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Ludolf Bakhuysen
Dutch, 1631 - 1708
Painter, draughtsman, calligrapher, engraver. Religious subjects, portraits, genre scenes, seascapes, landscapes, winter landscapes.
There is little consensus on the spelling of this artist's name. It has been written variously as Backhuisen, Backhuizen and even Backhysen. Ludolf Bakhuyzen the Elder worked as a calligrapher for a commercial firm in his native town of Emden up to the age of 18. Encouraged by the sale of some drawings he went to Amsterdam and joined the studio of the landscape artist Albert van Everdingen, and later that of Hendrick Dubbels. He soon abandoned landscape painting to concentrate exclusively on seascapes and became a renowned artist during his lifetime. His reputation was such that he was sought by the most powerful monarchs of Europe to teach them art. His distinguished pupils included Tsar Peter the Great, the king of Prussia, the elector of Saxony and probably the grand duke of Tuscany. These rulers commissioned many paintings from Bakhuyzen. Right up to his death the artist demonstrated a forceful determination, even making all his funeral arrangements himself. When he died he left 78 florins to his friends so that they could enjoy a banquet after his death.
In 1665 he was commissioned by the city of Amsterdam to execute a painting to be given as a gift by the municipality to the French minister Hugues de Lionne. This work, Port of Amsterdam, is now in the Louvre. His chief works include Sudden Squall, also in the Louvre and Rough Seas in the Amsterdam museum.
Bakhuyzen has sometimes been likened to van den Velde but the comparison is not altogether justified, as there are fundamental differences in the way the two artists view the sea. While van den Velde paints calm seas, Bakhuyzen enjoys capturing heavy swells, stormy skies and crashing waves. Although his approach has none of the luminous transparency or harmony of van den Velde's seascapes, his striving for precision and tendency towards modern realism more than compensate for this. Bakhuyzen was a conscientious artist and is believed to have braved bad weather, going out in a small craft to the mouth of the Rhine on stormy evenings to study from nature the effects of the moonlight on the breaking waves. Although he specialised in seascapes, he was also a talented portrait artist and accomplished engraver, particularly during the final years of his life. A fine series of etchings he produced at the age of 71 survives.
"BAKHUYZEN, Ludolf, the Elder." In Benezit Dictionary of Artists. Oxford Art Online, http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.fsu.edu/subscriber/article/benezit/B00010436 (accessed May 3, 2012).
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