Stop 3 - Coastal Landscape, Bonaventura Peeters (1614-1652)
Bonaventure Peeters, Coastal Landscape with Sailors Coming Ashore and Drinking Water, c 1645, oil on panel, 45 x 63.5 cm, Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, 1994.013
The Antwerp painter Bonaventure Peeters specialised in the depiction of dramatic seascapes showing ships in distress. Contemporary authors particularly praised his ability to render the force of the elements and the desperate, yet often futile, fight for survival of those shipwrecked. His naturalistic portrayal of sea conditions, as well as a poem on the perils of seafaring found underneath one of his drawings, suggest that Peeters may have worked as a sailor in his youth.
Peeters builds on these personal experiences here, although the playful mood of this painting couldn't be further removed from the hardship he described elsewhere. With their ships safely moored in a bay, the mariners have made their way ashore to enjoy their first taste of fresh water after weeks at sea. Their excitement is perhaps best captured in the figure struggling to keep his balance as he makes his way down the embankment at the centre to join others already gathered to drink. Similarly, a man in the right foreground bemusedly points out the relish with which his companion is savouring the fresh water.
The scene is pervaded by an air of serenity: The sea is so calm that the boats are reflected in its waters and the landscape is bathed in the warm light of a late summer afternoon. Earthy browns in the foreground dissolve into flickering lights and paler shades of yellow in the middle distance only to give way to the blues along the distant coast and the sky. This palette is typical for “Italianate” landscape painting popular in seventeenth-century Europe for expressing a yearning for foreign lands. The landscape itself does not capture a specific location. While Peeters could rely on personal knowledge for his depiction of the ships, he had never set foot on foreign shores and therefore relied on his imagination for these elements of the painting.
Peeters is showing safe travels and happy travellers, who appear to rejoice as much in the break from the daily monotony on board, as they do in finding the all-important drinking water.
