Jan van Goyen played a critical role in the development of a distinct Dutch landscape tradition, painting naturalistic scenes with a low horizon line in a nearly monochromatic palette. In this unusually large canvas, he invoked the dramatic forces of nature, sailboats straining against the wind in choppy waters. Van Goyen alternated dark clouds with golden light breaking through them, employing daringly abstract brushstrokes to evoke lightning streaking across the sky. During a period of economic prosperity related to maritime trade, Van Goyen popularized the local landscape, the territory at stake in the Dutch Republic’s bid for sovereignty from Spain.