The Standard Galleries - Holland
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Title: The Standard Galleries - Holland
Author: Esther Singleton
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Language: English
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THE STANDARD GALLERIES
HOLLAND
[Illustration: JAN VERMEER
View of Delft]
THE STANDARD GALLERIES
HOLLAND
BY
ESTHER SINGLETON
_Author of "Dutch and Flemish Furniture," "Great Pictures
Described by Great Writers," etc., etc._
WITH FORTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS
[Illustration: A. C. McClurg & Co Logo]
CHICAGO
A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
1908
COPYRIGHT
A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
1908
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England
_All rights reserved_
Published October 10, 1908
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.
_Preface_
When a tourist who, having mapped out his itinerary in accordance with
the time at his disposal for a European trip, arrives at a city for
seeing which he has allowed two or three days at the utmost, the first
question he puts to a fellow traveller, the hotel clerk, or his Baedeker
is, "What must I see?"
First, there is the city itself: its streets, bridges, canals, parks,
and drives. Then there are famous churches, city halls, and other
ancient buildings, including city gates and castles in the immediate
neighborhood. Perhaps there is a palace, and most certainly one or more
museums of art and antiquities. The tourist gazes his fill on
architecture, stone and wood carving, exterior and interior; but above
all he feels that he must make the best use of his opportunities of
seeing the pictures, the fame of which has spread into all civilized
countries. His time is short. He is therefore grateful for a guide that
will direct him to the beauties and celebrities of the famous local
picture-gallery, and point out to him the qualities of the paintings as
well as tell him something of the art of the masters and of the school
to which they belong. It is important first for him to know what he
should see, and secondly what he should see in it beyond the bare facts
he can gather from the catalogue.
On returning home with a few photographs of the canvases that have
struck his fancy, he is also pleased to renew his acquaintance with the
gallery in the pages of a modest work that does not go too deeply into
art questions beyond the grasp of the ordinary layman. Such a guide and
companion this book aims to be; it leads the tourist rapidly through the
most important picture-galleries of Holland, and points out the pictures
that all the world talks about; and gives some account of the Dutch
masters, their qualities and characteristics as exemplified in their
works, there and elsewhere. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, and
confines itself almost exclusively to the consideration of the examples
of native schools.
On going through a gallery the visitor, in accordance with his
individual tastes, will frequently be halted by a picture whose fame has
not reached him, but whose beauty appeals to him quite as much as the
celebrities with which he is familiar from numberless reproductions,
such as Potter's Bull, Rembrandt's Night Watch, or Snyder's Boar Hunt.
The traveller is tempted to linger over the little pictures of the
Little Masters, the charming interiors, marines, landscapes, and still
life of the galaxy of painters of the seventeenth century. It is for
this reason, therefore, that for illustrating the following pages I have
selected many of the less familiar examples of the art of that period.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was a sound art critic as well as a great
painter--an unusual combination of qualities--described with fine
appreciation the pleasure derived from the contemplation of the works of
the Dutch school. He says:
"The most considerable of the Dutch school are Rembrandt, Teniers, Jan
Steen, Ostade, Brouwer, Gerard Dow, Mieris, Metsu, and Terburg,--these
excel in small conversations. For landscapes and cattle, Wouvermans,
P. Potter, Berchem, and Ruysdael; and for buildings, Venderheyden. For
sea-views, W. Vandervelde, jun., and Backhuysen. For dead game, Weenix
and Hondekoeter. For flowers, De Heem, Vanhuysum, Rachael Roos, and
Brueghel. These make the bulk of the Dutch school.
"I consider those painters as belonging to this school, who painted
only small conversations, landscapes, etc. Though some of these were
born in Flanders, their works are principally found in Holland--and to
separate them from the Flemish school, which generally painted figures
large as life, it appears to me more reasonable to class them with the
Dutch painters, and to distinguish those two schools rather by their
style and manner, than by the place where the artist happened to be
born.
"Rembrandt may be considered as belonging to both or either, as he
painted both large and small pictures.
"A clearness and brilliancy of coloring may be learned by examining
the flower-pieces of De Heem, Huysum, and Mignon; and a short time
employed in painting flowers would make no improper part of a
painter's study. Rubens's pictures strongly remind one of a nosegay of
flowers, where all the colors are bright, clear, and transparent.
