File:Dutch Ships loading Timber in a Northern Port RMG BHC0750.tiff

(Updated, April 2015) This painting is the finest example of van Eertvelt’s early work in the National Maritime Museum’s collection and represents the variety inherent within the artist’s subject matter. The industrious scene of Dutch and Flemish ships being loaded with timber is set in a natural harbour along a Scandinavian fjord. Large numbers of tree-trunks have been brought down into the bay in the left foreground, where they have been bundled into the water by numerous workmen. The ships inshore are loaded through stern ports. The stern of the large vessel on the left is decorated with a depiction of the Virgin Mary, whith worshippers on either side. This probably identifies the ship’s origin as the Catholic Southern Netherlands, though the ensign of three horizontal stripes of black, gold and white remains to be identified. So does the shield emblem of a black bull or ox, with its tail raised over its back, on a blue ground, which appears on the upper tafferel: a similar outline emblem of a bull appears on the white flag at the mainmast. Both may represent a town of origin, or just the name of the ship. To the right an Amsterdam merchantman, which is followed by other vessels in the distance, arrives on the scene. Small boats dart around between the larger ships. Beyond the bustle, the shoreline of rounded rocks, pines and fir trees rise and guide the eye to the horizon. Cattle, sheep and one or two human figures appear on the high shore to the left. In the distance, to the right, the mountains on the opposite side of the fjord are visible. A small rocky island rises out of the water beyond the shadow defining the foreground. The light seems to brighten towards the horizon and the artist has adjusted the lightness of the paint-layer on the panel accordingly. In the foreground van Eertvelt’s characteristic small figures, in their bright clothes, appear to be built up into flat relief with slightly thicker layers of paint. Thin brushstrokes executed in the same colour add distinct outlines and define the shapes. The glasslike green waves are crowned by thin white curly crests.

The naturalism in the narrative of this scene is balanced by a degree of stylization in the depiction of the landscape and the rendering of perspective. This betrays van Eertvelt’s stylistic roots in the sixteenth century Flemish tradition. This ‘conservative’ rendering of landscape can be perceived both in Flanders and in the North until the late 1620s. Similarly, the pictorial concept of a Scandinavian shoreline is seen on both sides of the border. Like the painter Adam Willaerts (BHC0803), who had settled in Utrecht, van Eertvelt introduced pine and fir trees and rocks to signify the otherwise imaginary setting. Van Eertvelt’s portrayal of a peaceful co-existence of Protestant and Catholic ships aligns this painting with Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom’s 'Ships Trading in the East' (BHC0727).

Andries van Eertvelt was born in Antwerp in 1590, where he joined the Guild of St Luke as a master in 1609/10. He is generally seen as the first Flemish marine painter of the seventeenth century. However his work reflects the enduring influence of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. There is a discernible ‘Dutch’ influence in van Eertvelt’s work, which may have come from Hendrick Vroom, despite van Eertvelt not necessarily having been Vroom’s pupil. Eertvelt lived in Italy, 1628–30, staying with the painter Cornelis de Wael in Genoa. After his residence in Italy, van Eertvelt was painted by van Dyck in 1632. His high reputation is reflected in the celebration of his work in Cornelis de Bie’s 'Het Gulden Cabinet van de Edel Vry Schilderconst' (The Golden Cabinet of the Honourable Free Art of Painting). His pupils reputedly included Hendrick van Minderhout, Matthieu van Plattenberg, Sebastian Castro and Kasper van Eyck.