Exhibition: The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea

From across the sea, an art revolution is coming. Discover the art of the Van de Veldes at the Queen's House.

The National Maritime Museum holds the largest collection of the Van de Veldes’ artwork in the world and is a longstanding centre of Van de Velde expertise.

This exhibition celebrates these forgotten masters and their practice, marking 350 years since they arrived in England. It also reveals how the family’s legacy as renowned émigré artists transformed British visual culture and inspired future generations of artists including J.M.W. Turner.

Following Het Rampjaar, or the Disaster Year of 1672, the Van de Veldes moved from the Netherlands to England at the invitation of Charles II, who awarded them a salary equivalent to that of his ‘Principal Painter’, Sir Peter Lely, and a studio at the Queen’s House. Together, they became the founders of the English school of marine painting.

From their Queen’s House studio, their home for twenty years, the Van de Veldes revolutionised marine painting in Britain and established a genre that persists today. By looking closely at the techniques and materials the father and son team employed, as well as the physical environment in which they worked, this exhibition will explain not only why they were two of the most esteemed artists, but also how.

One of the most important objects in the exhibition will be the newly conserved painting, A Royal Visit to the Fleet. It was worked on in their studio at the Queen’s House in the 1670s and, at almost four metres across, was the largest seascape Van de Velde the Younger had painted to date. The scale of the painting coupled with a low viewpoint lends it a dramatic, panoramic quality. Following two years of conservation, this commanding painting shows why the legacy of the Van de Veldes helped define English marine painting for the next two hundred years.

Also returning to display in this exhibition will be The Burning of the Royal James at the Battle of Solebay, 28 May 1672, otherwise known as ‘The Solebay Tapestry’. Originally part of a set of six, it is the only Solebay Tapestry in the collection at the Queen’s House, where the original cartoons were first designed by Van de Velde the Elder. In February 2022, Royal Museums Greenwich partnered with the Art Fund to crowdfund £15,000 to save the Solebay Tapestry. The campaign broke records, reaching its target in a single day. This monumental tapestry has been saved from further deterioration and is able to return to display for the first time in over twenty years.

Displayed alongside these monumental works will be a selection of the 1400 drawings from the National Maritime Museum’s collection.

Ian has Visited - review here.