MINDERHOUT, Hendrik van

Hendrik van Minderhout painted a number of large exotic harbour scenes such as this which follow in the tradition of Jan Baptist Weenix and Johannes Lingelbach. He favoured compositions built around a central quay lavishly staffed, with Dutch vessels in the open water to the left and Roman ruins or a steep hill to the right to create a high repoussoir and offset his scenes against a richly coloured early evening sky.

The present painting shows a Levantine harbour with a galley and a man-of-war coming in to anchor, together with many figures on shore.

Minderhout painted marines, views of Antwerp and Bruges and from the 1670s onwards Mediterranean harbour scenes such as this picture which represents a harbour with merchants transporting their goods, muleteers loading their mules, laden camels transporting goods, together with a full-rigged merchantman firing a salute and other vessels and rowing boats in the background.

This signed and dated painting depicts an extensive Rhenish landscape with peasants and animals resting in the shade of Romanesque ruins.

Although Minderhout is better known as a marine painter, this grand, impressive landscape demonstrates his mastery of the landscape genre. While the light in the present painting is distinctly Italianate, the landscape is reminiscent of the Rhine valley, and the building at the extreme left is a capriccio of the Valkhof on the Rhine at Nijmegen.

The painting depicts an extensive view of the roads of a city with a large flute, a small cargo ship, a kaag and other shipping moored, together with an elegant couple and other figures standing in the foreground. It is a capriccio based on the actual roads of the cities of Amsterdam and Antwerp.

The painting depicts the battle of Lowestoft on 3 June 1665, showing HMS ‘Royal Charles’ and the ‘Eendracht’.

The battle of Lowestoft was the first fleet action of the Second Dutch War, 1665–1667, and resulted in a Dutch defeat with a loss of about 30 ships. In this initial fleet engagement both sides had over 100 sail. The action began at 3.30 and continued until 19.00 by which time the Dutch were in flight with 17 ships sunk or captured. Following action with the ‘Royal Charles’, with HRH the Duke of York on board, the principal Dutch flagship the ‘Eendracht’ blew up, killing her admiral Lieutenant-Admiral Jan van Wassenaer Heer van Obdam.

Of a crew of over 400 only five survived. This painting was probably painted shortly after the battle and shows the action between the ‘Royal Charles’ and the ‘Eendracht’ from the Dutch perspective. The left foreground is dominated by the duelling flagships of the two commanders-in-chief. On the left is the ‘Royal Charles’, with the Duke of York on board, and the Royal crest is shown carved on her stern. A small boat is connected to the ship by a rope held by two men and other men can be seen working in the rigging. In very close action to the right is the ‘Eendracht’ with the carved lion visible on her stern, and flying the Dutch flag and ensign, just before she blew up. The painting inaccurately gives the English flagship ‘Royal Charles’ a Dutch stern, with a square tuck and gallery.

Alongside the Van Oosts, a number of painters of lesser renown were active in Bruges in the mid-17th century. Only a few were of any real importance. Hendrik van Minderhout, a painter of seascapes, came from Rotterdam. This large seascape, The Handelskom (town docks) at Bruges, was probably painted in 1665, when the new harbour was inaugurated.