Provenance: United Kingdom, private collection
The Dordrecht marine painter JC Schotel was renowned for his impressive skies and waters. Among his prominent patrons was the royal family. In 1829, Schotel was commissioned by Willem I’s wife Wilhelmina van Prussia to paint a view of the beach at Scheveningen, seen from the royal pavilion. His rough sea appealed to the Prince of Orange – later King William II. The prince even gave his brother-in-law Nicholas I, who would later become Tsar, a painting by Schotel. Nicolaas was pleased with this gift and later ordered a number of paintings from the Dordrecht master, including – again – a Scheveningen beach view. This last painting shows a storm, because it was probably thought that unrest reflected the Russian soul.
Literature:
GDJ Schotel, Life of the marine painter JC Schotel, Haarlem 1840; J. Erkelens ed., exh..cat. Between solar gold and candlelight. Dordrecht masters 1780-1840, Dordrecht 1986, pp. 94-101; Nelly de Zwaan, The Netherlands from art. 365 days of watching and reading, Warnsveld 2005, May 3 (ill.).
Exhibitions:
The Hague, Panorama Mesdag, on loan 19 November 2018- 3 March 2019, ‘The Storm of 1894’.
An early and beautiful beach view by JC Schotel on oak panel dated ca 1820. Two drawings of this composition have been preserved, one in the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, the other in the municipal archives of The Hague. A later, different version on mahogany panel was frequently made by the artist.
JC Schotel’s clients consisted of royal houses, institutions, art dealers, and very prominent and private collectors at home and abroad such as:
Tsar Nicolas I Pavlovich Romanov, Emperor of Russia, King of Poland, Grand Duke of Finland; Anna Pavlovna Oranje-Nassau, Grand Duchess of Russia; Frederick William III, King of Prussia; William Frederick I of Orange Nassau, King of the Netherlands, Grand Duke of Luxembourg; Frederika Louise Wilhelmina Oranje-Nassau, princess of Prussia, spouse of King Willem I of the Netherlands; Willem II Frederik George Lodewijk van Oranje Nassau, Prince of Orange, King of the Netherlands
La Société Royale pour l’encouragement des beaux-arts, a Bruxelles; Teylers Society; The ‘Kunstverein’ Hannover
Alexander Pierre Philips Cornelis Robert de Ceva; Henry of Cranenburg; Adrian van der Hoop; Robert Baron Fagel; William of Loon; Hendrik Six; Anne Willem Carel Baron van Nagell van Ampsen;
Count Jacques-Andre Coghen; Thomas Leveson Gower Baron Granvill; Sir Robert Peel; John Smith.
See: Brochure Johannes Christiaan Schotel, Gallery Rob Kattenburg BV 2018
