Pieter van de Velde or Pieter van Velden
There seems to reign some confusion about 2 Flemish marine painters who sometimes signed their paintings “Pieter van de Velde” or “Pieter van Velden”. Until recently the works of both these painters, whose styles can easily be distinguished, were grouped under the sole name of Pieter van de Velde.
Jan De Maere in his "Illustrated Dictionary of 17th Century Flemish Painters", Brussels 1994, page 407 rightly suggests that there must have been a second homonymous painter active until well into the 18th century.
That means then that:
- the eldest of the two was born in Antwerp in 1634 and he probably died there in 1707. He was influenced by two important Flemish marine painters, the brothers Bonaventura I (Antwerp 1614 – Hoboken 1652) and Jan I Peeters (Antwerp 1624 – 1677 or 1680 Antwerp). The figure staffage in his paintings is sometimes given David Teniers II or to Erasmus Quellinus II;
- the youngest of the two was active until the very end of the 1720-ies. He seems to have undergone the influence of the eldest Pieter van de Velde, might he have been his son? His figures are more naïve, like little puppets, which he must have painted himself.
Our paintings should clearly be attributed to Pieter van de Velde the Younger.
Both artists painted ships on the North Sea and on the Mediterranean, in general Dutch ships.
