Ships on Rough Seas with Sunlight Breaking Through the Clouds

Provenance

Meacham Family Collection, Cleveland, Ohio
By descent from above
Sale, Bonhams Skinner, Marlborough, Massachusetts, September 26, 2005, lot 9

Related Works

Coastal Scene, oil on canvas, 10 × 15 inches, signed bottom right: M. F. H. de Haas; Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland

Farragut’s Fleet passing the Forts below New Orleans, 1863-67, oil on canvas, 58½ × 105 inches, signed bottom left: MFH de Haas NA; Bridgeman Art Library, The Historic New Orleans Collection, New Orleans, Louisiana

Note

Born in Rotterdam and trained at the Rotterdam Academy and The Hague, de Haas moved to New York in 1859. Fascinated by the shifting colors of water and sky, de Haas produced countless studies capturing their interplay. The turbulence and drama of stormy weather presented a special challenge, prompting him to refine a method for observing and rendering water’s perpetual motion and distinctive qualities.