Bomschuiten at sea, Scheveningen

Born as the son of a banker, Hendrik Willem Mesdag was raised to follow in his father's footsteps, but already at a young age he was more interested in drawing and painting. Mesdag, however, doubting his own talents and apprehensive of the insecure existence of an artist, decided to join his father's company only to leave his job in 1866 to start working as a professional painter. He decided to move to Brussels, where his cousin Laurens Alma Tadema (1836-1912) would teach him, as well as the acclaimed artists Willem Roelofs (1822-1897). Though his raw realist approach to painting was more appreciated by the Belgian critics than by the Dutch, his representations of the subjects he found around his house, did not receive the appraisal he wanted.

It was during a holiday on the German isle of Norderey in 1868 that he started to make a large number of sketches of the sea for the first time, which he used as the basis for his paintings. Colleagues and critics alike eulogized these works and Mesdag had found the subject that he would return to throughout his career: the sea. Mesdag and his wife, the artist Sientje Mesdag-van Houten moved to The Hague where he could study the sea daily.

Mesdag was not accepted unconditionally at Pulchri Studio, the main platform for painters of the Hague School and was considered critically. This attitude altered when Mesdag's change of theme brought him international fame, winning the golden medal at the Paris Salon in 1870 with his monumental Les Brisants de la Mer du Nord. His rendering of the North Sea made a strong and positive impression on many critics. Mesdag preferred to show common fisher folk, a presupposition that is enhanced by his mesmerizing the 'old days.' However, towards the end of the 19th Century an important shift in the working method of fishermen occurred. For centuries 'bomschuiten' had been used. These vessels were twice as long as they were broad, with a flat hull so that they could be dragged onto the beach for the night. Around this time faster and more agile boats that required deep harbours to moor became available. Mesdag deeply lamented this and continued to paint the picturesque bomschuiten, even though in 1896 when the present lot was executed, the beach was dominated by the new vessels.