(Antwerp 1577–1664 Utrecht)
A coastal landscape with fishermen unloading their catch,
monogrammed lower left: AW,
oil on panel, 36 x 50.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Germany

We are grateful to Gerlinde de Beer for endorsing the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a photograph. She suggests a date of execution around the second half of the 1620s.

This bustling coastal scene with fishermen and women laying out their catch on the foreshore is a typical example of the marine painting that Willaerts specialised in and earned him early acclaim. The carefully arranged composition of the imposing panoramic coastal landscape and the refined treatment of the vessels, figures and garments, show an artist at the peak of his creative abilities. In the present painting Willaerts brings natural forms, narrative and the genre element of his coastal scenes into particular focus and helps attract and hold the viewer’s attention.

Adam Willaerts was one of the central figures of Dutch marine painting. However, only little is known about his origin and family. Since he stated that he was from London when he married in 1605, it can be assumed that his family had emigrated to England due to the conquest of Antwerp by the Spanish in 1585. In 1602 Willaerts is first mentioned in Utrecht where received the commission for the decoration of one of the organs in the cathedral together with his painter colleague Salomon Vredeman de Vries. The artist spent his career there and held leading positions in the Guild of Saint Luke, running a busy studio where he trained numerous pupils, including his three sons Abraham, Cornelis and Isaac.