# Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [BACKHUYSEN, Ludolf]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on canvas ## Commentary Backhuysen is the last representative of the great tradition of Dutch marine painting; eighteenth-century Dutch artists did much less of consequence in this category than in the others they practised. Backhuysen was born in Emden, Germany, and came to Amsterdam around the middle of the century where he remained for the rest of his life. His high-placed patrons include the burgomasters of Amsterdam, the Archduke of Tuscany, Czar Peter the Great, and various German princes. He is best known for his stormy scenes. Houbraken writes that when a storm threatened he sometime went by boat 'to the mouth of the Sea, in order to observe the crash of the Seawater under these conditions'. His Ships in Distress off a Rocky Coast shows the chilling drama he can bring to the theme. The large cargo ship in the centre is managing to make way along the perilous coast, while on the right, two vessels are in even greater danger. Later his storms become melodramatic, his chiaroscuro effects exaggerated, and his gigantic waves rather schematic and glass-like. ## Related artworks - [A Fishing Pink]() - [Dutch Coastal Vessels]() - [Dutch Vessels off a Coastline on a Breezy Day]() - [Dutch Vessels on the Sea at Amsterdam]() - [Fishing Boats and Coasting Vessel in Rough Weather]() - [Shipping by the Dutch Coast]() - [Ships in a Stiff Breeze]() - [Ships in Distress in a Raging Storm]() - [Ships on the Zuiderzee before the Fort of Naarden]() - [Ships Running Aground in a Storm]() - [Small Dutch Vessels]() - [View from the Mussel Pier in Amsterdam]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()