Heerman Witmont, 'A sea-scape with threemasters off a rocky coast'

Little is known about the life of Heerman Witmont. He was born around the year 1602, and was an active painter his entire life, working mostly in Amsterdam, Den Haag and Delft, where he became member of the Saint-Lucas painters guild in the year 1644. Monochromatic paintings became popular in the Netherlands in the second half of the 17th century.

Monochromatic paintings of ships or sea-battles became popular in the Netherlands in the second half of the century. Willem van de Velde the Elder (1611-1693) is best known for these so-called 'penschilderijen' and he is often been given credit for being the innovator if this technique.