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During the first half of his career, Willem van de Velde the Younger specialized in painting calms such as the present painting. In the right centre is a small merchant ship at anchor, her sails loosed to dry in the light breeze. In the left foreground is a small kaag, or fishing boat, its mainsail and flags fluttering slightly, echoing those of the larger but more distant ship. The sea is calm, only the gentlest ripples marring its smooth surface, and the banked clouds serve more as a visual contrast to the blue sky than as harbingers of a storm.
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