Jan van de Cappelle
Ships in a Calmcirca 1650-1655

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Oil painting of a calm harbor scene with amber-sailed vessels, a firing cannon, a crowded rowboat, and a lone standing figure in the shallows under billowing clouds

Artist or Maker: Jan van de Cappelle
Northern Netherlands, 1624/26-1679
Title: Ships in a Calm
Date Made: circa 1650-1655
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 30 1/8 × 42 7/8 in. (76.52 × 108.9 cm) Framed: 39 1/2 × 51 × 3 1/2 in. (100.33 × 129.54 × 8.89 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Carter
Accession Number: M.2003.108.6
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Renowned for his ambitious representations of naval parades, Jan van de Cappelle depicts a barge, used to row important personages to and from ships, along with several sailing vessels in Ships in a Calm. The party is escorted by guards armed with halberds—ax blades topped with spikes and mounted on long shafts—as a salute is fired from one of the single-masted yachts. In the foreground, fishermen pause to view the passing barge. Van de Cappelle’s interest lay in capturing the subtle effects of diffused atmospheric light. Here, the clouds occupy more than two-thirds of the composition, forming an elaborate patchwork that evokes a palpably wet atmosphere. The sky is mirrored in the luminous reflections on the water. Despite the apparent specificity of the barge, which has not been identified, the artist likely relied on his own observations from his yacht to stage his carefully constructed parade compositions.

Often referring to his artistic endeavors as a liefhebberij (hobby), van de Cappelle was keenly aware of the creative practices of his predecessors and contemporaries, whose artworks he collected and occasionally copied. He greatly admired Simon de Vlieger’s work, for example, and modeled many of his own marine compositions, painted between 1649 and 1652, on de Vlieger’s seascapes (see AC1995.179.1). Aligning himself with those who shared similar intellectual and artistic pursuits, van de Cappelle amassed one of the largest art collections of the period, including 900 drawings by Hendrick Avercamp, more than 400 by Jan van Goyen, and 500 by Rembrandt.

2024
Provenance: Messrs. Murrieta (sale, London, Christie’s, 14 May 1892, lot 126, sold to); [P. & D. Colnaghi, London]. R. D. Walker, London (sale, London, Christie’s, 1 July 1907, lot 147, as "Dutch School," sold to); [A. Buttery, London]. Ernest James Wythes (d. 1949),(1) Copped Hall, Essex, by inheritance to his daughter; Barbara Dorothy Wythes (b. 1896, m. 1920 to Francis Guy Robert Elwes), by inheritance to her son; Major Robert Valentine Gervase Elwes (1922–1959), Oxfordshire, by inheritance to his father;(2) Col. Francis Guy Robert Elwes (1895–1966), O.B.E. (estate sale, London, Sotheby’s, 26 Mar. 1969, lot 26, sold to); [David Koetser, Zurich, sold 1971 to]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter, Los Angeles, given 2003 to; LACMA.

Footnotes

(1) According to the dealer David Carritt, London (letter to Edward Carter, 14 Feb. 1973), "While still a student Wythes inherited a huge fortune from his father, a railway builder. One of his first acts was to build a vast yacht on which to take his fellow-undergraduates to Italy and other centers of culture. . . . Wythes didn’t exactly collect. He bought all the things that retired gentlemen of his time bought, including a Botticelli and a fake Jan van Eyck, but his best picture was probably the one in your lab [the Van de Cappelle]."

(2) Major Robert V. G. Elwes died without children.
Selected Bibliography: Walsh, Jr., John., and Cynthis P. Schneider. A Mirror of Nature: Dutch Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter (Second Edition). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992.
Russell, Margarita. Jan van de Cappelle, 1624/6-1679. Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis, 1975.
Walsh, Amy L. The Mr. and Mrs. Edward Carter Collection of Dutch Paintings. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019. https://archive.org/details/Carter_Collection_Dutch_Paintings (accessed May 23, 2022).

