Rijksmuseum

The Whale-oil Refinery near the Village of Smerenburg

Date

1639

Medium

canvas, oil paint (paint)

Institution

Rijksmuseum

Smerenburg on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen was a settlement of Dutch whalers. As the painter never went there, he combined familiar images and stories in this work. The mountain at the left is probably on Jan Mayen Island. Strips of whale blubber are boiled and rendered into train (whale) oil in the numerous try-pots on the beach. The men’s barracks are visible in the right background.

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