Oil on canvas, 'Coast Scene', Attributed to Pieter Mulier the Younger (Cavalier Tempesta), 1770-1780

Coast scene with an English Galion sailing on a rough sea while soldiers are making a fire in the shore; rocks and trees on the left, mountains in the right background with a citadel receding into the distance.

Bequeathed by Sir Erasmus Wilson

Bequeathed by Sir Erasmus Wilson, 1886

Historical significance: Formerly identified by C.M. Kauffmann as 'Manner of Salvator Rosa', this painting shows more convincing similarities with the Dutch painter Pieter Mulier the Younger (Dr R. Quarm, National Maritime Museum, London, and Dr Marcel Rothlisberger, written communication, Aug. 2010), called Cavalier Tempesta, who specialised in landscape and marine paintings in stormy weather, hence his nickname ('tempesta' stands for storm in Italian).
The present painting shows an English Galion trapped on an agitated sea, while on the foreground at shore, a group of soldiers are firing a brazier. On each side, the picture is framed by rocky vegetation while in the right background a citadel on a promontory dominates the coast-line.
The influence of Rosa is quite tangible in this picture and appears through a general liveliness, the gracefulness of the image and in the painterly freedom of the brushwork in the foliage, clouds and skies depicted in a vivid colouring. Rosa also provided the model for this type of coast views that would become recurrent in Tempesta's oeuvre. In particular, Tempesta would repeat this compositional scheme that proved enormously successful, i.e. a promontory with an architectural structure on the right background with an agitated sea in the foreground with sometimes a genre scene at shore in such pictures as Sea Storm, Musée de Picardie, Amiens and Coast view, Isola Bella. According to Dr Rothlisberger, the style is close to Tempesta's Genoese years, about 1770-1780.
The presence of soldiers at shore and the English Galion allude most certainly to the Anglo-Dutch war, a series of wars fought between the English (later British) and the Dutch in the 17th and 18th centuries for control over the seas and trade routes.
This work is a good example of marine pictures that would dominate the entire century to come, from Montanini, Reschi, J. de Heusch to Manglard, J. Vernet, J. Goupy and so many others.

Marine paintings present sea subjects with particular attention to ships and shipping. When marine painting emerged as a distinct genre, in the 17th-century Dutch Republic, the initial focus was on large, publicly commissioned history paintings commemorating naval engagements against the Spanish and important political and commercial events. It was initiated by Vroom and from the 1620s a huge market developed for smaller marine paintings, by such artists as Porcellis, de Vlieger, van de Cappelle, and van de Velde the younger, in which the interest lies in the broader depiction of atmospheric effects and the behaviour of the sea in various conditions. The Anglo-Dutch Wars (1652-74) revived interest in publicly commissioned historical painting, and after both Willem van de Velde and his son were appointed as painters to Charles II, the market in marine painting had moved to London. The early marine paintings of Turner were in conscious and evident emulation of Dutch painters such as van de Cappelle and van de Velde the younger, but Turner's more dramatic vision inspired the next generation of marine artists, and he superseded van de Velde as their model. His influence is apparent in the work of many marine artists, such as Edward William Cooke (1811-80), and Clarkson Stanfield (1793-1867), who continued to flourish in England throughout the 19th century.

Formerly catalogued as 'Manner of Salvator Rosa'

Pieter Mulier the Younger also called Cavalier Tempesta or Pietro Tempesta (1637-1701) was the son of Pieter Mulier the Elder (c. 1615-70). He grew up in Haarlem and was trained and decisively influenced by his father, a marine painter who trained under Simon de Vlieger (1601-1653). At the age of 19, he journeyed to Rome where he was to remain for a dozen years and came back in 1684 for the rest of his life.

This work is a fine example of marine paintings executed by Pietro Tempesta, a Dutch artist who spent a great deal of time in Italy and was influenced by Italian artists, notably by Salvator Rosa. The picture shows a coast scene with an English Galion sailing on a rough sea while soldiers are making a fire in the shore; rocks and trees are on the left, counterbalanced by a citadel in the middle distance, overlooking the coast-line. The scene can be related to the Anglo-Dutch war, a subject matter favoured by Dutch artists during the 17th century.

1295-1886