The new owner of Backhuyzen’s Ships in a Storm was the Amsterdam merchant Baron Arnold Willem van Brienen. He owned one of the most impressive art collections in the country which included no less than 64 masterpieces from the Golden Age by the time of his death. He paid 5,992 guilders for Backhuyzen’s marine, including mark up.

Baron Arnold Willem van Brienen van de Groote Lindt, Dortsmonde and Stad aan het Haringvliet (Amsterdam 1783 - 1854 Huize Clingendael, Wassenaar) was the son of Willem Joseph van Brienen who had been mayor of Amsterdam during the French occupation. As such he had played host to Napoleon when the latter visited the capital. Arnold Willem pursued a largely political career. He sat on the magistracy of Amsterdam, in the Dutch parliament and the provincial assembly of North Holland. At the same time he served as honorary chamberlain to three successive kings, William I, II and III. For his services he was awarded the Grand Cross of the Order of the Dutch Lion, the Luxembourg Order of the Acorn Crown and the French Legion of Honour. Together with his second wife, the Belgian Carolina F.J. van Brouchoven van Bergeyck, lady-in-waiting to Anna Paulovna, and his children, he lived in the family home at Herengracht 182 in Amsterdam. This was where he maintained his collection of old masters that his father and grandfather had started. The building now houses the Belle van Zuylen Institute and the University Museum.