The Battle of Livorno (Leghorn)

On 14 March 1653, far from the North Sea, a Dutch squadron attacked English warships off Livorno, the Tuscan port the English called Leghorn. In the foreground the Sampson is burning after an encounter with the Halve Maan, commanded by the young Cornelis Tromp, son of Admiral Maarten Tromp, and its crew are abandoning ship. Cornelis ordered this picture himself to commemorate his part in the Dutch victory, and it is still in its original frame, which bears the Tromp family arms. Van de Velde made it as a pen painting, drawing in ink with a pen on a canvas primed in a pale tone, so there is no colour at all. A cartouche gives a key with numbers and letters, naming the ships and describing what each of them did during the battle.