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A depiction of a stormy sea with several ships heading for the rocks. A coastline is shown in the distance on the right together with outcrops of rock and a rock arch on the shore in the foreground. Although the ship on the left is at anchor, it is pitching steeply in the waves. With sails down, its struggle to keep off the rocks is indicated by the tension on the cable. White foam dashes the rocks on the right, throwing up a film of spray. Nature is shown at its most threatening to man, indicated by the jagged flash of lightning highlighted against the dark menacing sky. In Dutch marine paintings, rocks, storms and ships can be allegorical symbols of the trials and tribulations of the life of man. The ship moving through the water becomes a metaphor for either man or the nation's journey through life.
Simon de Vlieger was the first Dutch marine artist to introduce the motif of a rocky arch over water. He was believed to have influenced Hendrick Staets, who worked in Leiden and was a painter of finely crafted marine pictures in the Dutch realist manner. He was chiefly interested in the fashionable art of depicting storm-tossed ships off rocky coasts, but few biographical details about him are known.
Title
Ships Wrecked on a Rocky Shore
Date
1655
Medium
oil on panel
Measurements
H 50.8 x W 68.6 cm
Accession number
BHC0781
Work type
Painting
