Coastal Maritime Nocturne - Dutch Golden Age art 17thC marine oil painting

Circa 1670

This fantastic Dutch Old Master marine oil painting is by noted Dutch marine artist Abraham Storck. Painted circa 1670 the composition is a number of ships heading out to sea, their sails billowing and banners and flags blowing in the wind. The sea is also choppy and clouds race over head. It is an ambitious, busy nautical scene and Storck has perfectly captured the energy and movement of the ships and smaller vessels. This is an excellent example of a 17th century Dutch Old Master oil painting. Provenance: Part of a private collection of Flemish & European paintings. Koller Auctions in Switzerland in 2011. Bonhams 2020. Condition. Oil on canvas, 25 inches by 24 inches and in good condition. Frame. Housed in an ornate 23 carat gilt carved Lely period frame with name plate, 32 inches by 31 inches and in excellent condition. Abraham Storck (1644-1708) was a Dutch painter, who enjoyed a reputation for his marine paintings, topographical views and Italianate harbour scenes. Storck was also an outstanding draughtsman. Storck was baptized in the Noorderkerk, a Protestant church in the Jordaan. His father was the painter Jan Jansz Sturck (or Johannes Storck) (1603-1673), from Wesel; his mother was Teuntje (Apolonia) Jacobs. The couple married in 1628. Storck had two brothers, who were also painters using the name Sturckenburch until c. 1688 after which they started calling themselves Storck or Sturck. It is likely they were all trained with their father in the family workshop and joined the local Guild of Saint Luke, otherwise it was impossible to sell any painting. Circa 1666 Storck established his workshop producing naval, harbor scenes as well as landscape paintings and city scapes. In 1670 he traveled with his brother Jacob and worked in Germany. In 1694, at age 49, he married the widow Neeltje Pieters van Meyservelt. At the end of his life he lived on Kattenburg near the harbour. Storck's marine and river scenes were influenced by the two Willem van de Veldes (the elder and the younger), Ludolf Bakhuizen...

This large superb British Old Master horse portrait oil painting is by noted artist John Boultbee. Painted circa 1790, the composition is a beautif...

This fantastic Flemish 17th century Old Master oil painting is by Thomas Van Apshoven. It was painted circa 1650 and depicts a village with figures outside a tavern, eating, drinking and dancing. Beyond are more dwellings, villagers and animals, all under a blue summer's sky. The detail, brushwork and vibrant colouring are superb. This is an excellent example of Apshoven's work and a typical subject he loved to paint. Provenance. Leominster estate. Wax stamp verso. Condition. Oil on panel, 22 inches by 17 inches and in good condition. Frame. Housed In beautiful gilt frame, 30 inches by 25 inches and in good condition. Thomas van Apshoven (1622– 1664) was a Flemish painter known for his landscapes with peasant scenes and genre scenes in interiors. His genre scenes depict village festivals, the interiors of taverns, village scenes or landscapes with peasants engaged in various activities, singeries, guardroom scenes and laboratories of alchemists. Some still lifes have also been attributed to him. His themes and style are close to that of David Teniers the Younger. He was born on 30 November 1622 in Antwerp as the eldest son of Ferdinand van Apshoven the Elder and Leonora Wijns. His father was a painter who had studied with Adam van Noort and had become a master of the Antwerp Guild of Saint Luke in 1596. No paintings by his father are known. His younger brother Ferdinand van Apshoven the Younger became also a successful painter. Thomas studied under his father. Some sources state that he became a pupil of the prominent genre painter David Teniers the Younger. It is more likely, however, that he was an imitator of Teniers. He was registered as a 'wijnmeester' [son of a master] in the Guild of St. Luke of Antwerp in the guild year 1645–1646. He married Barbara Janssens on 22 March 1645. The couple had four children. The godfathers of the children included the painters Victor Wolfvoet...

A delightful large oil on canvas of a wooded landscape which dates to circa 1830 and is attributed to Irish artist James Arthur O’Connor. A superb painting and an excellent example o...

Provenance: Robert Hollberton, Antigua, ca. 1841 Private Collection, New York The present painting depicts Old St. John’s Cathedral on the island of Antigua. The church was erected in the 1720s on the designs of the architect Robert Cullen. It measured 130 feet by 50 feet with north and south porches 23 x 20 ½ feet. The tower, 50 feet high with its cupola, was added in 1789. The church was elevated to the status of a cathedral, but disaster struck in the form of an earthquake that destroyed the building on 8 February 1843. A memorandum of that date relates the event: “On Wednesday, 8th February, 1843, this island was visited by a most terrific and destructive earthquake. At twenty minutes before eleven o’clock in the forenoon, while the bell was ringing for prayers, and the venerable Robert Holberton was in the vestry-room, awaiting the arrival of persons to have their marriage solemnized, before the commencement of the morning service, the whole edifice, from one end to the other, was suddenly and violently agitated. Every one within the church, after the first shock, was compelled to escape for his life. The tower was rent from the top to the bottom; the north dial of the clock precipitated to the ground with a dreadful crash; the east parapet wall of the tower thrown upon the roof of the church; almost the whole of the north-west wall by the north gallery fell out in a mass; the north-east wall was protruded beyond the perpendicular; the altar-piece, the public monument erected to the memory of lord Lavington, and the private monuments, hearing the names of Kelsick, Warner, Otley, and Atkinson, fell down piecemeal inside; a large portion of the top of the east wall fell, and the whole of the south-east wall was precipitated into the churchyard, carrying along with it two of the cast-iron windows, while the other six remained projecting from the walls in which they had been originally inserted; a large pile of heavy cut stones and masses of brick fell down at the south and at the north doors; seven of the large frontpipes of the organ were thrown out by the violence of the shock, and many of the metal and wooden pipes within displaced; the massive basin of the font was tossed from the pedestal on which it rested, and pitched upon the pavement beneath uninjured. Thus, within the space of three minutes, this church was reduced to a pile of crumbling ruins; the walls that were left standing being rent in every part, the main roof only remaining sound, being supported by the hard wood pillars.” The entrance from the southern side into the cathedral, which was erected in 1789, included two imposing statues, one of Saint John the Divine and the other of Saint John the Baptist in flowing robes. It is said that these statues were confiscated by the British Navy from the French ship HMS Temple in Martinique waters in 1756 during the Seven Years’ War and moved to the church. The statues are still in situ and can be seen today, much as they appeared in Bisbee’s painting, but with the new cathedral in the background (Fig. 1). Little is known of the career of Ezra Bisbee. He was born in Sag Harbor, New York in 1808 and appears to have had a career as a political cartoonist and a printmaker. His handsome Portrait of President Andrew Jackson is dated 1833, and several political lithographs...

Pair of Italian 18' century paintings , oil on canvas with Venetian Palace gardens , antiques sculptures and various figures . Measurements with frame cm 75 x101

Pair of Italian 18' century paintings , oil on canvas with Venetian Palace gardens , antiques sculptures and various figures . Measurements with f...

Pair of Italian 18' century paintings , oil on canvas with Venetian Palace gardens , antiques sculptures and various figures . Measurements with frame cm 75 x101