# The Battle of Livorno [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [VELDE, Willem van de, the Elder]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Pen and ink on white prepared ground, 114 x 160 cm ## Commentary The Battle of Livorno c. 1654 Pen and ink on white prepared ground, 114 x 160 cm Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam Willem van de Velde the Elder specialised in pen paintings - scenes drawn with the pen on a support prepared with a white ground. In his early years he drew naval battles and ship portraits with the pen on vellum. When he began to find that support too cramped he developed a similar technique for canvas and panel, producing works which most closely resemble paintings in black and white, with the difference that they were done not with a brush but with the pen alone. He was particularly sought after by senior naval officers keen to have a memento of a victory at sea. This painting was probably ordered by Cornelis Tromp who played a key role in the Battle of Livorno. The naval battle took place on 14 March 1653, during the First Anglo-Dutch War, near Leghorn \(Livorno\), Italy. It was a victory of a Dutch fleet under Commodore Johan van Galen over an English squadron under Captain Henry Appleton. The painting is in a frame of ebony veneer with gilt appliqués. ## Related artworks - [Dutch Harbour in Calm]() - [Frederick Henry's Fleet Waiting on the Merwede River near Dordrecht, 1646]() - [The Battle of Livorno \(detail\)]() - [The Battle of Livorno \(detail\)]() - [The Battle of the Sound]() - [The Council of War on Board 'De Zeven Provincien', the Flagship of Michiel Adriaensz de Ruyter, on 10 June 1666]() - [The Dutch Navy Sailing]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()