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WATERCOLOUR DRAWING OF DUTCH SHIPS & BOATS BEFORE CITY
[DRAWING - WATERCOLOUR - SHIPS]. [SCHOUMAN, Martinus?] ["De Liefde" and other Dutch Ships and Boats before an unidentified city].
[Holland], ca. 1815. Large ink and watercolour drawing (39 x 52.5 cm) on wove paper watermarked "D & C Blauw." Mounted with paper hinges in a passe-partout.
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A large and detailed ink and watercolour drawing of Dutch ships and boats before a large city. The two-masted unarmed ship "De Liefde," with its rigging rendered in great detail, its anchor hanging from the prow and a row boat at its stearn, dominates the centre of the drawing, while a three-masted ship with twenty-four guns appears slightly further away to the left. In the foreground, a row boat with six oarsmen approaches the viewer, apparently coming from "De Liefde," while a small sailboat sails away to the right and a buoy floats in the water to the left. Dozens of other ships and boats are visible in the background against the profile of a large city. While we have not identified the city, the four main boats are all flying the Dutch flag, and one can see a windmill and several distictive buildings in the city profile. The drawing resembles the work of Martinus Schouman (1770-1848), who studied in The Hague and is well known for the watercolour drawings he made of ships in Holland before he moved to Breda in 1839.
The scene is drawn in brown ink and watercolours on a sheet of wove paper watermarked (centred along the foot) "D & C Blauw" (papermakers in Wormerveer, North Holland). Jan Kool introduced the manufacture of wove paper to the Netherlands in 1808. Although the heirs of Dirk and Cornelis Blauw (who continued to use the "D & C Blauw" watermark) are not mentioned among those who contracted with Kool in 1808, they had introduced wove paper by 1815. The use of the Dutch flag was banned by the Napoleonic government in 1806, so the drawing probably dates from soon after the Kingdom of the Netherlands replaced the French government in 1813. There were several Dutch ships named "De Liefde" (Love).
With some foxing, mainly affecting the sky, but still in very good condition. A lovely and detailed ink and watercolour drawing of Dutch ships before a city.
