Willem van de Velde the Elder specialised in pen paintings - scenes drawn with the pen on a support prepared with a white ground. In his early years he drew naval battles and ship portraits with the pen on vellum. When he began to find that support too cramped he developed a similar technique for canvas and panel, producing works which most closely resemble paintings in black and white, with the difference that they were done not with a brush but with the pen alone. He was particularly sought after by senior naval officers keen to have a memento of a victory at sea.
This painting was probably ordered by Cornelis Tromp who played a key role in the Battle of Livorno. The naval battle took place on 14 March 1653, during the First Anglo-Dutch War, near Leghorn (Livorno), Italy. It was a victory of a Dutch fleet under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton.
The painting is in a frame of ebony veneer with gilt appliqués.
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