An Estuary with Fishing Boats and Two Frigates
- Artist: Jan van Goyen
- Date: about 1650-6
- Medium: oil on wood
- Museum: The National Gallery
- Collection record: The National Gallery website
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About this artwork
This is "An Estuary with Fishing Boats and Two Frigates" by Jan van Goyen, painted in the Dutch north. The painting shows a scene of everyday life in 17th-century Holland, but what really stands out are the two frigates in the distance.
Frigates were light warships that protected the merchant vessels that brought wealth to the small but powerful nation. Van Goyen has placed them almost centrally, with a clear sweep of water between them and us – it’s as if everything has moved aside to allow them freedom of the waterways.
The sea is calm, the reflections on its surface clear and barely rippled, even the gun smoke is mirrored as if there’s another cannon firing under the water. The men in the small boats go about their tasks or sit, simply taking in the view. But they don't look at the departing frigates: to them, the ships have become a part of everyday life.
Notice how van Goyen has given us both a panoramic view and many minute details. Two fishing nets stand up like transparent flags in the larger boat out by the little island. Big round baskets await a catch in the rowing boat close to us. Beside it, a bare branch seems to curve round to point the way for the two frigates.
This picture is quiet and serene, but somehow buoyant and full of hope. With the towering sails on the departing ships, the tiny Dutch flag fluttering from the fishing boat, and the upward sweep of the sunlit clouds, it's a poetic vision of the Dutch landscape that holds the gaze and appeals to the imagination.
See it in person
An Estuary with Fishing Boats and Two Frigates hangs in The National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London — free to enter. Point your phone at any artwork there and audioguide.london plays a free audio guide in six languages — no app download needed.