"A market woman with a hare in her hand, a man blowing a trumpet, or a
boy blowing bubbles, a view of the inside or outside of a church, are
the subjects of some of their most valuable pictures; but there is
still entertainment, even in such pictures--however uninteresting
their subjects, there is some pleasure in the contemplation of the
imitation. But to a painter they afford likewise instruction in his
profession; here he may learn the art of coloring and composition, a
skilful management of light and shade, and indeed all the mechanical
parts of the art, as well as in any other school whatever.
"The same skill which is practised by Rubens and Titian in their large
works, is here exhibited, though on a smaller scale. Painters should
go to the Dutch school to learn the art of painting as they would go
to a grammar school to learn languages. They must go to Italy to learn
the higher branches of knowledge."
In attempting to be of some service to the art lover who has no leisure
for extended and independent study, I have by no means relied entirely
upon my own impressions and observation.
In describing the pictures, I have drawn largely on the writings of the
best English, French, German, and Dutch art critics and
historians,--Crowe, Reynolds, Blanc, Burger, Havard, Fromentin, Michel,
Mainz, Wurtz, Bode, Bredius, and many others.
When so many authorities disagree with one another in the spelling of
the names of the Dutch artists, I have endeavored to avoid all criticism
by adopting the spelling used in the official catalogues of The Hague,
Amsterdam, and Rotterdam galleries; and in a few instances these are not
agreed.
For valuable aid in compiling this work, my thanks are due to Mr. Arthur
Shadwell Martin.
E. S.
NEW YORK, August 1, 1908.
_Galleries Included_
PAGE
THE HAGUE GALLERY 1
THE RIJKS MUSEUM 109
THE STEDELIJK MUSEUM 193
THE TOWN HALL, HAARLEM 211
THE BOIJMANS MUSEUM, ROTTERDAM 217
_Illustrations_
THE HAGUE GALLERY
PAGE
Vermeer, View of Delft _Frontispiece_
Paul Potter, _Vache qui se mire_ 10
Rembrandt, Portrait of Himself as Officer 14
Rembrandt, Homer 16
F. Bol, Admiral de Ruyter 24
Moeyaert, The Visit of Antiochus to the Augur 32
Ruisdael, Distant View of Haarlem 40
A. van de Velde, A Dutch Roadstead 48
P. Wouwermans, The Hay Wain 50
P. Wouwermans, The Arrival at the Inn 52
Dou, The Good Housekeeper 60
Ostade, The Fiddler 66
Ter Borch, The Despatch 70
Metsu, The Amateur Musicians 74
Rubens, Helena Fourment 100
THE RIJKS MUSEUM
Moreelse, The Little Princess 118
Mierevelt, Prince Maurits of Nassau 120
Van der Helst, Company of Captain R. Bicker 126
Hobbema, The Water Mill 130
Hackaert, Avenue of Ash-trees 132
Maes, The Spinner 136
Cuijp, Fight between a Turkey and a Cock 140
Cuijp, Shepherds with their Flocks 142
Jan van Goyen, View of Dordrecht 144
W. van de Velde, The Ij, or Y, at Amsterdam 150
F. Snyders, Dead Game and Vegetables 152
M. d'Hondecoeter, The Floating Feather 154
Asselijn, The Swan 156
A. de Vois, Lady and Parrot 164
F. van Mieris, The Grocer's Shop 172
P. de Hooch, The Country House 176
Jan Steen, The Parrot Cage 178
Jan Steen, The Happy Family 180
Jan Steen, Eve of St. Nicholas 182
THE STEDELIJK MUSEUM, THE TOWN HALL, HAARLEM AND THE BOIJMANS MUSEUM
Mauve, Sheep on the Dunes 196
Israels, Fisherman's Children 198
Roelofs, Marshy Landscape 200
A. Neuhuys, By the Cradle 202
Mesdag, Sunrise on the Dutch Coast 204
Israels, Old Jewish Peddler 206
J. Maris, Two Windmills 208
Frans Hals, Reunion of the Arquebusiers of St. Andrew. 214
Bisschop, Winter in Friesland 226
Mauve, Cows in a Shady Nook 236
Klinkenberg, View of the Vijver at The Hague 246
Jongkind, View of Overschie in Moonlight 256
The Standard Galleries
of Holland
THE HAGUE GALLERY
THE OLD MAURITSHUIS
Not far from the Binnenhof, on the Vijver, where the principal historic
buildings of The Hague are grouped, stands the Mauritshuis, now the home
of one of the most famous collections of paintings in Europe. Originally
it was the palace of Prince John Maurice of Nassau, Governor of Brazil,
who, on his return to his fatherland in the year 1644, found it
completed and took up his residence there.