Jan van de Cappelle
Ships in a Calmcirca 1650-1655

On view:

Geffen Galleries

Artist or Maker: Jan van de Cappelle
Northern Netherlands, 1624/26-1679
Title: Ships in a Calm
Date Made: circa 1650-1655
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 30 1/8 × 42 7/8 in. (76.52 × 108.9 cm) Framed: 39 1/2 × 51 × 3 1/2 in. (100.33 × 129.54 × 8.89 cm)
Credit Line: Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward W. Carter
Accession Number: M.2003.108.6
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: European Painting and Sculpture
Curatorial Notes: Renowned for his ambitious representations of naval parades, Jan van de Cappelle depicts a barge, used to row important personages to and from ships, along with several sailing vessels in Ships in a Calm. The party is escorted by guards armed with halberds—ax blades topped with spikes and mounted on long shafts—as a salute is fired from one of the single-masted yachts. In the foreground, fishermen pause to view the passing barge. Van de Cappelle’s interest lay in capturing the subtle effects of diffused atmospheric light. Here, the clouds occupy more than two-thirds of the composition, forming an elaborate patchwork that evokes a palpably wet atmosphere. The sky is mirrored in the luminous reflections on the water. Despite the apparent specificity of the barge, which has not been identified, the artist likely relied on his own observations from his yacht to stage his carefully constructed parade compositions.

Often referring to his artistic endeavors as a liefhebberij (hobby), van de Cappelle was keenly aware of the creative practices of his predecessors and contemporaries, whose artworks he collected and occasionally copied. He greatly admired Simon de Vlieger’s work, for example, and modeled many of his own marine compositions, painted between 1649 and 1652, on de Vlieger’s seascapes (see AC1995.179.1). Aligning himself with those who shared similar intellectual and artistic pursuits, van de Cappelle amassed one of the largest art collections of the period, including 900 drawings by Hendrick Avercamp, more than 400 by Jan van Goyen, and 500 by Rembrandt.

2024
Provenance: Messrs. Murrieta (sale, London, Christie’s, 14 May 1892, lot 126, sold to); [P. & D. Colnaghi, London]. R. D. Walker, London (sale, London, Christie’s, 1 July 1907, lot 147, as "Dutch School," sold to); [A. Buttery, London]. Ernest James Wythes (d. 1949),(1) Copped Hall, Essex, by inheritance to his daughter; Barbara Dorothy Wythes (b. 1896, m. 1920 to Francis Guy Robert Elwes), by inheritance to her son; Major Robert Valentine Gervase Elwes (1922–1959), Oxfordshire, by inheritance to his father;(2) Col. Francis Guy Robert Elwes (1895–1966), O.B.E. (estate sale, London, Sotheby’s, 26 Mar. 1969, lot 26, sold to); [David Koetser, Zurich, sold 1971 to]; Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter, Los Angeles, given 2003 to; LACMA.

Footnotes

(1) According to the dealer David Carritt, London (letter to Edward Carter, 14 Feb. 1973), "While still a student Wythes inherited a huge fortune from his father, a railway builder. One of his first acts was to build a vast yacht on which to take his fellow-undergraduates to Italy and other centers of culture. . . . Wythes didn’t exactly collect. He bought all the things that retired gentlemen of his time bought, including a Botticelli and a fake Jan van Eyck, but his best picture was probably the one in your lab [the Van de Cappelle]."

(2) Major Robert V. G. Elwes died without children.
Selected Bibliography: Walsh, Jr., John., and Cynthis P. Schneider. A Mirror of Nature: Dutch Paintings from the Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Edward William Carter (Second Edition). Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1992.
Russell, Margarita. Jan van de Cappelle, 1624/6-1679. Leigh-on-Sea: F. Lewis, 1975.
Walsh, Amy L. The Mr. and Mrs. Edward Carter Collection of Dutch Paintings. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2019. https://archive.org/details/Carter_Collection_Dutch_Paintings (accessed May 23, 2022).