How you can use this image
This image can be used for non-commercial research or private study purposes, and other UK exceptions to copyright permitted to users based in the United Kingdom under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, as amended and revised. Any other type of use will need to be cleared with the rights holder(s).
Review the copyright credit lines that are located underneath the image, as these indicate who manages the copyright (©) within the artwork, and the photographic rights within the image.
The collection that owns the artwork may have more information on their own website about permitted uses and image licensing options.
Review our guidance pages which explain how you can reuse images, how to credit an image and how to find images in the public domain or with a Creative Commons licence available.
Notes
Add or edit a note on this artwork that only you can see. You can find notes again by going to the ‘Notes’ section of your account.
A fleet of ships is shown near a rocky coast. One of them is shown with its sails half down, clawing to windward off the land. A large rock rises vertically in the centre and beyond it is a coastline with a sheer rock face. A Dutch ship on the right, with carved lions visible on the stern, is foundering under the cliff and waves are shown pounding against its side. Its masts have broken off and sailors are preparing to jump from it into the water. In the waves, left of centre, is a ship's boat laden down with men. There is a small beach in the foreground on the right with men approaching the water's edge, both to help the survivors and retrieve wreckage. Nature is shown at its most threatening to man, indicated by the jagged flash of lightning highlighted against the dark, menacing sky.
Vlieger is of interest in this regard as the first Dutch marine artist to introduce the motif of a rocky arch over water, which may stand as a symbol of hope. Alternatively, where rocks are shown in association with cliffs they can constitute a deadly danger to man. The power of a storm can either undermine and destroy the seemingly immovable, or else be emblematic of God's supreme power. Such an ambivalent reading is implied in this painting, where one ship has already succumbed to the treachery of the rocks. Yet at the same time the presence of land can also be the means of salvation for the men on board, the two figures onshore endorsing this duality of interpretation.
Title
A Ship Wrecked off a Rocky Coast
Date
1640
Medium
oil on panel
Measurements
H 75 x W 101.6 cm
Accession number
BHC0773
Work type
Painting
National Maritime Museum
Romney Road, Greenwich, London, Greater London SE10 9NF England
-
Dutch Men of War at Anchor The Bowes Museum -
Fishing Boats in a Rough Sea National Maritime Museum -
Shipping off the English Coast National Maritime Museum -
The 'Brederode' off Hellevoetsluis National Maritime Museum -
A Ship Wrecked off a Rocky Coast National Maritime Museum -
Ships Becalmed on a Rocky Coast National Maritime Museum -
Dutch Ships Revictualling off a Rocky Coast National Maritime Museum - 19 more