The very first painting I covered on here was “Ships at the raging sea“ by Ivan Aivazovsky, with many of his paintings being featured over the next few weeks. To this day, he’s still one of my favorite painters. After yesterday’s ship painting, I thought I’d go back to my roots and see what old maritime paintings I could find, and my search today did not disappoint.

The guy that painted this was an absolute madlad. He would follow Dutch ships around to to painted their battles as they happened. The level of and attention to detail is also very impressive; I encourage you to spend a minute or two zooming around the full sized image to fully appreciate it.

(view the full sized image here)

I gave identifying info about this work to Perplexity with the instructions to research it and tell me all the interesting things it could about the work. Here’s what we got:

The Battle of Terheide: A Masterpiece Born from Heroism and Heartbreak

In the hallowed halls of Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum hangs one of the most extraordinary works of Dutch Golden Age art – a painting that captures not just a naval battle, but a nation's pride, an artist's courage, and a family's grief. Known in Dutch as "De Slag bij Terheide," this 1657 masterpiece by Willem van de Velde the Elder depicts the climactic Battle of Scheveningen (also called the Battle of Terheide) from August 10, 1653.

What the Eye Beholds

Against a backdrop of churning seas and billowing smoke, the massive canvas reveals a chaotic theater of war where dozens of warships clash in thunderous combat. In the center of this maritime maelstrom towers the Dutch flagship Brederode, commanded by the legendary Admiral Maarten Tromp, locked in deadly combat with English vessels. Cannon smoke drifts across the water as ships maneuver through the deadly dance of 17th-century naval warfare, their masts bristling with rigging and flags snapping in the wind. The artist has captured that decisive moment when victory and defeat hang in the balance, with Dutch and English vessels intertwined in a struggle that would determine the fate of nations.

The Revolutionary Art of War Witnessing

What makes this painting truly remarkable is not just what it shows, but how it came to be. Willem van de Velde the Elder was no ordinary court painter creating sanitized versions of battle from the safety of his studio. He was, in essence, the world's first war correspondent – a man who sailed directly into the heart of naval combat to capture history as it unfolded.

Armed with nothing but graphite, quill pen, and extraordinary courage, van de Velde positioned himself aboard a small galliot between the massive warships, sketching furiously as cannonballs whistled overhead and men died around him. "It would have been much like a photojournalist of today going into a war zone – such was the danger Van de Velde was willing to put himself in for the sake of his art," notes Dr. Allison Goudie of Royal Museums Greenwich.

The resulting work employed van de Velde's revolutionary penschilderij technique – a painstaking process where he applied layers of white oil paint to canvas, then drew upon it with black India ink using quill pens. This method, which van de Velde essentially invented, allowed for incredibly fine detail that resembled the precision of an engraving while maintaining the scale and impact of a painting. The technique was so demanding that a large work could take up to six months to complete, with the artist using cross-hatching and varying ink densities to create depth and atmosphere.

A Commission Born of Love and Loss

The story behind this painting's creation adds another layer of poignancy to its already dramatic subject matter. The work was not commissioned by the state or the Admiralty, but by the grieving family of Admiral Maarten Tromp himself. After the beloved naval hero's death in the battle – struck down by an English sharpshooter in the rigging of Sir William Penn's ship – Tromp's family sought to immortalize his greatest victories.

They commissioned van de Velde to create an entire series of pen paintings depicting Tromp's most celebrated battles, transforming personal grief into national memory. The choice of van de Velde was no accident – he had been present at the Battle of Terheide, witnessing firsthand the moment when Dutch naval supremacy began to wane and their greatest admiral fell.

The Golden Age's Darkest Hour

The battle depicted occurred during one of the most turbulent periods in Dutch history. The year 1653 found the Dutch Republic locked in the First Anglo-Dutch War (1652-1654), a conflict that threatened to destroy the maritime empire that had made the Netherlands the wealthiest nation in Europe. The English fleet under General George Monck had established a devastating blockade of the Dutch coast, strangling trade and bringing the economy to its knees.