This splendor-loving prince had had this building erected to please his
own tastes by the court architect of The Hague, Pieter Post, after the
plans of Jacob van Campen, the designer of the Dam Palace in Amsterdam
and other buildings; and for the decoration of the interior he had sent
rare and costly woods from Brazil. Everything was heavily gilded and
painted; and, in particular, a very artistic staircase attracted
universal admiration. Brazilian landscapes painted by Frans Post, richly
carved chimney-pieces, and exotic objects of every kind adorned the
halls; but, alas! in 1704 all this magnificence was destroyed by a fire,
and only the walls of the palace remain.
=The Restored Building made into an Art Gallery.=--The exterior of the
building was restored just as it was originally; but the interior was
finished in a much simpler style that does not in the least suggest the
splendor of the past.
It was not until the year 1820 that the Mauritshuis was devoted by royal
decree to its present use,--the sheltering of the royal picture
collection, which was at that time combined with the Cabinet of
Rarities, now in the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam.
=History of the Collection.=--The collection has an interesting history
as a whole; and the majority of the pictures have their own special
history. The nucleus of the gallery formed the collection of the last
Stadtholder of the Netherlands, William V. of Orange.
The Princes of Orange were art-collectors as early as the beginning of
the sixteenth century. Although we do not know much regarding the art
tastes of Prince Maurice of Orange, who died in 1625, yet we learn from
a document that he employed Esais van de Velde as a court painter. On
the other hand, we do know that his brother, Prince Frederick Hendrik,
was a collector of fine taste and a Maecenas. He employed a great number
of important artists, among whom were Rembrandt, Honthorst, Dirck
Bleker, Cornelis Vroom, Christiaen Couwenberch, Cornelisz Jacobsz Delff,
Thomas Willeborts, Moses van Uyttenbrouck, Jacob Backer, Gonzales
Coques, Frans Pietersz de Grebber, Dirck Dalens, Gerrit van Santen,
Adriaen Hanneman, Nicholaes de Helt Stocade, and Dirck van der Lisse.
Besides works by these artists, he acquired in Antwerp pictures by
Rubens, Paulus de Vos, Adriaen van Utrecht, and others. To the Jesuit
Father Soghers he even gave a golden palette made in The Hague by the
goldsmith Hans Coenraet Brechtel. No wonder that his widow, Princess
Amalia of Solms, following the ideas of her dead husband, employed
Jordaens, Van Thulden, De Grebber, Casar van Everdingen, Honthorst,
Lievens, Solomon de Bray, Pieter Soutman, and Cornelis Brise to decorate
the House in the Wood.
At her death in 1675, she left a collection of two hundred and fifty
pieces, which were divided among her four daughters. Some of these
pictures are now in Dessau and Moscow, and others in Prussian castles.
William III., who gained the English throne, had a fine picture-gallery,
of which the portrait-painter, Robert Duval was the director. The
greater part of this collection was sold in Amsterdam in 1713; but a few
of these pictures are still in The Hague Gallery. The latter, however,
owes its importance and distinction to the collection of William V.
=The Collection of William V. of Orange.=--This prince purchased his
treasures at the best auctions of the day, such as the Lomier, De la
Court, Braamcamp, and Slingerlandt collections. A German painter,
Tethardt Philip Christian Haag, was made the director of this gallery,
which was established in the Buitenhof. When the French entered The
Hague in 1795 these pictures were carried to Paris by the troops and
placed in the Louvre. When Napoleon's lucky star set, the French had the
grace to return the pictures that they had carried away as spoils from
various countries; and on November 20, 1815, the one hundred and ten
pictures belonging to the prince's collection were returned to The Hague
amid the ringing of bells, firing of cannon, and rejoicing of the
people. Although a certain number remained in France, the chief gems
were restored undamaged.
