Ships under English Flags at Sea, a Squall Approaching

Dated 1700, this late canvas from Hatchlands Park in Surrey shows English-flagged ships with a squall approaching — a subject that combined the drama of threatening weather with the symbolic weight of national maritime identity. By 1700 Van de Velde was in his late sixties and had spent nearly three decades in English service; the English ensign on these vessels reflected his adopted country as much as his Dutch origins. Hatchlands, rebuilt in the 1750s to designs by Robert Adam, came to house a significant collection of maritime and other Old Masters, the English-flagged marine subject fitting naturally into its programme of commemoration of Britain's naval heritage. A squall approaching from the horizon was a favourite compositional device because it allowed the painter to show both the present stability of the ships and the imminent challenge they faced, creating narrative tension in what might otherwise be a static scene. This work represents Van de Velde's sustained productivity into old age, his technical command of weather and water undiminished.

Canvas with a layered sky that grades from relatively clear warm tones on one side to a dark squall front on the other. Ships are in various states of readiness for the approaching weather — some with sails already being taken in. The sea surface shows the long, smooth swell that precedes a squall before the wind arrives and breaks it up.