In this painting, which is the pair to BHC0732, three ships are shown in a rough sea. Unlike its calm and serene companion picture, this painting depicts ships travelling under reduced sail through unruly waters. The vessel on the left is shown in starboard broadside. Its sails are down as it rides out the storm and it displays flags which are too indistinct to identify. The ship in the centre is, also, shown in starboard broadside with the main course and fore topmast hoisted. It flies the Dutch flag from the stern and main mast. The vessel pitches precariously over large, swirling waves which threaten to engulf it and is simultaneously pummelled by a strong wind blowing in from the left. The artist has shown the roughness of the waves by exaggerating the angle of the pitch of the ship. The vessel on the right is shown in stern view, flying a Dutch flag at the main. In spite of its ungainly position, the focal ship is fastidiously executed, testifying to de Verwer’s training in drawing as well as painting. Precisely drawn figures are dotted haphazardly about the deck while a lone figure clambers up the rigging to attend to the sails.

The practice of painting with oils on copper was well suited to the production of resplendent, polished images that merited close and careful examination within a domestic context. In the early seventeenth century, the widespread practice of painting in oil on copper reflected changes in taste, artistic convention, the advance in mining and manufacturing technology, the economy, and the desire for small paintings. The explosive growth of the practice saw the development of the dazzling visual effects that could be achieved and painting on copper flourished in this climate. Together with its pair, this painting is intended to show contrasting stormy and calm scenes with moralistic overtones and is typical of such works of the period. The paintings are in the Flemish or Antwerp tradition of artists such as Jan Brueghel, 1568-1625, the son of Pieter Brueghel the Elder, known as 'Velvet' Brueghel from the practice he had learnt while in Rome. He achieved fame for his detailed landscapes and often collaborated with other artists notably Peter Paul Rubens.

This pair of paintings by de Verwer, which have been tentatively dated to around 1625, is highly unusual within the context of his other known works. The ships are proportionately smaller and appear more cumbersome in execution and the overall effect is considerably more stylized and graphic. The horizon of the paintings is, also, markedly higher and land is nowhere to be seen. Indeed, the tightly curled waves and compact rendering of froth which fill this particular depiction of the sea are glaringly absent from de Verwer’s accepted oeuvre. They do, however, have a considerable affinity with the early marine paintings of Jan Porcellis. Compositionally, the painting is comparable with Cornelisz Verbeeck’s portrayal of the same subject (BHC0769). In both paintings, the ships’ sails appear wide and low (the yards being half-lowered), figures are visible on the decks and the rigging is painted in considerable detail. Where Verbeeck’s execution is crisp, however, de Verwer’s is softer and less distinct.

Abraham de Verwer – a Haarlem-born artist often referred to as Abraham de Verwer van Burghstrate – made his name in the early seventeenth century as a cabinet-maker as well as a painter of landscapes and marines. By 1607, he was living in Amsterdam, married to a woman named Barbara Sillevoorts which has led to the conclusion that he was probably born in around 1585. De Verwer was first recorded as working as a painter in Amsterdam in 1617, and in the 1620s, was commissioned by the Amsterdam Admiralty to depict a scene from the Battle of Gibraltar (1607). By 1639, however, de Verwer had left the city to work in Antwerp and later Paris. Drawings produced by the artist at this time support the idea that he travelled widely in France. In the 1640s, he returned to Amsterdam, where he remained until his death in 1650. He was the master of the marine painter Hendrick Dubbels. The painting is signed 'Verwer'.