Unknown Maker, Dutch

The galley portrayed in this drawing is a royal French ship. It can be identified by the coat of arms with three fleurs-de-lys found on both the banners and the stern plaque. The bust on the stern is probably that of Louis XIV, king of France from 1643 to 1715. Louis XIV made several trips to the Mediterranean, including one in 1660. Italian and French artists frequently created Mediterranean galley scenes, and Dutch artists who lived and traveled in Italy were also fascinated by the subject. The inscriptions suggest that the author of this work was probably Dutch. On the drawing are the words "gally" under the galley, and "flack" under the launch. These seem to be 17th-century variants on more common Dutch spellings. The watermark -- the paper manufacturer's mark, visible when the sheet is held up to light -- is almost certainly mid-17th-century Dutch. Even so, the style and superb draftsmanship of this drawing, when compared to the works of other Dutch artists, does not yield a positive attribution.