Restored 17th century Dutch painting: conservation work reveals what those people are looking at

[borealis]

In 1873 the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, was given a number of Dutch landscape paintings by a benefactor called Richard Kerrich. Among these works of art was a beach scene painted by the artist Hendrick van Anthonissen early in the 17th century. Anthonissen depicts groups of people clustered on a sandy beach at the small town of Scheveningen. Other figures stand on the cliffs and, on the shore, several boats have been pulled up on the sand.

http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/w...lost-leviathan

[MSG]

cool

[oblivion]

Why in the world would he have removed the whale? Too "newsy"? Not pretty enough?

[MSG]

political correctness?


[:greygrin

[MSG]

[borealis]

Originally Posted by oblivion

Why in the world would he have removed the whale? Too "newsy"? Not pretty enough?

'Too newsy' may have been the reason. I f the seller, a century or more later, thought the painting would be more desirable if it was just blandly decorative rather than referring to some local event that potential customers would have no connection with, I can see the change being made.