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A Beach Scene with Fishermen

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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A small fishing boat tosses on a choppy sea close to the shore, its crew energetically poling their vessel away from the clinging shingle. High puffy clouds soar and spiral in a bright sky, the surf below running fast on to the beach and ebbing to leave wet sand behind.

Once a calligrapher, Bakhuizen paints the small, white-topped waves with the same feeling for arcs and coils as he might have had for decorating elegant writing. They roll in to the shore in scumbled curves of white over the deeper blues and greys that give his sea real depth and wetness.

In this picture painted early in his career, Bakhuizen hints at the direction his later work will take: turbulent, terrifying seas in which he shows warships and other vessels bucking in huge waves towards high cliffs that can endanger them – as in An English Vessel and a Man-of-war in a Rough Sea off a Coast with Tall Cliffs, also in the National Gallery.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

A Beach Scene with Fishermen

Date

about 1665

Medium

Oil on oak

Measurements

H 34.2 x W 48.5 cm

Accession number

NG818

Acquisition method

Bought, 1871

Work type

Painting

Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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