*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		Pieter Coopse* Dutch School, c. 1620 – 1677 A Shipping Scene Oil on canvas 18 1/2 x 22 1/4 inches (47 x 56.5 cm) Signed Pieter Coopse was born in Amsterdam around 1620.  Little appears to be known about his early life, but he is recorded as being apprenticed to the very distinguished marine painter Ludolf Backhuysen.  His master taught him well though his sea and beach paintings are more delicate in their tones and are more brightly colored than his master’s.  The atmospheric effect is particularly fine in these pictures.  Pieter Coopse also proved to be an excellent draughtsman and engraver and his watercolors and drawings of shipping subjects are exceptionally well executed. Maritime activity was central to the northern Netherlands in the seventeenth century.  The Dutch Republic’s military and economic power was dependent on its mastery of shipbuilding and seafaring, and some of its greatest contributions appeared in the realm of mapmaking and the creation of scientific instruments related to the exploration of the seas.  Their systematic control of water central to the creation of their land and the heroism of the Dutch fleet during the Eighty Years’ War with Spain was legendary and it is, thus, no surprise that the genre of the seascape was born at this time in the Netherlands. Our painting demonstrates Coopse’s considerable talent for painting marine scenes with elegant ships and a beautifully executed sea.  Most likely our picture represents the Dutch fleet.  Although the water is relatively calm, Coopse has clearly attempted to create a more turbulent atmospheric effect.  The present work shows the artist’s great ability to arrange the ships in his composition in a highly naturalistic manner.  The restless waves in the foreground, the ship at full sail with flags and pennants fluttering in the middle ground and the slanting angle of the small rowing boat in the foreground all combine to give a vivid sense of the motion of the sea.  Like his master, Ludolf Backhuysen, Pieter Coopse makes clever use of light.  A bright shaft of light illuminates the main ship, cutting through the dark surface of the choppy sea.  The sharp sunshine, breaking through the clouds, allows the ship in the middle distance to rise from the dark gray sea to be silhouetted against a towering sky of pink and slate-colored clouds.  Within these two extremes are the many subtle gradations of blue and gray with which the artist skillfully evokes the ever-changing elements of air and water.                    Museums where examples of the artist’s work can be found include: Finsburg, Schleissheim and Stockholm.