Hendrik Willem Mesdag (Dutch, 1831-1915)
Fishing boats in stormy weather

signed 'H.W Mesdag' (lower right)
oil on canvas

Unframed: 31.5 x 42.5 cm. (12 3/8 x 16 3/4 in.) Framed: 54 x 64 cm. (21 1/4 x 25 1/4 in.)

Gifted by the artist to Johanna Croiset van der Kop (1861-1943) and Max Behrend
Thence by descent
By whom sold, Vendu, Rotterdam, 10 November 2020, lot 196
Where acquired by the present owner
Private collection, London

Literature:
Johan Poort, Hendrik Willem Mesdag, 1831-1915, Wassenaar, 1997, no. 30.41, reproduced.

Hendrik Willem Mesdag became one of the Netherland’s most significant maritime painters of the nineteenth century and major contributor to The Hague School. Initially employed as a banker, Mesdag made the transition to an artist at the age of 35 and turned to his second cousin Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema for guidance. Mesdag studied under Willem Roelofs in Brussels from 1866, his plein-air painting developed an atmospheric appreciation of light and tone that contrasted with the romanticized seascapes created by earlier Dutch painters. In May 1869, Mesdag moved to The Hague, making the beach at nearby Scheveningen his main subject. International success soon followed, as he received a gold medal at the Paris Salon of 1870 for Breakers in the North Sea (Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam).

Mesdag’s work is defined by a disciplined realism; his paintings often depict the North Sea’s harsh, untamed character through dense, textured brushstrokes and dark pigments as seen in the present example. The artist would frequently work outside in difficult weather, giving his paintings a sense of immediacy that was uncommon among many of his contemporaries.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, he and his wife, Sientje Mesdag-van Houten (also a celebrated artist), amassed an impressive collection of paintings, drawings and applied arts that now exists as The Mesdag Collection Museum, The Hague. His legacy also lives on through his and his wife’s panorama project, completed in 1881. The work is 14 metres high and about 40 metres in diameter (120 metres in circumference), and is housed in a purpose-built museum in The Hague. The panorama is now the oldest surviving panorama in its original location. (1)

This painting was gifted by the artist to his close friend, Johanna Behrend-Croiset van der Kop. Johanna was an artist and befriended the Mesdags during her time at the local art academy in The Hague where she graduated in 1884. Sientje Mesdag guided Johanna through the early stages of her artistic career and would go on to buy many of her works. Her first studio was a room in Museum Mesdag. It was here that she not only drew with Sientje but also learned the art of etching from Barbara van Houten. Later, she had her own studio on the Bazarlaan in The Hague. Johanna also regularly travelled to Paris with the Mesdags, where art was purchased for the couple's extensive collection. In 1897, Johanna married the German actor Max Behrend and subsequently moved to Germany.

References:
1. McKernan, Luke (2024), Christie, Ian (ed.), "Panoramic Space and the Mesdag Show", Spaces, Exploring Spatial Experiences of Representation and Reception in Screen Media, Amsterdam University Press, pp. 23–28