Van de Velde is the name of a Dutch family of painters and draughtsmen of Flemish origin, including the marine artists Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-1693) and his son Willem van de Velde the Younger (1633-1707). Willem the Elder was the son of a naval captain, brother to a merchant skipper and himself a sailor in his youth. His paintings are so exact in detail that historians treat them as primary source material. The paintings of Willem the Younger added atmosphere to accuracy, so making him one of the most acclaimed and influential of marine artists, especially in England, where both father and son served Charles II. Of these painters, Ruskin was better acquainted with the work of Willem the Younger, being represented at the Dulwich Gallery. He is probably also the artist mentioned by Sir Joshua Reynolds in his Discourses ( Reynolds, Discourses, p. 52). Turner was undoubtedly affected by the work of these painters, and his first major commission, Dutch Boats in a Gale (1801, Private Collection) known as 'The Bridgewater seapiece', was produced for the third Duke of Bridgewater as a pendant to Willem the Younger's A Rising Gale (see Butlin and Joll, The Paintings of J M W Turner, no. 14). However, this only strengthened Ruskin in his determination to criticise the work of the Van de Velde family, and thus distinguish between the taste and achievement of Turner. (See MP I:325 for Ruskin's bewilderment at Turner's liking for Van de Velde, and Ruskin and Dutch marine painting for a further examination of Ruskin's position.)