Adam Silo (

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, 25 December 1674 - Amsterdam, 1760) was a

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

painter who specialized in maritime scenes — particularly naval ships, but also trading and

whaling Whaling is the hunting of whales for their products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that was important in the Industrial Revolution. Whaling was practiced as an organized industry as early as 875 AD. By the 16t ...

vessels. He also wrote books on art and gave drawing lessons to Russian Tsar

Peter the Great Peter I (, ; – ), better known as Peter the Great, was the Sovereign, Tsar and Grand Prince of all Russia, Tsar of all Russia from 1682 and the first Emperor of Russia, Emperor of all Russia from 1721 until his death in 1725. He reigned j ...

Paintings by Silo can be found at the

Amsterdams Historisch Museum The Amsterdam Museum, known until 2010 as the Amsterdam Historical Museum, is an Amsterdam-based museum dedicated to the city's past and present. Due to the renovation of its main location, the museum is temporarily located in the Amstelhof on the ...

in Amsterdam, the

Maritiem Museum Rotterdam The Maritime Museum Rotterdam is a maritime museum in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Dedicated to naval history, it was founded in 1874 by Prince Henry of the Netherlands. Next to the Maritime Museum lies the open-air Maritime Museum Harbour, whi ...

, the Hermitage in Saint Petersburg, the

National Maritime Museum The National Maritime Museum (NMM) is a maritime museum in Greenwich, London. It is part of Royal Museums Greenwich, a network of museums in the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site. Like other publicly funded national museums in the Unit ...

in London and the

Kunsthistorisches Museum The Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien ( "Vienna Museum of art history, Art History", often referred to as the "Museum of Fine Arts, Vienna") is an art museum in Vienna, Austria. Housed in its festive palatial building on the Vienna Ring Road, i ...

in Vienna, among others. The Hermitage, for instance, has a 1730s work by Silo showing fleet maneuvers in the

Zuiderzee The Zuiderzee or Zuider Zee (; old spelling ''Zuyderzee'' or ''Zuyder Zee''), historically called Lake Almere and Lake Flevo, was a shallow bay of the North Sea in the northwest of the Netherlands. It extended about 100 km (60 miles) inla ...

during Peter the Great's visit to Amsterdam. The Amsterdams Historisch Museum has the only dated painting by Silo, showing a fleet of whalers off Amsterdam: ''Het IJ met een vloot walvisvaarders gezien vanaf het bolwerk Blauwhoofd'' (1729). Silo was born on Christmas Day, 1674, and baptized on the 30th. At the age of 21, when he married, he was making

gold thread Goldwork is the art of embroidery using metal threads. It is particularly prized for the way light plays on it. The term "goldwork" is used even when the threads are imitation gold, silver, or copper. The metal wires used to make the threads h ...

and also worked as a ship's carpenter. He later worked, until the age of 30, as a master ship's builder and sea captain. Around 1694, he became a pupil of the artist

Theodor van Pee Theodorus van Pee (1668–1746) was an 18th-century painter and art dealer from the Dutch Republic. Biography Born in Amsterdam in 1668 or 1669, he was a son of the painter Jan van Pee and his wife Hendrika. His father moved to Antwerp when ...

(circa 1668-1746) and learned to paint. In 1697, he gave instruction in the drawing of ships to Peter the Great, who was visiting Amsterdam at the time. Notes made by the tsar during these lessons have survived. Peter the Great also purchased some of Silo's paintings. The multitalented Silo produced not only paintings but also prints and drawings, which also exclusively depicted maritime scenes. Over 20 etchings by Silo are known. He also experimented with the

mezzotint Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the intaglio (printmaking), intaglio family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzo ...

technique. In his later years, he worked as an instrument builder, making musical instruments, binoculars, magnifying glasses, and telescopes, among others. He also produced wax models. Silo wrote a number of books, including ''Afteekeningen van verscheidene soorten en charters van schepen en andere vaartuigen'' ("Drawings of various types of ships and other vessels", 1757). He lived to over 80 years of age, and was buried on 8 October 1760 at the Leidse Kerkhof cemetery in Amsterdam.

Sources

Artnet / Grove Dictionary of ArtKollenburg Antiquairs
(Dutch, archived) * Jan Wagenaar, ''Amsterdam in zyne opkomst, aanwas, geschiedenissen, voorregten, koophandel, gebouwen, kerkenstaat, schoolen, schutterye, gilden en regeeringe'' (1767), deel 11, pp. 435–436 (Dutch) *Hendrick Collot d'Escury van Heinenoord, ''Holland's roem in kunsten en wetenschappen'' (1826), deel 3, p. 29 (Dutch) * Jacobus Kok, ''Vaderlandsch woordenboek'' (1792), deel 27-28, p. 83 (Dutch)

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Silo, Adam 1674 births 1760 deaths 18th-century Dutch painters 18th-century Dutch male artists Painters from Amsterdam Dutch male painters Dutch marine artists