Lot 105: Wigerus Vitringa (Leeuwarden 1657-1725 Wirdum)

Shipping in a swell
signed 'LB' (lower right)
oil on canvas
55.7 x 75.3 cm.

Anonymous sale; Paul Brandt, Amsterdam, 20-3 May 1969.

The present composition bears the initials 'LB' which suggests that Vitringa painted it as a work from the studio of Ludolf Backhuysen. In addition, the scene of the ship in broken water in the foreground was one of the studio's most popular used images. Vitringa's studio works are considered his most accomplished. The works he painted after he left Backhuysen's studio, often bear his signature and are inferior in quality.

Dr. De Beer compares the present composition to a signed and dated marine painting of 1690 in the Gemäldegalerie der Akademie der Bildenden Künste, Vienna; and the painting by Vitringa of 1693 that was offered with Francois de Ricqlès, Paris, 8 June 1994, lot 73.

We are grateful to Dr. Gerlinde de Beer for suggesting the attribution to Wigerus Vitringa and for her assistance in cataloguing this lot.

Christie's charge a premium to the buyer on the final bid price of each lot sold at the following rates: 23.8% of the final bid price of each lot sold up to and including € 150,000 and 14.28% of any amount in exces of € 150,000. Buyers' premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.