=Growth of The Hague Gallery.=--In 1817 the gallery contained only one
hundred and twenty-three pictures. Gradually others were purchased; for
example, in 1829, King William I. bought Rembrandt's Anatomy for 3200
gulden. Very few purchases were made from 1831 to 1874; but during the
reign of the art-loving William III. the gallery was greatly augmented
by both purchase and gift. The growth of the collection is principally
the result of the great generosity of the Baron Victor de Stuers, who in
1874 issued an admirable catalogue (revised ed., 1895).
=The Cabinet Pieces.=--The nucleus of this collection, originally a
"princely cabinet," consists of the cabinet pieces. Therefore we find
here pictures (that were highly valued in their day) by Poelenburgh,
Dou, Van Mieris, De Vois, Schalcken, Netscher, Van der Werff, P. van
Dyck, Ostade, Jan Steen, Ter Borch, and Metsu. There were also four
Rembrandts, two De Keijsers, three Potters, the beautiful Moro, and
examples by Adriaen and Willem van de Velde. The modern additions,
generally speaking, do not equal in interest the original collection.
The most important are two portraits by Hals; a triptych, by Jacob
Cornelisz van Ootsanen, a bequest; an Aert de Gelder, a gift,
unfortunately much restored and spoilt by Houbraken; a signed still
life, by Jan van Huysum; a portrait by Bol; a broad and spirited Begeyn;
a Dusart; a strong, dark, and somewhat sunken view of The Hague by Jacob
van Ruisdael; a beautiful Van Goyen; a head by Vermeer of Delft; a
landscape by G. du Bois; a wonderful flower-piece by Abraham van
Beyeren; several still-life pictures; and some portraits, among the
latter Moreelse's portrait of himself.
=Sir Joshua Reynolds's Visit to the Gallery.=--Sir Joshua Reynolds left
an account of his visit to the Prince of Orange's Gallery in 1781; and
among the pictures that he especially admired are those that critics
unite in extolling to-day. He calls attention to the Wouwermans, two Van
de Veldes, the portraits of Rubens's two wives, Rembrandt's Portrait of
a Young Man, a Conversation by Ter Borch (The Despatch it is now
called), Van Dijck's Portrait of Simons the Painter, Teniers's Kitchen,
two Ostades, a landscape by Rubens, Paul Potter's _Vache qui se mire_,
the Inside of a Delft Church, by Hoogest (Houckgeest), Fruit, by De
Heem, "done with the utmost perfection"; a Woman with a Candle, by
Gerard Dow; a Woman writing, looking up and speaking to Another Woman,
by Metsu; a picture of Dutch Gallantry by Mieris,--"a man pinching the
ear of a dog which lies on his mistress's lap"; a Boy blowing Bubbles,
also by Mieris, and The Flight into Egypt, by Van der Werff,--"one of
his best."
=The Vijver Lake.=--But while we have been talking of the past history
of the Mauritshuis and its treasures, we have failed to notice the
Vijver, a pretty lake bordered with trees and dotted with islands, the
haunt of swans and other waterfowl--descendants, perhaps, of
Hondecoeter's and Weenix's models--that float upon its glassy surface,
and cut through those quiet reflections of the long line of picturesque
buildings, including the Mauritshuis. The long quay on the other side is
the favorite and fashionable promenade of The Hague. We must note the
Vijver, because it has been an attractive subject for Dutch painters of
all periods; and the traveller will frequently see representations of
it. One of the most recent is Klinkenberg's View of the Vijver at The
Hague, which was presented to Boijman's Museum in 1876, by the Rotterdam
Society for Promoting Art. The Mauritshuis is represented on the right.
And now, having looked at this building from across the Vijver, we will
pass to the entrance.
=Paucity of Foreign Pictures in Dutch Galleries.=--The Dutch galleries
differ from many other great European galleries, such as the National
Gallery, the Louvre, the Hermitage, and the big German galleries, by
being devoted almost exclusively to works of the Dutch and Flemish
masters. Pictures of foreign schools are insignificant in number and of
very slight importance. The foreign pictures in the Mauritshuis can be
dismissed in a few words.
