Dutch men-o’-war off the Mediterranean coast

Active in Amsterdam, Abraham Storck’s paintings were heavily influenced by the city’s two most important marine painters of the second half of the seventeenth century, Ludolf Bakhuizen and Willem van de Velde II. Bakhuizen’s influence is readily felt in the pictorial manner in which Storck treated sky and water, while van de Velde likely inspired Storck’s accurate rendering of technical details like the ships’ rigging.
A copy after this painting was sold Christie’s, London, 11 December 1986, lot 117.