Fishing Boats off an Estuary (1633): Artwork and History

Fishing Boats off an Estuary (1633) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Jan van Goyen (Dutch, 1596–1656).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

With its low horizon line, monochrome palette, and efficient paint handling, this panel is characteristic of early river landscapes by Jan van Goyen. In a society that provided a broad market for art, Van Goyen executed both small- and large-scale paintings of waterways, with varying levels of detail, to appeal to buyers at the lower and higher ends of the market. Such views of Dutch canals, moody skies, and seafaring activities appealed to collectors in the young republic, which prided itself on its maritime prowess.

Object facts

• Title: Fishing Boats off an Estuary
• Date: 1633
• Artist attribution: Jan van Goyen (Dutch, 1596–1656)
• Place of origin: Netherlands
• Medium: Oil on panel
• Dimensions: 36 × 57.8 cm (14 1/8 × 22 3/4 in.); Framed: 57.2 × 78.1 × 5.1 cm (22 1/2 × 30 3/4 × 2 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1933.1078

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.