*This painting is sold but the artist is regularly available in our inventory		George Willem Opdenhoff* Fulda, Prussia 1807 – 1873 La Haye Sailing Vessels in Calm Seas Offshore Oil on panel 9 7/8 x 12 7/8 inches (25 x 33 cm.) signed lower left: G W Opdenhoff An artist who worked primarily in Rotterdam and La Haye, George Willem Opdenhoff focused his creativity on landscape and marine subjects.  He studied with renowned landscape painter Andreas Schelfhout and with the influential marine painter Johannes Christiaan Schotel.  He traveled extensively and worked throughout Europe: in Breda from 1837 to 1837, then in France, and then Rotterdam before settling near The Hague.  He exhibited at The Hague throughout his career, from 1835 until 1861. In our example, Opdenhoff has depicted a group of heavy merchant ships anchored along the Dutch coast.  At right stands a large pier, brimming with men ready to board the rowboats that float at its end.  Two men already aboard the boats point short swords towards a large ship that is anchored close to the pier, near the center of the composition, indicating their direction.  Another boat, full of sailors, has arrived at the ship’s side. A third rowboat, a small vessel with only two passengers, drifts away from the viewer at the lower left of the composition and its direction, with bow pointed toward the anchor of the large ship, compelling the viewer.  This arrangement, small boat at left, large rowboat at right, and ship in the distant center, creates a stable, organized composition that leads the eye from one point to the next.  Furthering the calm effect is Opdenhoff’s handling of color.  Despite the rush of the men, the boats float on smooth, silvery water.  The blues, grays, and silvers of the sea are echoed in the sky and white clouds above.  Color remains exclusive to the pier, rowboats, and nearby ship, while more distant vessels are tinted into pale hues of blue, violet and mauve by the atmosphere.  Finally, the whole scene is painted in a clean, smooth manner and brought to a high finish that hides the artist’s stroke and links him to a Neo-Classical tradition which flowered in the 19th-century Netherlands.