Lost Masterpiece by Dutch Golden Age Painter Sells for Over £52,000

11th September 2025

A long-lost seascape by Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633–1707), one of the most important marine painters of the Dutch Golden Age, has sold for £52,070 (with auction fees), surpassing its £8,000–£12,000 pre-sale estimate. Titled, Men-o-war becalmed offshore and drying their sails, the painting had been unseen for over 300 years and is thought to have been in the same English family collection since the 18th century. It dates from around 1680–1685, during Van de Velde’s time working in England after moving there with his father Willem Van de Velde the Elder (1610/11-1693), in circa 1672, on the invitation of King Charles II.

The work sold in the Old Masters, British & European Paintings sale on 3^rd September, attracting intense international interest, with one bidder flying in from Europe and five phone lines engaged during the sale. It finally sold to a UK private collector.

The painting had long been suspected to exist. In 1990, maritime art historian, Michael S. Robinson, included in his catalogue raisonné of the paintings of the Elder and Younger Willem van de Velde, a painting in a private Dutch collection that is almost identical in composition to the right-hand side of this work. (See M. Robinson, Van de Velde: a catalogue of the paintings of the elder and the younger Willem van de Velde (London, 1990, p.701, no.695). The paintings specialists at Woolley and Wallis next consulted leading Van de Velde expert, Dr Remmelt Daalder, who remarked that the painting clearly displayed all the hallmarks of the artist’s mature style, including the low horizon, carefully grouped ships and subtle lighting.

“The group of warships on the left and the inland vessel on the right, are prominently displayed.... Besides the composition, this canvas shows an important characteristic of this artist, the subtle way the sails are lightened up by the sun, especially on the warship on the left. That sunlight is slightly filtered by the partial clouds in a high sky. This gives the scene an extra summer accent.”

After the successful sale, Woolley and Wallis paintings specialist Ed Beer commented:

“This discovery is both thrilling and historically significant. It enriches our understanding of one of the greatest marine painters and the maritime world of the 17th century.”

The maritime painting was consigned from the collection of John Edward Rudge (1903-1970), descended from Edward Rudge FRS (1763-1846), a renowned 18th-century botanist and antiquary who was a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and assembled a superb collection of Old Master prints which were sold at Christie's in 1924.

This rediscovered masterpiece is a rare and important addition to Van de Velde’s known body of work and was a highlight of the autumn Old Masters auction. Substantial collections of Van de Velde's paintings and drawings are held in the National Gallery, National Maritime Museum and the Wallace Collection, all in London; the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam; and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC.