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Merchant Ships

A work made of etching in black on ivory laid paper.
CC0 Public Domain Designation

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  • A work made of etching in black on ivory laid paper.

Date:

1643/68

Artist:

Reinier Zeeman (Reinier Nooms)
Dutch, c. 1623-c. 1664

About this artwork

Reinier Nooms was a painter and etcher who harbored a great love of the sea. He spent many years as a sailor on Dutch merchant vessels traveling between his native Amsterdam and ports in France, Italy, and North Africa. As a reflection of his nautical background, he frequently signed his name as “Zeeman,” or, “Seaman.” This signature appears among the clouds at the top of the etching seen here, one of 170 he produced. Nooms’s realistic detail comes directly from his seafaring experience, whether in his depiction of ships, ports, or naval battles. His etchings of ships and views of Paris would inspire later artists such as the 19th-century French etcher Charles Meryon.

Status

Currently Off View

Department

Prints and Drawings

Artist

Reinier Nooms, called Zeeman

Title

Merchant Ships

Place

Netherlands (Artist's nationality:)

Date  Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

1643–1668

Medium

Etching in black on ivory laid paper

Dimensions

Image: 11.6 × 12.3 cm (4 5/8 × 4 7/8 in.); Plate: 12.2 × 20.7 cm (4 13/16 × 8 3/16 in.); Sheet: 14.8 × 23.2 cm (5 7/8 × 9 3/16 in.)

Credit Line

The Wallace L. DeWolf and Joseph Brooks Fair Collections

Reference Number

1920.2542

IIIF Manifest  The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.

https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/151647/manifest.json

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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