10/03/2024 General, Old Master Paintings
NEW YORK, NY -- Doyle was pleased to present Whalers in the Arctic, a rare seascape by the Dutch marine painter Adriaen van Salm (1652-1720) as a highlight of the of Old Master Paintings and Drawings sale on October 16. The artist lived and worked in Delfshaven, a major whaling port, in the early 18th century, just when the whaling industry was at its peak. He was thus able to specialize in scenes of the arctic whale hunt at a time when Dutch whalers were growing immensely rich from their expeditions to the waters around Greenland.
Van Salm’s chosen medium was penschilderij, or “pen painting,” which was developed in the 16th and 17th centuries by Dutch maritime artists. In this technique, the artist laid down a thick coat of dark oil paint, which was then covered with a layer of white. This dense ground was then allowed to dry, which could take several months. Once the panel was ready, the artist drew on the resulting gray surface in black ink with a reed pen, adding washes for tonal depth. When the piece was finally completed, it was varnished to protect the surface from damage and to give it a lustrous finish. The paintings that emerge from this complex creative process have a delicate, silvery tonality that can seem almost visionary.
The precision of pen painting was perfectly suited to depict sailing vessels and their myriad details, with the result that marine pictures in penwork were hugely popular among the ship captains and owners of the period.
Whalers in the Arctic can be dated with certainty to after 1706, based on the details of the ships’ rigging. Historians of van Salm’s stylistic development have suggested a more precise date of 1712-1715. The scene shows the Greenland hunt in full progress, with a variety of vessels and their crews hard at work. Whaling was not only laborious, but dangerous: the jaws and tail of a large whale could smash or capsize a boat or drag a seaman to his death. Or, as we see here in the far distance on the left, a particularly unlucky whaler might even encounter a polar bear.
Three of the ships in this scene can be identified, two from the inscriptions on their sterns. To the right of center in the middle distance is De Faem (The Fame), which belonged at that time to a Rotterdam shipping company, The Heirs of Willem Bastiaensz. Schepers. To the left of center is Het Bonte Kalf (The Colorful Calf), which belonged to the firm of Zaandam ship owner Claas Kalf. The third ship, De Bonte Walvis (The Colorful Whale) is not inscribed in this painting, but her stern ornament of a whale appears in another painting by van Salm, where the artist did supply her name. De Bonte Walvis belonged to the brothers Albert and Otto Doornencroon of Amsterdam.
There are two other known versions of this composition, one in the Maritime Museum in Rotterdam and another formerly with the Dutch art dealer Robert Kattenberg in Heiloo, North Holland. That there are three identifiable ships in the picture suggests that each of the three collective owners of these vessels may have commissioned a painting for themselves.
Auction October 16, 2024
Adriaen van Salm
Dutch, 1660-1720
Whalers in the Arctic
1712-1715
Signed A. Salm (ll)
Oil and India ink on panel
22 x 32 3/4 inches (55.8 x 83.3 cm)
Frame 29 5/8 x 40 1/8 inches (75.3 x 102 cm)
Sold for $127,500
