Portrait of a Dutch frigate, c.1655 (graphite, grey wash)

Creator: Willem van de Velde, the Younger A Dutch frigate viewed from the port beam. Her fore and mizzen yards are lowered. The ship is a frigate of an early type. There is a fall aft, the two aftermost ports on the gundeck being lower than the remainder. The upper deck ports are round. The drawing has been rubbed on the back and is possibly based on an offset. It is in light pencil, which has been skilfully used in order to express the light on the tumble-home and the shadow on the upper part of the ship's side. The carefully-studied hull-form, the lines of the stern and tuck continued below the wavy waterline, all suggest the early work of van de Velde the Younger. The height of the sheer, the slender head and the fall in the gundeck aft mark the ship as being of the early period.