(Updated, March 2021) This painting is the finest example of van Eertvelt’s early work in the National Maritime Museum’s collection and represents the variety inherent in the artist’s subject matter. The industrious scene of Dutch and Flemish ships being loaded with timber is set in a natural harbour along a Scandinavian fjord. Large quantities of timber have been brought down into the bay where it is floating in rafts under the management of numerous workmen. They are loading it into the inshore ships through stern ports, which show the vessels are specialised to the timber trade. The fact that the wood is already in plank form (rather than in log rafts by which it was also moved down navigable waterways) suggests the presence of large sawing operations ashore but not seen in the picture. The timber itself is most probably 'deals' (pine or fir) as one would expect from the long, straight planks and the region.

The stern of the large vessel on the left is decorated with a depiction of the Virgin Mary, identifying the ship’s origin as the Catholic Southern Netherlands. The emblem of a bull on a blue ground high on the stern, and what appears to be a bull on the mainmast flag may indicate the ship's name. The tricolour stern ensign of black or dark blue above orange and white has not yet been identified. To the right an Amsterdam merchantman, followed by other vessels in the distance, arrives on the scene. Small boats dart around between the larger ships. Beyond the bustle, the shoreline of rounded rocks, pines and fir trees rise and guides the eye to the horizon. In the distance to the right the mountains on the opposite side of the fjord are visible. A small rocky island rises out of the water just beyond the shadow defining the foreground. The light seems to brighten towards the horizon and the artist has adjusted the lightness of the paint-layer on the panel accordingly.

In the foreground van Eertvelt’s characteristic small figures in their bright clothes appear to be built up into flat relief with slightly thicker layers of paint. Thin brushstrokes executed in the same colour add distinct outlines and define the shapes. The glasslike green waves are crowned by thin white curly crests. The naturalism in the scene’s narrative is here balanced by a degree of stylization in the depiction of the landscape and the rendering of perspective, betraying van Eertvelt’s stylistic roots in the 16th-century Flemish tradition. This ‘conservative’ rendering of landscape can be perceived both in Flanders and in the North until the late 1620s. Similarly, the pictorial concept of a Scandinavian shoreline is seen on both sides of the border. Like the painter Adam Willaerts (BHC0803), who had settled in Utrecht, van Eertvelt introduced pine and fir trees and rocks to signify the otherwise imaginary setting. Van Eertvelt’s portrayal of a peaceful co-existence of Protestant and Catholic ships aligns this picture with Hendrick Vroom’s 'Ships Trading in the East' (BHC0727).

Andries van Eertvelt was born in Antwerp in 1590, where he joined the Guild of St Luke as a master in 1609/10. He is generally seen as the first Flemish marine painter of the seventeenth century. However his work reflects the enduring influence of Pieter Bruegel the Elder. There is a discernible ‘Dutch’ influence in van Eertvelt’s work, which may have come from Hendrick Vroom, despite van Eertvelt not necessarily having been Vroom’s pupil. Eertvelt lived in Italy, 1628–30, staying with the painter Cornelis de Wael in Genoa. After his residence in Italy, van Eertvelt was painted by van Dyck in 1632. His high reputation is reflected in the celebration of his work in Cornelis de Bie’s 'Het Gulden Cabinet van de Edel Vry Schilderconst' (The Golden Cabinet of the Honourable Free Art of Painting). His pupils reputedly included Hendrick van Minderhout, Matthieu van Plattenberg, Sebastian Castro and Kasper van Eyck.