Seashore with a High Sea (1620): Art, History and Details

Seashore with a High Sea (1620) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Magdalena van de Passe (Dutch, 1595–1638); Adam Willaerts (Dutch, 1577–1664); Crispijn de Passe the Elder (Dutch, 1564–1637).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Magdalena van de Passe is among a small number of female printmakers in the early modern period to have made a name for herself during her life. She likely knew the painter Adam Willaerts, who lived in the same town of Utrecht, since she made this engraving after one of Willaert’s coastal scenes. Van de Passe enhanced the scene by adding a figure depicting the Old Testament prophet Elijah emerging from a cave to listen to God, with engraved quotations from 1 Kings 17-19 beneath. Her meticulous engraving style, characterized by diminutive and somewhat irregular marks, is suited to the weather-worn scene, with its rocky outcrops, dramatic waterspout, and rolling hills.

Object facts

• Title: Seashore with a High Sea
• Date: 1620
• Creator attribution: Magdalena van de Passe (Dutch, 1595–1638); Adam Willaerts (Dutch, 1577–1664); Crispijn de Passe the Elder (Dutch, 1564–1637)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Print
• Technique: engraving
• Dimensions: Platemark: 20.5 x 26.5 cm (8 1/16 x 10 7/16 in.)
• Collection: Prints
• Department: Prints
• Accession number: 2024.151

A detail from the museum

Though the landscape depicted in this print is imaginary, the ship on the sea is a whaling vessel typical of Netherlandish manufacture of the 17th century.

Collection credit

Prints & Drawings Sundry Art Purchase

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.