"Marina with Dutch landscape". Oil on canvas. Signed and dated (AW 1655 FC) in the lower right corner.



The present work combines the Dutch landscape with maritime scenes, which in Utrecht, were specially cultivated by the Willaert family, uniting two genres of Dutch painting. the navy and the genre scene. Its origin may be found in similar compositions by Hendrik Cornelisz Vroom (1566-1640) although Adam Willaerts places the horizon line even lower, giving the work greater spatial depth that is accentuated, also by the strip of sea blue placed just below the horizon.

The scene represented may describe the arrival of the catch of the day. With the drawing of small human figures, Willaerts generates a sensation of life and movement in the work and especially highlights the beauty of the integrated landscape so that the sea does not take away from it.

Adam Willaerts was a founding member of the Guild of Saint Luke in Utrecht where he repeatedly held the position of Dean. Despite having always worked in Utrecht, he specialized in scenes of beaches, views of ports and sea storms with a clear influence from Vroom. He had a large workshop in which his three sons worked: Abraham, Cornelis and Isaak and, from 1650, his son-in-law Willem Ormea. 76.5 x 59.5cm