In this work, by Pieter Mulier the Elder, the most arresting element is the rock formation, on the left, which emphatically counterbalances the vessel sailing past it on the right. The rock is dramatically split down its middle and towers vertiginously above the surface of the sea. Illuminated by sunlight which streams in from the left, it is splashed roughly by spiky waves running diagonally across the picture surface. The clouds, above, echo this diagonal motion of the waves as they are propelled by a stiff breeze from left to right. Land is glimpsed in the background, on the left, as a pale grey band. This is painted in almost the exact same colour as the sky. By contrast, the sea is composed of broad brushstrokes, thick brown stripes and areas where the paint has been visibly scraped in order to create a solid, opaque texture.

By placing a ship in such close proximity to a rock, the underlying threat of destruction is fundamental. However, the relative calm of the sea in this painting and the diagonal tilt of the vessel, away from the rock, suggest that shipwreck is an unlikely outcome. More probable is that the rock may be read as a metaphor for the Christian faith, since the Bible mentions Christ’s declaration that ‘thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.’ The rock, here, either represents the steadfast nature of the Church or, perhaps, an individual’s unwavering belief in the face of the real and metaphorical danger. Danger which, in this work, is symbolized by the Mercurial sea. The craggy rock formation was a visual motif which Hendrick Cornelisz Vroom introduced into early seascape painting and which surfaces with some regularity in the drawings of Pieter Mulier. One notable example is the sketch entitled ‘Coast Scene with a Large Rock Formation in the Foreground’, in the British Museum, in which a deftly sketched pinnacle crowned with a cross emerges from the frothing waves. This sketch was formerly attributed to Vroom but is now considered to be the work of Pieter Mulier the Elder and is a likely precursor to the Greenwich painting. Associations of Christ as a rock in the sea can be made. A rock with upon it a cross, which could depict Christ's patience, was a specialization of Pieter Mulier. The motif is seen, also, in the graphic art of Goltzius and Cornelis Claesz van Wieringen. About this and more symbolic interpretations of rocks in the sea, see M. Russell, ‘Visions of the sea’, 1983, p.74 and further.

The painting is essentially a study in silvery-grey, save for the brown of the boat and a rosy tint to the sky. Mulier’s employment of a startlingly limited colour range manifests his affinity with ‘tonal’ painters such as Jan van Goyen (BHC0806) and Jan Porcellis (BHC0719). The colour palette and the relatively unrefined sky, dominated by clouds, suggest that the painting is an early work by the artist and probably executed in the mid-1630s. The oval format of the painting was not unusual in seventeenth century seascapes and owed much to the earlier tradition of emblem engravings. It is from these typically diminutive engravings that works such as Mulier’s painting developed.

The artist, Pieter Mulier the Elder, was born in Haarlem in around 1600. His family were cloth-weavers and refugees from Flanders. Details surrounding his life are meagre. Although archival records refer to his marriage, in 1635, to Haarlem-born Maycke de Great with whom he had at least two children. Their son, Pieter Mulier the Younger, born two years later, was also a marine painter noted for his storm scenes. He worked in Italy under the name ‘Cavaliere Tempesta’. However nothing is known about Pieter Mulier the Elder’s artistic training. Although he became a member of the Haarlem Guild of St Luke in 1638 and, later, took on younger pupils. He continued to work consistently in Haarlem throughout the 1640s and 1650s. He is known to have accumulated substantial personal debts as a result of excessive drinking. He died in Haarlem. The exact year of his death is unknown.