The Cannon Shot
Willem van de Velde the Younger, c. 1680
A Dutch flagship fires a salute in a dead calm, smoke billowing against her towering sails.
About this work
The Cannon Shot (Het kanonschot) is an oil painted around 1680 by Willem van de Velde the Younger, now in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. A Dutch warship lies in a dead calm with its sails loosed and fires a cannon; a cloud of white smoke rolls out across the water. Two sloops float on either side, and another Dutch ship with lowered sails waits in the distance. Van de Velde, the son of a marine painter, moved from Holland to England with his father around 1672 and later succeeded him as court painter to Charles II. He painted this picture there with its companion, The Gust, a warship caught in a storm. Both pictures were later in the collection of Sir Philip Stephens. In 1834 the Amsterdam banker Adriaan van der Hoop bought The Cannon Shot at auction. He believed it showed De Zeven Provinciën, flagship of the Dutch admiral Michiel de Ruyter, who admired van de Velde and is said to have fired cannon for him so that he could study the effect; that identification has since been refuted. The critic Alexander Oltmans gave the painting its present title in a review of an 1845 exhibition. It passed to the Museum van der Hoop and was transferred to the Rijksmuseum in 1885. The canvas is 78.5 by 67 cm.
Sources: Rijksmuseum: The Cannon Shot (SK-C-244) · Wikipedia: The Gun Salute
Print facts
- Native resolution
- 4,556 × 5,414 px
- Sharp at 150 ppi up to
- 30 × 36 in
- Sizes
- Small (17 × 20 in) · $100 · 268 ppi
Medium (20 × 24 in) · $150 · 226 ppi
Large (30 × 36 in) · $300 · 150 ppi - Price includes
- Frame and US shipping · 14–21 days · 30-day returns
FAQ
Where can I buy a framed print of The Cannon Shot?
Here. The Cannon Shot is available as a framed print in three sizes: Small (17 × 20 in) for $100, Medium (20 × 24 in) for $150 and Large (30 × 36 in) for $300. Prices include the frame and US shipping; delivery takes 14–21 days, with 30-day returns.
What size works best for The Cannon Shot?
The file is 4,556 × 5,414 px, so every size is sharp: even Large (30 × 36 in) prints at 150 ppi. Choose Large (30 × 36 in) for a large wall; Small (17 × 20 in) suits a narrower space.
Is it legal to print The Cannon Shot?
Yes. The Cannon Shot is in the public domain: its copyright, if it ever had one, expired long ago. In the United States a faithful photograph of a public-domain painting does not create a new copyright (Bridgeman v. Corel, 1999), so the image can be printed and sold freely.