=Italian Pictures in the Mauritshuis.=--The Italian pictures include:
Holy Family, by Fra Bartolommeo; Holy Family, by P. Berettini; Christ
Blessing, by P. Bordone; Adoration of Magi, by C. Caliari; Virgin and
Child, and Birth of Virgin, by L. Cambiaso; Temptation of Adam and
Eve, by C. Cignani; Virgin, Child, and Saints, by M. Fogolino;
Massacre of Innocents, by L. Mazzolini; Holy Family, by F. Santafede;
Madonna, by G. B. Sassoferrato; Annunciation, by F. Solimena; Holy
Family, and two Portraits, by Titian; Venus, Mistress of the World, by
A. Turchi; an Italian Landscape, by F. Zuccherelli; Cupid (poor copy),
by Guido Reni; Venus and Cupid (copy), by Raphael; two Male Portraits,
by Piero de Cosimo; Female Portrait, by G. Palma; Female Portrait, by
A. Allori; Landscape, by F. Lauri; two Landscapes with Pilgrims, Monks
in a Grotto and Capuchins in a Grotto, by A. Magnasco; two Ruins, by
L. Carlevaris; and Prometheus and Sisyphus, by L. Giordano.
Of unknown Italian artists of the sixteenth century, the subjects are:
God the Father and Holy Spirit, Landscape with Mary Magdalen,
Landscape with St. Paul and the Hermit, Death of Abel, Venus, Dalilah,
St. John the Evangelist, Ecce Homo, Martyrdom of St. Sebastian, and
The Musicians.
=Other Foreign Pictures in the Mauritshuis.=--France is represented only
by a portrait by J. A. Aved, A Group of Merchants by S. Bourdon, and two
ideal landscapes by C. Vernet. The Spanish school is represented by a
portrait by Velasquez, a Virgin and Child by Murillo, a Magdalen by M.
Cereso, and a landscape and a portrait by unknown artists. The German
artists are scarcely more numerous. There are two portraits by Holbein
and three others of his school, three portraits by B. Beham, an Italian
landscape by J. H. Roos, three portraits by J. F. A. Tischbein, and four
Biblical and one mythological pictures by H. Rottenhamer. The subjects
of these are: The Meeting of David and Abigail, St. Philip Baptizing the
Eunuch, The Rest in Egypt, Christ Delivering Souls from Purgatory, and
The Fall of Phaeton. The meagre list of foreign works also includes two
portraits by the Danish artist, J. G. Ziesenis.
=Strength and Weakness of the Gallery.=--The strength of The Hague
Gallery lies mainly in its portraits, either single or in groups. Of
these there are considerably more than a hundred; of _genre_ pictures
there are about seventy, and of landscape more than sixty. There are
nearly fifty Biblical and religious subjects, and more than thirty taken
from pagan mythology. The Gallery is weak in historical pictures, of
which there are only seventeen. Only seven canvases represent the great
marine painters; and the pictures of birds, flowers and fruits, and
still life are comparatively few.
The student naturally turns first to the great pictures that have a
world-wide reputation. The two most famous are undoubtedly Paul
Potter's Bull and Rembrandt's Lesson in Anatomy.
=Paul Potter's Bull.=--The picture represents an enormous black and
white bull standing on a hillock beneath two trees. Beneath the trees
lie a cow, a sheep, and a lamb, and behind the trunks stand a ram and a
shepherd. An immense meadow, on which cattle are grazing, stretches away
to the dim horizon, where the buildings of a town are barely visible. In
the broad expanse of sky a bird soars with outspread wings. The bull is
proud and defiant, with silky hide and loose dewlap, and stands with
firmly planted feet. His eye is savage. This picture has been the
subject of much criticism: the figures of the man, the sheep, and the
lamb have been condemned by most critics, while the ram's horns have
been called "a splendid piece of sculpture," and the head of the cow
"the gem of the whole work." The face of the cow is marvellous. The
eyes, and the wet and dripping nose and mouth, rivet the spectator's
gaze. He fancies he smells the grass-laden breath of the animal, and
sees her jaw begin to move as she chews the cud. "No painter ever
concentrated so much life and truthful expression in the face of a
ruminant," remarks a critic. Strange, then, that the fawn-colored body
and crumpled leg are hard and wooden.
