Description
Even the simplest piece of art can harbor a surprising secret.
Dutch painter Hendrick van Anthonissen's View of the Sands of Scheveningen is certainly no exception. The image shows people huddled together on the sand, or looking out from the dunes, on what appears to be a winter's day. However, the tranquil beach scene was more than meets the eye.
If you had seen the painting between 1873 and 2014, you would not have noticed that giant whale beached in front of the viewers.
That's because it took someone 140 years to realize that in the artwork, a group of people are gathered in a group to look at nothing. When conservator Shan Kuang removed a layer of yellow varnish while restoring the 1641 landscape, she revealed a beached whale and solved the mystery.
The painting arrived at the Hamilton Kerr Institute for cleaning and structural repair during the recent refurbishment of the Fitzwilliam Museum's Gallery of Dutch Golden Age Paintings. The first task was to remove the extremely discolored layer of varnish that covered the painting. As original colors and details began to emerge, a large smear of oil paint, covering the left half of the sea, also became apparent. This paint was fairly rough in handling, but was overlooked in the past due to the darkening and brown varnish. Scientific analysis revealed that the repainting was not contemporary with the painting (more than a century later), and thus was not added by the artist himself. It was applied to intentionally alter the original image.
An initial cleaning test discovered, beneath the repainting, a large fin belonging to a beached whale.
It was shocking to discover that a whale had been the focus of the composition the entire time. This major alteration had gone unnoticed since 1873, when Rev. Richard Kerrich bequeathed the painting to the Fitzwilliam Museum. However, the exact date and reason for the concealment of the stranded whale is unknown. In the 18th or 19th century, paintings were often interior design elements that were adapted to fit certain living spaces, or adjusted to changing tastes. Possibly a previous owner was repulsed by the presence of a dead whale in his Dutch landscape painting.
Together with the curators, the decision was made to remove the painting and reveal the whale. The original intentions of the artist prevailed over the preservation of the alteration as a historical record of its temporary appearance. In addition, the repainting was not of good quality and affected the aesthetic appreciation of the image. The repainting was carefully removed with the aid of a microscope. It was incredibly satisfying to see the whale slowly emerge and be seen…for the first time in over 150 years.
The revelation of the sperm whale revealed the original coherence of the composition. It is now clear that people gathered on a winter's day to witness a spectacle instead of looking at the empty sea. A newly discovered figure can be seen balancing on the whale's back to measure its length. Anthonissen's whale appears to have been painted from real-life observations rather than copied from an existing painting or print. Unusually, the stranded animal is sitting upright rather than on its side. Like many other depictions of whales during this period, it contains anatomical inaccuracies, such as the dorsal fin on its back.