Provenance
[Sotheby's, Amsterdam, 3 May 1976, p. 54, lot 214] (photocopy of cat. in departmental file). [Paul Drey Gallery, New York]
Accession Number
1980.70
Medium
pen and brown and black ink and brush and gray and black wash; framing lines in brown ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 13.4 x 17.2 cm (5 1/4 x 6 3/4 in.); Image: 11.2 x 15.4 cm (4 7/16 x 6 1/16 in.)
Classification
Drawing
Credit Line
Delia E. Holden Fund
Tags
Drawing Baroque (1600–1750) Ink Dutch
Background & Context
Background Story
Allart van Everdingen (1621-1675) was a Dutch painter known for the atmospheric landscape paintings of Scandinavian subjects that make him one of the most accomplished landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. A Rocky Cove with Fishing Boats from the late 1650s depicts a rocky cove with fishing boats in the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that distinguishes van Everdingen's best work from the more general landscape painting of his contemporaries. Van Everdingen was known for his atmospheric landscapes of the Scandinavian coast—atmospheric, rocky coastlines with fishing boats that were among the most distinctive subjects in Dutch landscape painting—and his work influenced the development of landscape painting across Europe.
Cultural Impact
A Rocky Cove with Fishing Boats is important in the history of Dutch landscape painting because it demonstrates the atmospheric, precisely observed manner that van Everdingen brought to Scandinavian subjects as one of the most accomplished landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Van Everdingen's atmospheric landscapes of the Scandinavian coast—influencing the development of landscape painting across Europe—represent one of the most distinctive traditions in Dutch Golden Age landscape painting, and the late 1650s painting shows this tradition at its most atmospheric.
Why It Matters
A Rocky Cove with Fishing Boats is van Everdingen's atmospheric Scandinavian landscape: a rocky cove with fishing boats rendered in the precisely observed manner of one of the most accomplished landscape painters of the Dutch Golden Age. The late 1650s painting shows the atmospheric effect of the Scandinavian coast that influenced landscape painting across Europe.
