A three-masted merchant ship, possibly a fluyt, is shown, in the centre, labouring before a storm in an open sea. It is in convoy with two other vessels. Two of the sails on the principal ship are spread and the mainsail is temporarily out of control after breaking loose in the wind. The topsails and lateen mizzen are furled. The foresail is drawing with the yard half lowered. Figures, facing leeward, can be seen attending to the rigging on the deck. On the left a square-rigged, single-masted boat follows astern of the leading ship. In this vessel a small figure, clothed in lambent red, is seated. The image is a consummate display of draughtsmanship. On the far left another large ship, travels under billowing main- and fore-courses, into the centre of the painting and towards the chaos generated by the gale. A barrel can be seen floating in the waves in the right foreground. The stern of another ship is faintly visible on the far right of the composition. The rest of this vessel has been cut off by the edge of the painting. As in other works by Porcellis (see BHC0719 and BHC0720) the emphasis is less on the ships themselves than upon the atmospheric effects of sky, clouds, air and water. The sky occupies half the scene. On the right dark clouds enhance the atmospheric effect. All aspects of the painting are rendered in virtually identical shades of dark grey. As the sea meets sky at the horizon, in the middle of the painting, the two merge into one another. Only the foamy white crests of the waves distinguish the sky from sea.

The painting is a masterful example of the graeuwtjes or ‘little-grey-in-grey-paintings’ which became an instantly recognizable mainstay of Porcellis’ work during his sojourn in Antwerp. In Thomas de Keyser’s portrait of Constantijn Huygens, 1627, (National Gallery, London) a framed painting above Huygens’ mantelpiece is probably such a work by Porcellis. Indeed the painting depicted on Huygens’s mantelpiece resembles closely the present painting. That a noted artist and connoisseur like Huygens should choose to be depicted next to the work of Porcellis is indicative of the marine painter’s high standing among his contemporaries. More significantly, the works of Porcellis were to be found in large numbers in the personal collections of numerous artist-collectors including Rubens, Rembrandt and Allaert van Everdingen.

There are different ways to look at this situation of a ship in a storm because the mainsail that has got loose can express quite opposite things. It can show either the helplessness of humans in the hands of God or it can demonstrate the outstanding sailing techniques of the Dutch people. It is probable that the skilled Dutch sailors loosened the mainsail to keep the ship under control. This is suggested by M. Russell in a review of the book of L.O. Goedde of 1989 in 'Burlington Magazine' 132, 1990, p.423-4. Elsewhere the ship, depicted in this painting, is described as the ship of soul or the ship of fate. Christopher Brown has suggested that the painting may be read as an allegory of faith. He alludes obliquely to Hulsius’s ‘Emblemata sacra’. Hulsius’s text, published in the Netherlands in 1631, depicts an analogous image. It is accompanied by Psalm 107:23–32 as well as the declaration that God ‘commands and raises the stormy wind’ and that, by the same token, God also ‘calms the storm’.

Jan Porcellis has long enjoyed the reputation established for him by the seventeenth century artist and author Samuel van Hoogstraten, who hailed him as ‘the great Raphael of sea painting’. The son of a Flemish Protestant captain, Porcellis was probably born around 1584 in the city of Ghent. Where – and with whom – he trained remains unknown. Although Houbraken asserted that he was apprenticed in Haarlem to Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom. A lack of documentary evidence surrounding Porcellis’ early work, coupled with a distinct incongruity between the works of the two artists, has made this statement difficult to substantiate. Porcellis is likely to have lived and worked in both London and Rotterdam during the early seventeenth century, before leaving to find greater professional success in Antwerp. He entered the Antwerp Guild of St Luke in 1617, before moving back to Haarlem in 1622. Porcellis became an immensely successful painter, whose wise investments included several properties in the town of Zoeterwoude. His final pictures were painted in 1631 and he died in January 1632. This painting is signed on the barrel on the right with monogram 'IP'.