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Storm Off a Sea Coast

painting by Jacob van Ruisdael

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
Arts and lettersInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJan 12, 2026
Entity authorityQ20886860 ↗
Source-derived summary

Storm Off a Sea Coast, also known as The Breakwater, is a 1670 oil on canvas painting by the Dutch Golden Age painter Jacob van Ruisdael. It is in the collection of the Louvre in Paris.

The painting is called A Storm at Sea Off the Dykes of Holland in the 1911 catalogue raisonné compiled by Cornelis Hofstede de Groot, in which it is catalogue number 961. De Groot described the scene: "On the right is a dyke lined with piles, beyond which is a fisherman's cottage with a few trees. On the left corner of the dyke, great waves are breaking. Farther back rise the masts of several large vessels, as well as the stern with a Dutch flag." The painting is called Storm Off a Sea Coast in Slive's 2001 catalogue raisonné of Ruisdael, in which it is given catalogue number 653.

In the 19th century, Vincent van Gogh called this painting by Ruisdael, along with The Bush and Ray of Light, "magnificent". The Louvre has in French: "L'Estacade ou Gros temps sur une digue de Hollande, dit aussi Une tempête". Its inventory number is INV. 1818. Its dimensions are 110 cm x 160 cm.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Storm Off a Sea Coast” as painting by Jacob van Ruisdael. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Storm, Coast and painting.

Editorial reviewBest approached as a cultural-object dossier: authorship and date matter, but circulation and reception often explain the wider significance. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1670, 1911, 2001, 1818—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1650. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Storm, Coast and painting providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Storm Off a Sea Coast”, the useful work is to connect “painting by Jacob van Ruisdael” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jan 12, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q20886860. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1670, 1911, 2001 and 1818.

Critical limits

Rights, attribution and provenance may remain disputed even when a general reference summary presents a stable account. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Storm Off a Sea Coast”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Storm Off a Sea Coast primary sources, Storm Off a Sea Coast archive and Storm research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Storm Off a Sea Coast”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Storm Off a Sea Coast” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.