45 Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915) Evening mood, the return of the fishing boats signed and dated ‘HW Mesdag 1897’ (lower right) oil on canvas, 140x181 cm
In this atmospheric seascape from 1897, Hendrik Willem Mesdag, one of the foremost masters of the Hague School, captures the quiet majesty of the North Sea under the spectral glow of the moon. The painting, executed on a monumental scale, reveals Mesdag at the height of his mature powers, fusing realism with poetic introspection. Mesdag’s lifelong fascination with the sea was rooted in personal experience. Having settled in The Hague in the late 1860s, he devoted himself to depicting the Scheveningen coast, where he observed the tireless rhythm of fishing life and the shifting moods of water and sky. In contrast to his bright, wind-swept scenes, this work immerses us in the profound stillness of twilight. The moon diffuses its light through a veil of clouds, tinting the sky with copper and greenish-grey hues. The reflective surface of the water becomes a mirror of subdued luminosity, uniting sky and sea in a continuous expanse of muted light. At the painting’s centre, a cluster of fishing boats, meshed with shadows yet animated by flickering lamps, anchors the composition. Mesdag’s meticulous rendering of the vessels’ rigging and their ghostly reflections testifies to his deep technical understanding of maritime craft. Yet the scene transcends the documentary. The boats seem almost suspended between worlds: between labour and rest, light and darkness. By the late nineteenth century, Mesdag had become internationally acclaimed, exhibiting in Paris, London, and Berlin, and receiving high honours for his panoramic visions of the sea. Yet works like this one show him not as a painter of spectacle but as a contemplative observer of nature’s transitions. The vastness of the seascape, the humility of the human presence, and the enveloping quietness all speak to the existential themes that preoccupied the Hague School, the insignificance of man before nature, the passage of time, and the beauty of impermanence. The present lot stands as a meditation on light and solitude. Mesdag’s sea is not merely a subject but a state of mind, a realm of eternal movement and stillness. In this twilight vision, the viewer becomes a witness to the fleeting harmony between nature’s forces and human endeavour, suspended in the delicate threshold between day and night.
€80,000 - €120,000
Literature: -Johan Poort, ‘Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), Oeuvrecatalogus’, Wassenaar 1989, ill. p. 231, no. 1892.7, as: ‘Avondstemming, terugkeer van de vissersboten’. Provenance: -Collection H.W. van Bruggen, Dordrecht, until 1988. -Collection Shell Plc., The Hague.
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