Cleveland Museum of Art

Dune Scene with Peasant Figures

Willem van de Velde

Date

mid-1650s

Medium

pen and brown ink over graphite on antique laid paper; lined with tissue paper

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Starting life as a sailor, Willem van de Velde was soon appointed to make drawings and paintings of ships in the Dutch navy, and, in 1672, he was appointed by the English king to record English vessels and naval campaigns. In this drawing, made across two oblong sheets of a sketchbook, Van de Velde turned his eye to the beach, using chalk to capture the flat beach, grassy dunes, and small village and church steeple on the coast of Holland. He added the groupings of figures and horse-drawn carts in the foreground later with pen and ink. This artist started his career as a sailor, but when his talent was recognized, he became a draftsman and painter of naval scenes and battles in both Holland and England.

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