LUDOLF BACKHUYSEN (Emden 1630 – Amsterdam 1708)
A Fisher Boy on the Beach
signed in the lower right L. Bakh.
oil on panel
12.8 x 8.9 inches (32.5 x 22.5 cm.)
PROVENANCE
Private Collection, North Germany
Private Collection, Netherlands
Ludolf Backhuysen began his career in 1649 working as a calligrapher for the Bartolotti trading house in Amsterdam. According to Arnold Houbraken he learned to paint from the marine artists Hendrick Jacobsz. Dubbels and Allaert van Everdingen.[1] He did not join the Amsterdam painter’s guild until 1663, but shortly thereafter his fame as a marine painter was established. When Willem van de Velde I and II moved to England in 1672, Backhuysen became the leading marine painter in The Netherlands. Important commissions followed. Houbraken recorded that Cosimo III de’ Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany; Frederick I of Prussia, Elector of Saxony; and Peter the Great, Tsar of Russia all visited his studio. Within his paintings, Backhuysen emphasized “the perpetually changing climate and the magnificent skies of The Netherlands. Much of his work, moreover, glorified Amsterdam and the mercantile trade that made it great.”[2]
His students included Pieter Coopse, Jan Dubbels, Michiel Maddersteeg, Onno Onnesz., Gerrit Pompe, Jan Claesz Rietschoof and Abraham Storck.[3] The number of museums that incorporated his painting into their permanent collections is remarkable. They include the museums of Amsterdam; Antwerp; Apeldoorn; Berlin; Boston; Braunschweig; Bremen; Brussels; Bucharest; Chantilly; Cleveland; Cologne; Copenhagen; Dresden; Dublin; Dulwich; Hamburg; The Hague; Hartford; Heidelberg; Houston; Hull, England; Geneva; Indianapolis; Karlsruhe; Leipzig; Lille; London; Manchester, England; Manchester, New Hampshire; Minneapolis; Moscow; Munich;
Oberschleissheim; Paris; Riga; Rotterdam; Schwerin; Sneek; Stuttgart; Toledo, Ohio; Vienna; Washington, D.C.; Weimar; and Winterthur, Switzerland.
As exemplified in this panel, “after 1665 Backhuysen’s compositions become more daring, his colours brighter and the atmosphere more dramatic, with ominous cloudy skies.” The artist’s portraits tended to be of his friends[4], which likely is the case in this work. Captured in bright light a fisher boy is monumentally portrayed standing on a beach. To his right fisher folk sort the catch from a docked boat, while the group on his left await the arrival of the next haul. The concealment of his left hand beneath his blouse harks back to a tradition in which this gesture was meant to signify gentlemanly restraint one “often associated with the nobility”.[5] This is counterbalanced by the informality of his right hand thrust into his pocket. From such a stance the viewer can readily gather that Backhuysen thought highly of this young man but most importantly regarded him as his friend.
[1] Arnold Houbraken compiled from 1718 – 1721 the first comprehensive survey of Dutch painting from the Golden Age in De groote schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders en schilderessen.
[2] Biographical information taken from B.P.J Broos “Ludolf Backhiuzen” in The Grove Dictionary of Art, From Rembrandt to Vermeer, St. Martin’s Press, New York, 2000, pp. 12 – 13; and “Ludolf Bakhiuzen” on rkd.nl (RKD Explore) website.
[3] “Ludolf Backhiuzen” on rkd.nl, op.cit.
[4] P.B.J. Broos, op.cit., p. 13.
[5] Coleman Lowndes, “Napoleon’s missing hand, explained” on Vox.com, December 18, 2020.