Bakhuizen was born in Emden; in about 1650 he settled in Amsterdam. He specialised in seascapes, almost invariably with rough water.
After the departure of van de Velde for England in 1672, he was the leading marine painter in Holland. He died in Amsterdam.
Ludolf Bakhuizen
1630/1 - 1708
Paintings by Ludolf Bakhuizen
A small fishing boat tosses on a choppy sea close to the shore, its crew energetically poling their vessel away from the clinging shingle. High puffy clouds soar and spiral in a bright sky, the surf below running fast on to the beach and ebbing to leave wet sand behind.Once a calligrapher, Bakhui...
Ludolf Bakhuizen rarely made his seas calm or sunlit. His is a northern sea with boats scudding before the wind, evoking the sound of straining timbers and slapping rigging.The vessel speeding towards the distant man-of-war (battleship) is a snaauwschip – a dispatch boat. The man-of-war is at anc...
Not on display
Exciting pictures of ships pounded by high waves with a threatening sky overhead were Ludolf Bakhuizen’s speciality. One of the finest of the late seventeenth-century Dutch marine painters, his skills in portraying the turbulence of the sea were famous. The sea in Bakhuizen’s pictures has real de...
Not on display
A fresh breeze, a choppy sea – sails billow, flags fly high and proud. This painting is a piece of patriotic propaganda.The man-of-war (or battleship) at anchor on the left in the Mediterranean harbour flies the Dutch flag at its stern. Only one sail is furled and the gun ports are open with the...
Not on display
Towering storm clouds threaten vessels fighting choppy waves on the Zuiderzee – once an inlet of the North Sea in the north coast of the Netherlands. The man-of-war (battleship) sailing away from us on the right flies the Dutch flag and has the arms of Amsterdam on its stern, as does the smaller...
Not on display
The great ship running before the wind in the centre of Bakhuizen’s picture is the Eendracht, one of the most famous vessels in the Dutch Navy. Built in 1653, the Eendracht was the 76-gun flagship of Lieutenant-Admiral Jacob van Wassenaer van Obdam.Bakhuizen painted the Eendracht several times bu...
Not on display