Aernout SMIT (Amsterdam 1641-1710)

Lot 20
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Estimation :
40000 - 60000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 65 000EUR
Aernout SMIT (Amsterdam 1641-1710)
Whalers in the Arctic Ocean Ships in calm waters off the coast Pair of canvases 64 x 84 cm The first is signed lower right A. Smit Provenance: Anonymous sale, Bonn, Pluckbaum, 6 September 2013; At Kattenburg, Amsterdam. Aernout Smit was a Dutch painter of the Golden Age who specialized in marine paintings. This artist, a student of Jan Theunisz Blankerhoff (1628-1669), is one of those Dutch marine painters who were all more or less influenced by Simon de Vlieger (1601-1653), the most famous of them. Smit, who would have been from Amsterdam, was recorded by Houbraken as having been a student of Jan Theunisz. Blanckerhoff, who was active in Amsterdam between 1659 and 1666. This would correspond to Smit's presumed age, based on a notarized deed from 1667, in which he is described as "about 26 years old." The subject of whaling became popular and highly sought after by paint collectors in the 1640s - 1680s with depictions of this rare subject by Arnout Smit, Abraham Storck and Lieve Verschuier. Dutch whalers are sailing in the Arctic Sea between walruses and ice floes. The crew hunts whales while trying to repel polar bears. In Europe, the demand for whale oil had risen sharply, as it proved to be a good substitute for vegetable oils from which candles, lubricants, lamp oil and soap were made.
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