The Bull was painted in 1647, when Paul Potter was but twenty-two years
of age, and was living in Amsterdam and Haarlem. The picture was
purchased in 1749 for 630 florins, and in 1795 was carried by the French
to Paris and placed in the Louvre, where it was ranked as the fourth
most valuable painting,--the others being Raphael's Transfiguration,
Domenichino's Communion of St. Jerome, and Titian's Martyrdom of St.
Peter. The Dutch government offered 60,000 florins to Napoleon for its
restoration.
=The Mirrored Cow.=--A more beautiful picture, and greatly preferred by
most critics to the Bull, is the Mirrored Cow, known generally by the
French title, _La Vache qui se mire_. This was painted in 1648, and
represents a beautiful landscape on a hot summer day. The meadows are
flooded with sunshine; a limpid pool on the border of a forest is shown
in the foreground, where cows, goats, and sheep are lying or standing
under the shade of the trees. Two cows and a sheep stand in the water
and are reflected there; one cow is drinking, and the other has her back
to the spectator and is idly standing in the mud. Boys and men are
swimming or playing on the banks, and two have evidently finished their
bath. On the right is a farmhouse with some cows. One of these an old
woman is milking, and a man stands by with his arm over the cow's back.
In the middle distance a coach and six horses with lackeys is seen, and
in the background the spires and towers of Rijswick are basking in the
sunlight. The castle of Binkhorst is visible, and Delft lies on the
horizon.
[Illustration: PAUL POTTER
La Vache qui se mire]
=Criticism of these two Pictures.=--Burger very wittily said that _La
Vache qui se mire_ was a _chef d'oeuvre_, and not a _hors d'oeuvre_,
like the Bull. And Sir Joshua Reynolds noted: "Cattle finely painted by
Potter, remarkable for the strong reflection of one of them in the
water: dated 1648." "How bright, how sunny is this landscape!" exclaims
Dr. Bredius. "How splendidly are all these animals drawn and modelled!
The whole composition is beautiful and full of charm." It is painted in
the small size which Potter usually preferred, and is one of his
greatest creations.
=Other Pictures by Potter, his Father, and Van der Helst.=--The third
picture by Potter, painted four years later, is also ranked among his
best works. Like the two others it represents cattle in a meadow.
A portrait of Paul Potter by Van der Helst, painted shortly before his
death (January 27, 1654), hangs near his masterpieces. It is the only
work by which Van der Helst is represented in The Hague Gallery.
A picture by Paul Potter's father, Pieter Symonsz Potter, Shepherds with
their Troops, signed and dated 1638, is owned by the Mauritshuis, but a
better work is his Straw-Cutter in the Rijks.
=Rembrandt.=--The Hague Gallery is particularly rich in works by
Rembrandt (1606-69). The Rijks Museum is the place to study the great
productions of his middle and last periods; but The Hague Gallery is
strong in works of his first period, owning no less than five painted
during the first ten years of his career.
=The Anatomy Lesson.=--First, let us look at the most important work of
Rembrandt in this gallery, The Anatomy Lesson by Dr. Tulp (1632), which
made Rembrandt the most sought-after painter of his time.
Rembrandt was barely settled in Amsterdam and had painted only a few
pictures there when the famous Amsterdam surgeon, Dr. Nicholaes Tulp,
gave him the order to represent him with his students at an operation
for the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, to be hung on the walls of their
dissecting room with other works of a similar nature, such as the great
anatomy pictures by Aert Pietersz (1603), by Thomas de Keijser (1618),
by Claes Elias (1625), two by Mierevelt (1617), and one by Vosmaer.
Rembrandt's work overshadowed them all. There is a resemblance to
Vosmaer's picture and also to that of De Keijser too striking to be
accidental; but Rembrandt's work shows the master's genius in the style,
the arrangement of the figures, and the illumination. Bode says:
"Instead of an accidental arrangement of single persons, a masterly
rounded-out composition has been created, in the happiest way, and at
the most important moment, when at a point in the lecture to the
learned anatomists the interest is concentrated on the body. The
circumstances and the way it is painted deprive the picture of all
disgust. In contrast with his predecessors, Rembrandt has painted his
doctors, not as if they were having their photographs taken and gazing
at the spectator, but in the most natural way--some looking at the
body and some at the lecturing Dr. Tulp, Tulp himself quiet, and
explaining his subject with the greatest authority. The body is
painted in a masterly manner and the portraits are beyond all praise."
