Description: Stormy weather, signed and dated 'HW Mesdag 1875' (lower right) oil on canvas, 95x155,5 cm Literature: -Doelfray's schildersblad, 1934, ill. p. 57. -F. Knuttel, 'Gemeentemuseum 's-Gravenhage, Catalogus van de schilderijen, aquarellen en teekeningen', The Hague 1935, no. 340. -Pieter Scheen Lexicon, The Hague 1981, ill. no. 590, as: 'Zeegezicht met vissersboten'. -Johan Poort, 'Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1831-1915), Oeuvrecatalogus', Wassenaar 1989, ill. p. 200, no. 1875.3. Provenance: -In the collection of the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, no. 340, by 1935. -With Kunsthandel Pieter A. Scheen, The Hague, ca. 1971, where acquired by the family of the present owner. A Mesdag as it is meant to be. A dynamic scene of considerable dimensions with a rough sea, an imposing sky and various sailing vessels, large and small. This large canvas is a perfect example of the natural and atmospheric palette so typical for paintings of the The Hague School-artists, done in broad brushstrokes but also with an eye for detail. This seascape was painted in 1875. In the same year, the group of modern landscape painters Mesdag belonged to was named ‘The Hague School’ by the authoritative art critic Jacques van Santen Kolff (1848-1896) in one of his articles. He mentioned a ‘new, ultra-radical movement in painting’ which referred to the impressionist tendencies in the work of these artists, who painted their landscapes in order to render their main subjects being atmosphere and light. Mesdag was one of the leading figures of the The Hague School. In 1870 he experienced his first great success when he was awarded with a gold medal for his painting ‘Les Brisants de la Mer du Nord’ at the Paris ‘Salon’. In the mid-1870s, when the present lot was painted, Mesdag’s name was well established in the Dutch artworld. Works from this period are represented in prominent museum collections such as Boymans van Beuningen Rotterdam, Teylers Museum Haarlem and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam. According to the documentation in the Netherlands Institute for Art History (RKD), the present painting was included in the collection of the Gemeentemuseum The Hague by 1935. Later on in the seventies it appeared in the collection of renowned art dealer Pieter A. Scheen in The Hague. In the late 1870s Mesdag started his pièce de résistance, a Panorama of the Village of Scheveningen, to be opened to the public in 1881. The Panorama added to Mesdag’s fame. Mesdag remained faithful to his subject the whole length of his career and partly due to the Panorama, Mesdag is the Dutch marine painter par excellence.