When Tromp sailed out with his fleet of 100 ships on July 24, 1653, the very survival of Dutch independence hung in the balance. The subsequent battle off the village of Ter Heijde (near Scheveningen) would indeed break the English blockade temporarily, but at a catastrophic cost – the loss of Tromp himself, whose death marked the beginning of the end of Dutch naval dominance.

The Man Who Painted the Sea

Willem van de Velde the Elder was uniquely suited to capture this maritime drama. Born in Leiden in 1611, he was the son of a Flemish skipper and had spent his youth at sea, developing an intimate understanding of ships, navigation, and naval life. By the 1640s, he had established himself as a "ship's draughtsman," often accompanying Dutch fleets to record their exploits firsthand.

Van de Velde's personal life was as tumultuous as the battles he painted. His marriage was marked by scandal – in 1653, the same year as the Battle of Terheide, he fathered two illegitimate children, leading to a bitter separation from his wife. Despite these personal turmoils, his artistic reputation soared, particularly his penschilderij works, which were considered more valuable than his other paintings.

The artist's dedication to authenticity was legendary. He would position himself dangerously close to the action, sometimes depicting himself in his drawings as a figure in a broad-brimmed hat surveying the scene from his small vessel. His sketches, made with waterproof graphite under the most challenging conditions, served as the foundation for the detailed studio works that would follow.

A Testament to Dutch Innovation

"The Battle of Terheide" represents more than just a historical document – it embodies the innovative spirit of the Dutch Golden Age. The penschilderij technique itself was revolutionary, allowing artists to achieve unprecedented detail and precision in large-scale works. Van de Velde's mastery of this medium helped establish a new standard for maritime art that would influence generations of painters.

The painting's survival and prominence in the Rijksmuseum today speaks to its enduring power as both an artistic achievement and a historical testament. At 170 by 289 centimeters, it commands attention not just through its size but through its incredible wealth of detail – every ship, every sail, every wisp of smoke rendered with meticulous care.

In an age when national identity was increasingly tied to maritime power, van de Velde's work captured not just a battle, but the very soul of Dutch civilization at its zenith. Though the Dutch would ultimately lose this war and see their naval supremacy challenged, the artist's courage in documenting these crucial moments has given us an invaluable window into one of history's most dramatic periods of naval warfare.

Today, as visitors stand before this monumental work, they witness not just the clash of wooden ships and iron cannons, but the meeting point of art, history, and human courage – a fitting tribute to both the admiral who died for his country and the artist who risked everything to ensure their story would never be forgotten.

And that's it!

If you have any details you think Perplexity left out, reply to this email and I'll adjust my prompt to nudge it to include it next time.

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Thanks for reading!

-JP

Current prompt: I want you to create a newsletter post describing the fun and exciting stories around a painting. It should be a newsletter read for leisure and should be an enjoyable read (not just a list of facts) here's what you’re gonna do: Find the name of the following painting in its original language and any alternative names it goes by. Then Research the painting and give me blurb telling me all you can about the artist, the historical context/events it was created in, the style, the materials used, the composition and visual elements, the story/underlying message, what inspired the work/what it meant to the author, and whatever other info you find that helps give a complete understanding of the work. A description of what is depicted (mention subjects) should be the first thing, while the “biography” of the artist should be last. if the work has a lot of meaning behind it, then that is what the meat of the newsletter should be. Besides that you are free to present the information in a concise and captivating way, with the most interesting and novel stuff closest to the top. Order the presentation of information for which pieces have the most compelling and interesting story to tell. At least some of the description should be formatted like a story. [for example: a couple sits on a bench watching the sunset while a man next to them…]. ONLY include information that is for THIS SPECIFIC PAINTING. you will find info on paintings similar to this one but NOT this one. OMMIT INFO ABOUT SUCH PIECES. remember, the goal is to make the most compelling, intriguing, and fun to read newsletter as possible, so keep that above all else.