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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Flemish paintings C. 1600-C. 1800 III, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2010, cat.no. 144:

Technical notes: The painting’s support is a slightly
convex oak panel constructed of two horizontal, buttjoined,
radial boards with horizontal grain. Bevelling
occurs along four edges on the verso. The corners
(except upper right) show slight damage on the recto.
No inscriptions or marks on the verso. Dendrochronological
examination and analysis has determined a felling
date for the tree between c. 1632 and 1642. The wood
originates from the Baltic region. Under the assumption
of a median of 15 sapwood rings and a minimum of 2
years for seasoning of the wood, the most plausible date
for use of the panel would be 1640 or later.
Paint is applied thinly in opaque and semi-transparent
layers, with slight impasto in the white clouds, over a white
chalk ground and a cream-coloured imprimatura that
remains visible through the paint layers, especially in the
sky. The wood grain of the support is quite prominent, and
is allowed to show through the thinly painted sky. Infrared
reflectography revealed an extensive brush-applied black
underdrawing: a loose, broadly executed compositional
sketch delineating the outlines of the coastline, rocks,
foliage and architecture (Fig. 1) on the right, the clouds,
the boats with their masts and rigging, the stone pier and
figures on the left. There are several pentimenti between the
drawing and painting stages: the farthest of the two defensive
towers on the right initially had crenellation at the top,
similar to that of the nearest tower, which in the painted
version was later changed to a low conical roof, and the left
contour of this tower was also slightly adjusted; the facial
profile of the man wearing a turban standing in a rowboat
on the left was adjusted, as was that of the man in the same
boat bending forward to left a casket; the tall main mast of
the large sailing vessel was adjusted towards the top, and
the curbed back of the man in the stern of the boat was
drawn in a slightly higher position.

The painting is in excellent condition. A layer of old
varnish is present, only slightly discoloured. There is
slight abrasion and losses of the ground and paint layers
along the edges. There are a few scattered small retouches,
mainly in the sky. A fine craquelure is visible in the
white clouds and in the tall rock with the defensive tower
at the right. There are a few short horizontal cracks
along the wood grain in the ground and paint layers in
the area of water and rocks at the lower right. The painting
underwent conservation treatment in 1935.

Provenance: Coll. Johan Gabriel Stenbock; Christina
Beata Lillie 1705; Ulrika Lovisa Sparre; Carl Gustaf
Tessin 1735; Tessin −Fredrik I−Lovisa Ulrika 1749;
Lovisa Ulrika 1760, no. 166 (as Bonaventura Peeters);
Gustav III (as Crown Prince) 1761; Gustav III 1792, no.
299 (as Bonaventura Peeters); KM 1795, no. 122; KM
1816, no. 140

Bibliography: NM Cat. 1867, p. 39 (as Bonaventura
Peeters); Sander I, p. 91, II, p. 124; Göthe 1887, p. 191;
Göthe 1893, pp. 235–236; Göthe 1910, p. 244; Granberg
1911–1913, I, p. 76 no. 338, II, p. 99 no. 360; Granberg
1929–1931, III, p. 25 no. 229, 112; NM 1958, p. 152;
NM Cat. 1990, p. 268.