=Physicians portrayed in the Anatomy Lesson.=--On a paper held by
Hartman Harmansz, the names of the physicians are inscribed: his own;
Matthijs Kalkoen, who is leaning forward; Jakob de Wit, almost in
profile, with extended neck, looking with extreme attention, with his
collar almost touching the head of the corpse; below him, Jakob Blok,
with fixed glance and furrowed brow; above Blok, Frans van Loenen, the
only one present not a Master of the Guild; and, finally, lower down in
the foreground, Adriaan Slabbraan, with his back turned to the
spectator, but his head in profile; and Jakob Koolveld, entirely in
profile, the last on the left. All are bareheaded, robed in black with
plated ruffs, with the exception of Harmansz, who wears an old-fashioned
ruff.
This work remained in the Surgeons' Hall in Amsterdam until 1828, when
King William I. bought it for 32,000 florins.
Sir Joshua Reynolds saw it in Amsterdam in 1781, and thus described it:
"To avoid making it an object disagreeable to look at, the figure is
but just cut at the wrist. There are seven other portraits colored
like nature itself, fresh and highly finished. One of the figures
behind has a paper in his hand, on which are written the names of the
rest; Rembrandt has also added his own name with the date, 1672. The
dead body is perfectly well drawn (a little foreshortened), and seems
to have been just washed. Nothing can be more truly the color of dead
flesh. The legs and feet, which are nearest the eye, are in shadow;
the principal light, which is on the body, is by that means preserved
of a compact form. All these figures are dressed in black.
"Above stairs is another Rembrandt of the same kind of subject;
Professor Deeman[1] standing by a dead body, which is so much
foreshortened that the hands and the feet almost touch each other; the
dead man lies on his back with his feet toward the spectator. There
is something sublime in the character of the head, which reminds one
of Michael Angelo; the whole is finely painted, the coloring much like
Titian."
=Rembrandt's first Important Work.=--Critics are uncertain as to whether
the Presentation in the Temple, also called Simeon in the Temple, was
painted in Leyden or in Amsterdam, to which city Rembrandt removed in
1631, the date of this picture; but all agree that it is his first
important work, far exceeding in certainty of composition and treatment
the Simeon of 1628, Peter's Denial of 1628, and the Good Samaritan of
1631.
In the centre of a temple whose roof is supported by gigantic columns,
the Virgin and St. Joseph make their offering and present the newborn
child, who is in the arms of Simeon, to the Lord. They gaze tenderly at
the infant. In front of the group stands the High Priest in a long
violet robe, holding up his hands in ecstasy. The light is focussed on
the faces of Mary, Simeon, and Jesus, and falls on the High Priest's
back and hand. Behind the Virgin, who is dressed in light blue, are two
rabbis; and in the background in the nave are several groups almost
imperceptible in the shadows; and to the right in the chiaroscuro are a
number of persons ascending and descending a flight of steps, at the top
of which stands a priest. In the foreground on the right two old men are
sitting on a bench, the arm of which bears the monogram "R. H.," and the
date 1631. It is supposed that Rembrandt's sister was the model for
Mary. Emile Michel says:
"The simple garb of the Virgin and St. Joseph and the squalor of the
two beggars beside them emphasize the splendor of the High Priest and
of Simeon, whose heavy cymar seems to be woven of gems and gold. The
execution is a miracle of subtlety and skill. Note how supreme a
colorist has been at work on the High Priest's cope! With what science
is the violet carried through the lights and shadows, and with what
truth are the tones observed and rendered, with what scrupulous care
is the general harmony preserved in spite of the marvellous treatment
of detail!"
Of this picture, so particularly remarkable for its artistic treatment
and composition, Bode exclaims:
"How appropriately are the groups in the halls of the high fantastic
vaults distributed! How masterly is the chief group in the middle
distance! How complete in drawing and action is every single figure,
though so minute! How powerfully is the light sprinkled over the chief
figures before it slowly melts away into the mystic darkness of the
broad nave whereby that peculiar mood of reverence--the holy calm of
the place--results as the most happy effect of handling."
=Lights and Coloring of the Picture.=--Notwithstanding their smallness,
the figures are most completely and expressively treated, so that in the
half-lights the background shimmers here and there. The coloring equals
that of the other pictures of this period; in the lights, greenish brown
tones come to the aid of the local colors--blue, violet, and, very
seldom, yellow (next to gray and brown, which are used only in a very
modest way).
