Seascape

A painter from Brussels, Pieter Bout was mainly interested in depicting human industry in harbours and at sea. Here he has painted a fishing boat returning to port early in the morning. In the foreground a group of men are hauling a fishing boat onto the shore. Bout’s work as a whole is characterised by his free and easy brushwork…

A painter from Brussels, Pieter Bout was mainly interested in depicting human industry in harbours and at sea. Here he has painted a fishing boat returning to port early in the morning. In the foreground a group of men are hauling a fishing boat onto the shore. Bout’s work as a whole is characterised by his free and easy brushwork. In addition to seascapes and harbour views, Bout painted scenes of the market and the funfair in the style of Jan I Brueghel, as well as Italianate landscapes in the style of Nicolaes Berchem. Pieter Bout was also very much in demand for populating other painters’ landscapes with figures, a practice that was very common in the seventeenth century.