Bay with Old Fortification

Two years before van Goyen painted this bay, the long war was over. The Peace of Münster ended the Eighty Years' War between the Dutch Republic and Spain in 1648, and the fortifications that had studded the coast and the river mouths were suddenly relics of a fight that had stopped. Van Goyen had always liked these old defensive works, and he set one here beside broad, open water. In his final years he painted more and more of these wide estuary scenes, boats riding low on the tide under changing weather. The fort stands off to the side, no longer guarding anything in particular.