here are not attributed to one of the two; instead, reasons for a possible attribution are given in the entries.
Several of the drawings were given to the Museum by Count Axel Bielke in 1876. According to a note in the Museum’s bulletin of 1914, they came from “the famous collection of Count Fries in Vienna”. However, his collector’s mark is not found on the sheets.
[Magnusson, Dutch Drawings]