Sailing ship and rowing boat on rough seas

JULIUS PORCELLIS

Rotterdam 1610-1645 Leiden

Oil on panel 47 x 62,5 cm.
Signed with monogram on the rowing boat

Provenance
Walker Gallery, Liverpool
K.J. Müllenmeister, Solingen
Hanseatic Art Collection

Julius was the son of Jan Porcellis and Jacquemijntje Jansdr. He was probably a pupil of his father Jan and follower of him in artistic terms. Their choice of subjects was similar and their signature monogram the same, but Julius’ palette contained vivid colors later in his career, is agreed less subtle and his sense of space is less fluent.

Jan Porcellis developed in the tradition of Dutch Marine Painting. Hendrik Vroom, whom Houbraken claims was Porcellis’ teacher, was skillful at ship-painting, covering subjects as fish, fishermen and other boatmen. Porcellis earliest paintings, demonstrated that he had mastered Vroom’s style which enjoyed much popularity at the time. For all the perils he portrays, Porcellis put less emphasis on spectacular destruction. The audience were rather invited to make out what happens gradually. Porcellis ships sit has a solid presence in water and the grey hazy atmosphere contrasts and blurs the horizon and ships in the distance. The mottling of the sky is projected by the sun upon the brown land which turns green in the light. These effects were never attempted by Vroom or his contemporaries, and in fact they were very advanced for this early date, which will be continued in Porcellis’ lifelong preoccupation with the subtleties of weather.

Many prominent artists as Rembrandt, Allard van Everdingen, Rubens and Jan van de Capelle collected his works. His work can be seen in The Netherlands, Germany, Russia the UK, France and North America.

Share this artwork: