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A scene showing an estuary with shipping and land rising up on either side. The land on the far right includes white cliffs rising up towards fields and woods. Several church towers are implied on the skyline and this, with the presence of the white cliffs, indicates this may be the coast of England. The ship on the far right flies the flags of an East Indiaman and the English ensign and her stern bears a crest. In the centre of the estuary is a larger ship flying the standard of James I and similar in appearance to his warship 'Prince Royal'. She is weighing anchor and preparing to get under way firing a salute. She has the figurehead of a man on a white horse carved on the bow. On the left is a third ship port bow view, also at anchor and with men working on her fore sail.
In the distance on the left are the buildings of a town perched on a hill and close to the shore. In the foreshore a bustling fish market takes place. In the foreground a variety of characters are shown in a linear arrangement, variously occupied. They indicate a range of social types differentiated by clothing, activity and attributes. Only two figures face towards the viewer, one is a girl in a red dress and a white apron holding a basket of fish on her head, and the other is a jaunty man in the foreground wearing a brown doublet and hose and a red feather in his hat.
One man stands up in a boat on the beach. It has three seated figures on board and he is blowing a trumpet perhaps to announce that the boat is preparing to leave the shore. This pronouncement of departure endorses the ship's salute out in the bay and reinforces the theme of arrival and departures, a theme Willaerts returns to in a number of paintings.
Born in Antwerp, Willaerts emigrated from Flanders to the northern Netherlands at a time when many protestant Flemings did so, to seek work free from religious or political persecution.
Title
Shipping in an Estuary
Date
1640
Medium
oil on panel
Measurements
H 63.5 x W 104.1 cm
Accession number
BHC0267
Work type
Painting