Shipping in a stormy sea off a rocky coast

The Low Countries were preeminently a naval nation that owed its unprecedented prosperity to maritime trade and which brought about an enormous production of seascapes. Within the compass of marine painting the theme of stormy seas occupied a substantial portion of the total output from the outset. Early seventeenthcentury tempest scenes often include allusions to human fate. Nonetheless, it is the realism in which this message is wrapped that has remained the most striking and inherent aspect of these depictions. In the course of the century the portrayal of weather conditions, atmosphere, light and water attained an even greater degree of naturalism. Aernout Smit is a late exponent of this tradition and indeed the stormy weather in his paintings boasts a sense of realism that could make the beholder quiver.