Ships in the port of Volendam 1903

Fishing boats in the harbor of Volendam. These lined up in a semicircle on the harbor wall, some with set sails. In the background houses with red tiled roofs under cloudy gray-blue sky.

JQAW# G_1903_050
Oil on canvas 50 x 60 cm
Signature: John Q. Ɑdams 903 Volendam
Private collection the Netherlands

The painting is one of several harbor studies in Volendam, a fishing village near Amsterdam and Edam, where Adams regularly stayed between 1901 and 1911. Volendam, a poor fishing village at the time, offered countless "romantic" Dutch motifs that were popular subjects at the turn of the century. The Spaander family organized accommodations and, due to great demand, built a hotel with artists' studios in 1881, which still exists today as an art hotel with a considerable art collection. Volendam thus became a much-visited artists' colony of painters from Holland, France, Germany and the USA (e.g. Paul Signac, Maurics Sijs, Otto Pieper, Wilm Wouters, Elizabeth Nourse). From Austria, in addition to Adams, visits by Tina Blau and Ferdinand Schmutzer, among others, are documented.

The present painting shows influences of French Impressionism and impresses especially in its composition and the impression of a "forest in the sea" formed by the numerous sail masts of the fishing boats.

Cross-references

Euroart Artist colonies Volendam

Hotel Spaander Volendam (site inactive)

Exhibited

Literature

Provenance

Unknown.
Private collection the Netherlands.