The fanciful tempests and luminous coastal scenes
depicted by Bonaventura Peeters I, the most
renowned specialist in the field of marine painting in
the Southern Netherlands around the mid-17th century,
are in marked contrast to the tradition of naturalistic
seascapes that flourished in the North during the
same period. Although best known for his vividly dramatic
scenes of shipwrecks and craggy, storm-battered
coastlines, Peeters also painted more temperate
seascapes, including a number of views of foreign
shores set in the New World and the Orient. Most of
the latter, including the present picture, depict the
calm waters of a fortified sea harbour on a serene
windless day, with signed examples in St. Petersburg
(The Hermitage)1 and Vienna (Kunsthistorisches
Museum).2 Peeters apparently never travelled outside
Flanders – with the possible exception of a journey to
the Northern Netherlands – and his views of the Orient
and its turbaned inhabitants were probably derived
from drawings and prints by other artists. These harbour
views probably have reference to the Levant, or
eastern Mediterranean, which the Venetians first reinforced
with trading posts, later conquered by the
Turks. Like his coastal scenes set in the New World,
however, these pictures do not function as an ethnographic
or historical record, but instead have an affective
purpose, signalling to the viewer that this is a
poetic evocation of a remote and unfamiliar place.
This painting is signed with the artist’s monogram.
In composition and execution the painting is identical
to a same-size replica of high quality that was on the
Dutch art market in 1962.3 The only difference
between the two works is that the smooth stretch of
water between the stone pier on the left and the craggy
coastline on the right is slightly narrower in the
picture at The Hague, so that the tall western threemaster
in the distance on the right lies anchored
directly behind the small skiff of the central sailing
vessel. The distinctive sketchy underdrawing of the
gold-tinged fleecy clouds in the calm evening sky, the
vegetation and the fortified tower overlooking the
cove, which is visible in both panels (see Technical
Notes), is clearly recognizable from drawings by the
artist.4 The present picture can be dated to the later
years of Peeter’s short life, probably in the 1640s, as
confirmed by dendrochronological analysis of the
panel (see Technical Notes). He painted a somewhat
similar view of an Oriental harbour in 1640, a picture
that was on the New York art market in 1995,5 but the
theme recurs in his oeuvre as late ca.1650/52.6 The
artist’s close repetition of this composition indicates
the popularity of and growing demand for exotic
coastal scenes among his contemporaries. Indeed,
there are other instances of such autograph repetitions
within his oeuvre.7With his Oriental port and coastal
scenes Peeters, indeed, seems to have anticipated the
future developments of Dutch Italianate painters, such
as Nicloaes Pietersz. Berchem, Jan Baptist Weenix and
others.
CF

1 Oil on canvas, 46.5 x 63 cm, signed with the artist’s monogram, St.
Petersburg, The Hermitage, inv. no. GE 2153; for which see Ontario
2001, p. 87 fig. 42; and Gritsay and Babina 2008, p. 201 no. 273, illus. in
colour.
2 Oil on wood, 47 x 63 cm, signed with the artist’s monogram, Vienna,
Kunsthistorisches Museum, inv. no. 1717; for which see Balis et al. 1989,
illus. p. 262.
3 Oil on wood, 32 x 44 cm, The Hague, S. Nystad, 1962; see the photograph
on file at the RKD, The Hague.
4 See, for example, the preparatory drawing (pen and black ink, grey wash,
137 x 168 mm) for his etching The Rider on the Riverbank (Holl.XVII, no. 4)
in Hamburg (Kunsthalle, inv. no. 22363), and a drawing with a View of Dover
in an English private collection; for both drawings see the photographs on
file at the RKD, The Hague. Cf. also a drawing of a fortified harbour (pen
and brown ink, 152 x 315 mm), attributed to the artist, that was on the Belgian
art market in 1990 (Brussels, Jean Willems, cat. 1990, no. 10, illus.).
5 Oil on wood, 34.9 x 54.6 cm, signed and dated “1640”, sale, New York,
Christie’s, 11 January 1995, lot 238; see photograph on file at the RKD,
The Hague.
6 Oil on wood, 65.7 x 94.5 cm, signed and dated “165[…]”, Brussels,
Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts.
7 For example, two autograph versions of an early Oriental harbour scene:
1) Oil on wood, 38 x 42 cm, signed and dated “1630”, formerly in a German
private collection; and 2) Oil on wood, 29 x 41 cm, signed with the
artist’s monogram, sale, Berlin, Internationales Kunsthaus, 12 January
1932, lot 481; see the photographs on file at the RKD, The Hague. [END]

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