William van de Velde, the Younger (1633-1707)

An oval miniature in oil, probably on copper, in an oval gilt (unglazed), display frame with a suspension ring attached by a coiled wire mounting and an attached scrolled metal display label below engraved 'WILLIAM VANDEVELDE.' The lettering appears black but probably from corrosion effect through being engraved through the gilding. The sitter is shown head and part shoulders, turned half to his left but looking toward the viewer, against a background of blue sky, with a sea horizon to the left and a higher land one to right. On the extreme right is the suggestion of a building resembling the Royal Observatory at Greenwich which, if the case, might allude to the van de Veldes' long residence at Greenwich and use of the Queen's House as a studio from c. 1673-1674. Against this stands the fact that the sitter would have to be in his forties, but looks younger. He has long light brown hair, dark blue eyes, a slight sandy moustache and wears a plain high collared black coat. The broad lace-edged collar of his shirt is tied together with a tassel closure over the coat. Willem van de Velde and his father, also Willem, were celebrated marine painters and the leaders in bringing that specialism into England in the early 1670s, when they accepted Charles II's general invitation to Dutch artists and craftsmen to come and settle here. They were both here by 1673 and Charles immediately engaged them as 'painters of sea fights', the father primarily as a draughsman and the son as a painter, and gave them a studio in the south-west ground floor room of the Queen's House, which they used for the next twenty years, living locally in East Lane, Greenwich. In about 1693 (when his father died), Willem the Younger moved into London and they were both buried in St James's Church, Piccadilly. The Museum has the world's best collection of their work, comprising some fifty paintings and about 1600 drawings.