Ships In The Bay Of Ij – Attributed To Reinier Nooms (1623 – C. 1668)

Oil on oak panel – Dutch school from the second half of the 17th century, attributed to Reinier Nooms (or Zeeman).
While fishermen in the foreground are hauling in their nets, numerous ships are busy in the famous Ij Bay in front of the city of Amsterdam, which is easily recognizable with the immense Werterkerk church and its bell tower rising to 85 meters, as well as the Dam Palace topped with a dome in its center further to the right. In the center of the composition, under a sky invaded by a large cumulonimbus, the sailors of a merchant ship flying the English flag are gathered on the deck, probably in anticipation of the docking maneuver. With strong light contrasts and the morning redness, the basin that bathes the Amsterdam coast is transformed into a theater stage where the ships are the mobile scenery. In the vastness, the attention is drawn to the frail fishing boat, a ray of light isolating it from the rest of the composition. A scene within the scene! Sailors are pulling to prevent the swell from drifting the boat and allowing the standing man to hoist the fishing net. Opportunistic seagulls circle on the surface of the water waiting for a providential meal. Recognizable among a thousand others, the way of painting the sea is indeed that of Reinier Nooms. The man who was first a sailor, and who has often depicted his hometown from the open sea, paints the effects of the sea as he observes them.

A Dutch frame with an inverted profile in blackened wood sublimates the scene.
Dimensions: 48.5 x 65 cm - 63 x 79 cm with the frame
Sold with invoice and certificate.

Reinier Nooms also known by his nickname Zeeman (Amsterdam 1623 – Id. 1668?). Both a painter and an engraver, he was first a sailor (hence the name Zeeman, literally sailor in Dutch). In a Dutch realist style, his maritime scenes, in which his contemporaries admire the ships that he faithfully depicts, are very successful. Zeeman's works demonstrate his knowledge of ship design and rigging and therefore constitute a precise testimony to Dutch navigation in the Golden Age. Reinier Nooms is a prolific painter and worked for a time in the service of the Court of Brandenburg in Berlin. His paintings are in the collections of the Louvre in Paris, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.