Willem van de Velde the Younger

Sale, London, Sotheby’s, 1 July 1965, lot 121;

Lodewijk Houthakker (1926-2008), Amsterdam (L.3893);

sale, New York, Sotheby’s, 29 January 2014, lot 157 

P. Fuhring, Design into Art. Drawings for Architecture and Ornament. The Lodewijk Houthakker Collection, London 1989, vol. I, p. 449, no. 738

In contrast to his more typical studies and 'portraits' of existing ships, this drawing seems to be a rare design by Willem van de Velde the Younger for his own yacht. Other designs for the same vessel, dated by Michael Robinson to around1675, are in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich,¹ and Peter Fuhring (loc. cit.) notes further related sheets formerly in the Ingram and van Beuningen collections.

^1.M.S. Robinson, Van de Velde drawings. A catalogue of drawings in the National Maritime Museum made by the elder and the younger Willem van de Velde, vol. I, Cambridge 1973, nos. 517-526