| One of the most important sea painters active in Holland in the second half of the seventeenth century, Bakhuysen was born in Germany and arrived in Holland around 1650 to study business. He was probably the pupil of Allan van Everdingen* and Hendrick Jacobsz Dubbels.* He was the chief rival of Willem van de Velde the Younger, and he became Amsterdam's leading sea painter after the two van de Veldes left for England. Dated works are known from 1658, and he was productive to the very end of his life. Van de Velde's grisaille drawing technique had an effect on Bakhuysen in the early 1650s. His early pictures are tonal studies, achieving a monochromatic effect with their touches of gray-brown and pink. He generally painted scenes of wreckage, featuring choppy or stormy seas. In the 1660s he developed a glazing technique to achieve blue-gray seas, wide skies, and the sharp contrasting of light and shaded areas for composition. In his late phase, those dramatic effects lessened and his palette warmed. Though he is sometimes criticized for being a less sensitive interpreter of nature than van de Velde, Bakhuysen is nevertheless among the first rank of marine painters. He is warmly described by Houbraken* as quiet, industrious, and respectable. He was known as a kind, generous person who at his death left a large sum for a great wake to be held by his friends in Amsterdam. In his best work, Bakhuysen was a sensitive, poetic, devoted observer of nature's moods. Works such as Haarlem Lake (signed, Amsterdam, Historisch Museum) confirm Houbraken's assertion that Bakhuysen had himself taken out to sea so he could observe directly the changes that took place under stormy conditions. |
