The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea

Fascinating exhibition at the Queen’s House in Greenwich looking at the work of father and son painters the Van de Veldes.

The painters specialised in sea and ship pictures and were brought over from the Netherlands by Charles II where he had probably known them when he was in exile. He gave them a studio in the Queen’s House so it was magical to see the paintings in the buildings they were probably painted in.

The centre piece of the show was a recently conserved tapestry designed by them and commissioned by Charles II of the Battle of Solebay. It looked glorious and made you realise the richness of tapestry. Standing in front of it you felt like you were in the battle.

I must admit as art they were exquisite but a bit repetitive however the most interesting aspect was the light it shone on studio practice at the time. The artists kept a large collection of drawings which they used to build they compositions. These included detailed studies of particular ships. In the last section there was a recreation of their studio which was magical to an art history nerd like me.

One moan though is the complicated lay out of the show. I ended up going twice as I realised I’d missed a bit. It starts on the 2nd floor then moves down to the back of the first floor which is only accessible by a particular staircase. You then have to exit by going back up the said stairs and down in the main building. I did blag my way onto the accessible route the second time I went to save going up and down again.

Closes 14 January 2024


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