The Whale-oil Refinery near the Village of Smerenburg
Also titled Traankokerijen bij het dorp Smerenburg
Cornelis de Man (Delft, 1621–1706)
1639
- Medium
- canvas, oil paint (paint)
- Classification
- painting
- Dimensions
- height 108 cm x width 205 cm
- Museum
- Rijksmuseum
- Credit line
- Purchased with the support of the Vereniging Rembrandt
- Rights
- Public Domain Mark, as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
About this work
Smerenburg on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen was a settlement of Dutch whalers. As the painter never went there, he combined familiar images and stories in this work. The mountain at the left is probably on Jan Mayen Island. Strips of whale blubber are boiled and rendered into train (whale) oil in the numerous try-pots on the beach. The men’s barracks are visible in the right background.
