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拍品專文
This picture, which M.S. Robinson regarded as a possible sketch for an as-yet unidentified larger work (op. cit., p. 669), depicts the departure of William of Orange and Princess Mary for Holland in November 1677. The couple, who were also first cousins, were married at St. James’s on 4 November of that year. They departed Whitehall a little over two weeks later in the company of the King and Duke of York, who travelled with them as far as Erith, when the newly-weds boarded yachts bound for Holland. Poor weather delayed their journey, but they landed safely at Ter Heide on 29 November and made their public entry into The Hague on 4 December. The couple would return to England eleven years later after the deposition of Mary’s father, James II, to become King William III and Queen Mary II.
Van de Velde depicts the yachts from the Erith shore when, on 19 November, the King and Duke of York took leave of the Prince and Princess. Two men row a small fishing pink towards the shore, a strip of which is visible at lower left. A man, a dog and a boy stand at the water’s edge, the latter of whom wades in the shallows as he plays with a toy boat. Nearest the shore, a state barge approaches one of the yachts, seen in quarter view from the starboard side as it fires a salute to port. Robinson identifies the vessel as the Charlotte (op. cit., p. 668). A second yacht, probably the Mary, is seen starboard broadside view. Both yachts fly a reddish-orange standard at the masthead specially designed for the occasion to commemorate the Anglo-Dutch union.
The documentary verisimilitude seen in this picture and another, significantly larger, canvas of the same subject in the collection of the National Maritime Museum (fig. 1) probably owes much to the fact that the artist’s father, Willem the Elder, accompanied the Prince aboard the Mary. While on board, the elder artist produced a series of numbered drawings documenting the voyage. A finished signed and dated drawing of similar composition in the Fodor Collection at the Amsterdam Museum is also known. Robinson has suggested this sheet may provide evidence of the existence of another, presumably larger, version of this picture (op. cit., p. 669). A further drawing by Willem the Younger in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland may also relate to our painting, as it shows the Mary and Charlotte in similar positions but rearranges some of the other watercraft.
The work originally formed part of the Clinton collection at Bicton and Heanton in Devonshire. The latter house has been described as ‘one of the most imposing houses ever to exist in Devon’ prior to its destruction by fire in 1795. With few exceptions, the collection was formed by either John Rolle-Walter (c. 1714-1797) or his nephew, John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750-1842), whose second marriage in 1822 was to the much younger Louisa Trefusis (1794-1885), daughter of Robert George William Trefusis, 17th Baron Clinton (1764-1797). The Rolle family was one of the richest and most powerful in Devon and the largest landowners in the county. The paintings remained together until much of the collection was sold in the middle of the last century.
Van de Velde depicts the yachts from the Erith shore when, on 19 November, the King and Duke of York took leave of the Prince and Princess. Two men row a small fishing pink towards the shore, a strip of which is visible at lower left. A man, a dog and a boy stand at the water’s edge, the latter of whom wades in the shallows as he plays with a toy boat. Nearest the shore, a state barge approaches one of the yachts, seen in quarter view from the starboard side as it fires a salute to port. Robinson identifies the vessel as the Charlotte (op. cit., p. 668). A second yacht, probably the Mary, is seen starboard broadside view. Both yachts fly a reddish-orange standard at the masthead specially designed for the occasion to commemorate the Anglo-Dutch union.
The documentary verisimilitude seen in this picture and another, significantly larger, canvas of the same subject in the collection of the National Maritime Museum (fig. 1) probably owes much to the fact that the artist’s father, Willem the Elder, accompanied the Prince aboard the Mary. While on board, the elder artist produced a series of numbered drawings documenting the voyage. A finished signed and dated drawing of similar composition in the Fodor Collection at the Amsterdam Museum is also known. Robinson has suggested this sheet may provide evidence of the existence of another, presumably larger, version of this picture (op. cit., p. 669). A further drawing by Willem the Younger in the collection of the Duke of Northumberland may also relate to our painting, as it shows the Mary and Charlotte in similar positions but rearranges some of the other watercraft.
The work originally formed part of the Clinton collection at Bicton and Heanton in Devonshire. The latter house has been described as ‘one of the most imposing houses ever to exist in Devon’ prior to its destruction by fire in 1795. With few exceptions, the collection was formed by either John Rolle-Walter (c. 1714-1797) or his nephew, John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle (1750-1842), whose second marriage in 1822 was to the much younger Louisa Trefusis (1794-1885), daughter of Robert George William Trefusis, 17th Baron Clinton (1764-1797). The Rolle family was one of the richest and most powerful in Devon and the largest landowners in the county. The paintings remained together until much of the collection was sold in the middle of the last century.