A wijdschip lowering sail in a choppy sea

Witmont worked in Delft producing portraits of ships to satisfy Dutch merchants requiring a permanent record of their vessels, accurate in every detail. He specialised in grisaille, a technique of using pen and ink on a prepared ground, combining the characteristics of engravings with permanency of oil paintings. The coast-scene is atmospheric style, more akin to the monochrome paintings of Dutch marine painters who achieved distant effects by layers if glaze; here Witmont introduces distance by varying the intensity of his tiny pen dots. All Witmont's surviving work is of marines in grisaille, using a reed pen on a prepared white ground. Considering the limitations of the technique, a surprising degree of naturalism is achieved as a result of painstaking work. This marine falls into the immense category of Dutch seascape painting that does not have a specific subject. Every variety of ship was depicted and every type of weather effect was used. In this case we have a small boat known as a wijdschip shown off the coast of Zeeland with the Kasteel Remmekens near Vlissingen in the background.