Stop 11 - The Y at Amsterdam with the Frigate De Ploeg

Rijksmuseum website: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/collection/SK-C-91

This view of Amsterdam's Y bay was painted by Ludolf Bakhuysen during the most successful period of his career. Bakhuysen was born in Germany, but had arrived in Amsterdam in around 1649 to work as a merchant's clerk and bookkeeper. By the early 1670s, he had become Amsterdam's foremost maritime painter.

Bakhuysen is perhaps best known for his seascapes depicting ships tossed on stormy seas, battling against tempestuous winds. According to one early eighteenth-century biographer, the artist frequently went to sea during storms to study the waves and the moods of the elements.

Known as the Dutch Golden Age, the seventeenth century was an era in which Dutch maritime trade in Southeast Asia, and elsewhere, flourished. Maritime paintings celebrating these successes were in great demand, especially those by renowned artists such as Bakhuysen.

Unlike Bakhuysen's stormy ocean scenes, this painting depicts the frigate, ‘De Ploeg' or ‘The Plough', in Amsterdam's sheltered Y bay. Yet despite the relative calm of the scene, brooding grey clouds cast dark shadows over restless waters in the centre of the painting, warning of the dangers of long-distance trade. The frigate's billowing Dutch flags, however, imply the Dutch fleet's readiness to overcome these dangers in pursuit of wealth and prosperity.

A patch of sunlight in the painting's foreground draws the eye away from the ship to the figures of a man and a woman, conversing as they enjoy a portside stroll. They have just turned away from the ‘The Plough', likely the subject of their conversation. Might their animated discussion have prompted seventeenth-century viewers to remark on the ship's magnificence and the success of Dutch overseas trade? A clear assertion of Dutch maritime dominance, this painting would have been a source of great pride for its owner.

The Y Painting

ARC Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions