Boats on Ocean n.d.

Jan van Goyen, a prominent Dutch Golden Age painter, produced this delicate black chalk drawing titled "Boats on Ocean." Created sometime during the 17th century, it depicts two ships traversing a choppy sea under a hazy sky. Van Goyen's masterful use of light and shadow, characteristic of his work, gives the drawing a sense of depth and atmosphere, despite the limited detail in the ships themselves. The drawing, now held at The Art Institute of Chicago, exemplifies van Goyen's interest in capturing the fleeting beauty of the natural world.