Professional Career
He was the official artist of the Dutch fleet for a period, being present at the Four Days Battle, 1–4 June 1666, and the St James's Day Battle, 25 July 1666, to make sketches. In his work on the biographies of artists, Arnold Houbraken quotes Gerard Brandt's biography of Admiral Michiel de Ruyter, relating the anecdote where Willem van de Velde asked Admiral de Ruyter permission to have a galley row him around for a good view of the proceedings on the evening of the Four Days battle in 1666. He wasn't the only artist to paint the scenes of this battle, his son, Ludolf Bakhuysen and Pieter Cornelisz van Soest also made paintings of it. This act later was the reason that van Velde gained his marine commission in London. The date, 1672, commonly given for his entry into the service of Charles II of England, was at a time when the Dutch Republic was at war with England (Third Anglo-Dutch War).
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Battle council on the De Zeven Provinciën by Willem van de Velde the Elder, 1666
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HMS Swiftsure, Seven Oaks and Loyal George captured and flying Dutch colours, by Willem van de Velde the Younger
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Willem van de Velde: The surrender of the Prince Royal
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The Battle of Terheide (1657), commemorating the Battle of Scheveningen on 10 August 1653
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The Battle of Schooneveld (1674), commemorating the Battle of Schooneveld on 7 June 1673
Read more about this topic: Willem Van De Velde The Elder
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