View of Amsterdam with Ships on the IJ

In 1665 England and the Dutch Republic were at war at sea, and the Dutch wanted France firmly on their side. That year the city of Amsterdam ordered this view as a present for Hugues de Lionne, Louis the Fourteenth's secretary of state for foreign affairs, who was collecting views of the principal cities of Europe. The idea came from Coenraad van Beuningen, the Dutch ambassador to the French court. The canvas reached Paris in 1666, the year France declared war on England as the Republic's ally. It flatters the giver as much as the receiver. Amsterdam lies low on the horizon, seen from the northeast across the water, and the foreground belongs to ships under Dutch flags. Among them is the Spiegel, a big warship built in 1663, and on its stern Bakhuizen painted his signature and the date. Much later the picture belonged to the sculptor Edme Bouchardon, and it came to the Louvre from his family in the early 19th century.