# Dune Scene with Peasant Figures

- By: Willem van de Velde (Dutch, c. 1611–1693)
- Date: mid-1650s
- Medium: pen and brown ink over graphite on antique laid paper; lined with tissue paper
- Classification: Drawing
- Dimensions: Support: 28.9 x 58.7 cm (11 3/8 x 23 1/8 in.); Matted: 36.2 x 60.5 x 0.5 cm (14 1/4 x 23 13/16 x 3/16 in.); Image: 17.5 x 49.5 cm (6 7/8 x 19 1/2 in.)
- Culture: Netherlands
- Credit line: John L. Severance Fund
- Museum: [Cleveland Museum of Art](https://clevelandart.org/art/2019.15)
- Rights: [Public domain (CC0)](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/)
- Picture: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/2019.15/2019.15_web.jpg
- Who can see it: Tweens profiles and older (museums give no ratings; placed by Invisible Network from the museum's own words)

Starting life as a sailor, Willem van de Velde was soon appointed to make drawings and paintings of ships in the Dutch navy, and, in 1672, he was appointed by the English king to record English vessels and naval campaigns. In this drawing, made across two oblong sheets of a sketchbook, Van de Velde turned his eye to the beach, using chalk to capture the flat beach, grassy dunes, and small village and church steeple on the coast of Holland. He added the groupings of figures and horse-drawn carts in the foreground later with pen and ink.