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Royal Museums Greenwich comprises the National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House, Royal Observatory and Cutty Sark. They are also home to The Prince Philip Maritime Collections Centre and the Caird Library and Archive.
Royal Museums Greenwich has an extensive collection of Dutch and Flemish paintings, drawings, and prints, mostly dating from the seventeenth century. This collection includes portraits, topographical views, and genre scenes, but naval and maritime subjects are its greatest strength. Recognised internationally as one of the finest collections of its kind, the museum holds some 400 examples of seventeenth-century Dutch and Flemish marine painting. Among the artists represented are Jan Porcellis, Ludolf Backhuysen, and Simon de Vlieger, as well as the Willem van de Veldes, Elder and Younger, of whose works the museum has a particularly outstanding collection, encompassing around 90 paintings and over 1500 drawings. Highlights from the Dutch and Flemish collections are displayed in the Queen’s House in Greenwich, where visitors can also see the room in which the Van de Veldes had their studio after relocating to England in the winter of 1672–73.
Dr. Katherine Gazzard, Curator of Art Post-1800 (June 2021)
Related CODART publications
Clara de la Peña McTigue, “Van de Velde Drawings at the National Maritime Museum: Looking at Conservation and Technical Research”, CODARTfeatures, December 2014.