DOI chapter:
Ludolph Backhuyzen
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62940#0418
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LUDOLPII BACKHUYZEN.
Having attained a certain degree of excellence and
reputation in the peculiar style already described, he
procured from Albert Van Everdingen some lessons in
oil painting: but he is said to have received the greatest
assistance from Hendrick Dubbels, an artist of extensive
knowledge in marine subjects, who, being of a kind
and communicative disposition, readily imparted to the
young student all the instruction he required. In
fact, it may be said, that Dubbels was the master of
Backhuyzen. Once possessed of the method of using his
materials, a considerable obstacle in the road to same was
removed, and nature afterwards became his only guide.
Convinced of this, he was constant in his visits to the
sea shore, observing the restless element, and marking
the effects on its surface by neighbouring objects,
accidental circumstances, or natural events. Not, how-
ever, satisfied with observing in safety the turbulence
of the agitated ocean when vexed with storms, he
would encounter the danger, for the purpose of more
accurately observing the action and effect. To attain
this object, he would venture out to sea during the
most tremendous weather, and calmly survey the raging
tempest and its tumultuous motion ; and his mind being
fully impressed with the grandeur and sublimity of the
scene, he would land, and hasten to his painting room,
and there commit to the canvas the magnificent scenes
he had witnessed. Hence his storm pieces have more
grandeur and effect than those by any other artist, and to
the same cause must be attributed the infinite variety
observable in his pictures. At the same time, his exten-
LUDOLPII BACKHUYZEN.
Having attained a certain degree of excellence and
reputation in the peculiar style already described, he
procured from Albert Van Everdingen some lessons in
oil painting: but he is said to have received the greatest
assistance from Hendrick Dubbels, an artist of extensive
knowledge in marine subjects, who, being of a kind
and communicative disposition, readily imparted to the
young student all the instruction he required. In
fact, it may be said, that Dubbels was the master of
Backhuyzen. Once possessed of the method of using his
materials, a considerable obstacle in the road to same was
removed, and nature afterwards became his only guide.
Convinced of this, he was constant in his visits to the
sea shore, observing the restless element, and marking
the effects on its surface by neighbouring objects,
accidental circumstances, or natural events. Not, how-
ever, satisfied with observing in safety the turbulence
of the agitated ocean when vexed with storms, he
would encounter the danger, for the purpose of more
accurately observing the action and effect. To attain
this object, he would venture out to sea during the
most tremendous weather, and calmly survey the raging
tempest and its tumultuous motion ; and his mind being
fully impressed with the grandeur and sublimity of the
scene, he would land, and hasten to his painting room,
and there commit to the canvas the magnificent scenes
he had witnessed. Hence his storm pieces have more
grandeur and effect than those by any other artist, and to
the same cause must be attributed the infinite variety
observable in his pictures. At the same time, his exten-