Beach near Scheveningen with Fish Sellers 1643

Simon de Vlieger’s ‘Beach near Scheveningen with Fish Sellers’ was likely made sometime in the mid-17th century, using oil paint on canvas – a familiar combination. But let’s think about the material qualities of the paint itself. The pigment would have been carefully ground by hand, and mixed with linseed oil. This demanded time and skill. Look at the ways de Vlieger deploys it: thin washes in the sky, thick impasto on the dunes, suggesting texture and weight. The scene depicts a bustling marketplace where the day’s catch is brought ashore to be sold. In its own way, the painting is a commodity, produced by de Vlieger for sale. What I find compelling is that the work involved to catch and sell the fish is mirrored in the careful labour needed to produce the painting. Appreciating the material and the making of this artwork allows us to look beyond the art and more deeply into the social and economic realities of 17th-century Dutch life.