The Whale-oil Refinery near the Village of Smerenburg
Cornelis de Man
1639
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
131; 229; 10.5; 205; 108
About this artwork
oil on canvas
Art Historical Context
Cornelis de Man’s 1639 painting captures a bustling scene of industrial activity in the remote Arctic outpost of Smerenburg, a seasonal Dutch whaling settlement on the island of Spitsbergen. During the early seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic dominated the lucrative northern whale fishery, harvesting blubber that was rendered into oil for lighting, lubrication, and soap. The large canvas (over two meters wide) allows de Man to portray the full process—from flensing whales on the shore to boiling blubber in massive trypots—within a dramatic northern landscape of icy waters and makeshift wo...