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Coast Scene
Reinier Nooms, called Zeeman (Reinier Zeeman; Dutch, c. 1623-c. 1668)
c. 1655
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 53.7 × 48.6 cm (21 1/8 × 19 1/8 in.); (Framed): 73.4 × 68.9 × 7 cm (28 7/8 × 27 1/8 × 2 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- Netherlands
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Gift of Byron L. Smith
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Tweens profiles and older: its subjects are known and suit older children. How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The Dutch Republic’s pride in its successful maritime endeavors like fishing, shipbuilding, and foreign trade contributed to the great popularity of marine paintings like this one. Such coastal scenes were one of the most popular landscape genres on the market. Here, the fishing vessels used to catch herring, called herring busses, float atop a glassy sea that stretches to meet the low horizon, disappearing into the expansive sky full of billowing clouds. Atop the ships’ tall masts, Dutch flags flutter in the wind.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0