lieger Simon Jacobsz de
(Rotterdam 1600 - Weesp 1653)
A Wooded Landscape with a Flock of Sheep on a Track
Biography
Simon de Vlieger was a Dutch painter, mainly important for his marine pieces. He was versatile, and won important public commissions in his birthplace, Rotterdam, and in Delft and Amsterdam, for jobs such as painting organ shutters and designing stained-glass windows; he also did landscape paintings and etchings. Initially influenced by Vroom, in the 1630s he adopted the limited, grey palette of Porcellis, and went on to explore atmospheric effects in a much wider range of silvery tones; such mature works as Beach Scene (1643; The Hague, Mauritshuis) render the evocative play of light against a vast expanse of cloudy sky and sea. He painted beach scenes, storms, rocky coastlines, calms, and parade subjects, in which a variety of vessels is shown, often by the device of depicting the arrival of anonymous dignitaries. He had a strong influence on the next generation of marine artists: van de Cappelle had a huge collection of his drawings and paintings, and van de Velde the younger was his pupil.
Collections
De Vlieger is represented in the following collections: Detroit Institute of Arts, Michigan; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, UK; Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia; Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna; Mauritshuis Royal Picture Gallery, The Hague; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City; National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; National Gallery, London, UK; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Bowes Museum, County Durham, UK; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK; Harvard University Art Museums, Massachusetts; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK; Philadelphia Museum of Art; Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, amongst others.