William de Poorter made a striking copy of this picture, which hangs in
the Dresden Gallery.
=Susanna.=--The chief beauty of Susanna, which bears the signature "R.
f. 1637," lies in the brilliant, warm coloring which bestows a rich
effect on the somewhat ugly form of the crouching heroine. Bode, like
Burger before him, thinks that he recognizes in the little head the
likeness of Rembrandt's wife, Saskia. The flesh is wonderfully painted,
the figure lifts itself splendidly out from the dark but transparent
background. Moreover, the modelling of the body leaves nothing to be
desired.
Susanna is represented as about to step into the bath and is alarmed by
the presence of the two Elders, one of whom is seen lurking in the
shrubbery. Burger notes:
"Placed by the side of the School of Anatomy and the Simeon, the
merits of this work are too often overlooked. Yet Susanna, strongly
relieved against a dark background, is one of the most interesting
female figures ever painted by Rembrandt, being remarkably faithful to
nature, though not of classic beauty."
Of this picture Sir Joshua Reynolds remarks, and many will agree with
him:
"It appears very extraordinary that Rembrandt should have taken so
much pains and have made at last so very ugly and ill-favored a
figure; but his attention was principally directed to the coloring and
effect, in which it must be acknowledged he has attained the highest
degree of excellence."
=Portraits of Rembrandt and Others.=--The portraits are of Rembrandt,
aged about twenty-two, painted about 1629; one of his mother, about
1628; one of a young woman, painted about 1635, supposed to be Saskia
van Ulenborgh, whom Rembrandt married in 1634; a portrait of Rembrandt
as an officer, about 1635, and one of an old man's head, supposed to be
that of his brother Adriaen Harmensz van Rijn (1597-8-1654), painted in
1650.
The portrait of himself is one of Rembrandt's earliest known pictures
and was painted in Leyden between 1628 and 1629. It belongs to similar
works that are now in Cassel, Gotha, Nuremberg, and in the possession of
Count Esterhazy at Nordkirchen, etc., but is the most beautiful because
of its perfect condition. Rembrandt, aged twenty-two or twenty-three, is
dressed in a somewhat fanciful costume and wears a steel cuirass. The
artistic way in which the light falls and the management of the
chiaroscuro foretells what was destined to be Rembrandt's peculiarity of
manner, which Sir Joshua Reynolds has so happily described as "of
admitting but little light and giving to that little a wonderful
brilliancy." Bode says: "Although the brush work is broad, the finish is
strong. It stands out above all others of this period; we feel already
in this youthful work the paw of the lion."
[Illustration: REMBRANDT
Portrait of Himself as Officer]
=Rembrandt's Portraits of Himself.=--The artist was not handsome; indeed
he selected himself so often for a model only for the sake of making a
study of light and shade, etc., and because he had not always any other
casual model than himself at hand. As keen as the glance of his eyes is
the painting of this picture,--sharp, broad, but not so heavily
_impasto_ as is the case a few years later.
At this period he painted many portraits of himself. The Wallace
Collection in London alone possesses two of the master's self-studies,
as does also the Berlin Picture-Gallery, all of which are contemporary
with this picture. The date of this portrait is about 1634, when the
artist was twenty-eight. It is familiar to every one. Sir Joshua
Reynolds described it as "a portrait of a young man by Rembrandt,
dressed in a black cap and feathers, the upper part of the face
overshadowed; for coloring and force nothing can exceed it."
Homer reciting his Poems (1663) represents an old man in yellow robe.
Part of the picture has suffered by having been cut.
[Illustration: REMBRANDT
Homer]
=Van Ravesteyn (1572-1657).=--J. A. van Ravesteyn was in The Hague what
Rembrandt was in Amsterdam, Hals in Haarlem, Mierevelt in Delft,
Moreelse in Utrecht, and Cuijp in Dordrecht. We have to thank him for
the beautiful Shooting Meetings in The Hague Gemeente Museum, and we
also have to thank him for a series of fine portraits full of character
of officers in the Mauritshuis. Although he had a dangerous rival in
Mierevelt, who was employed principally by the Court of the Prince of
Orange, yet Ravesteyn was the official painter of The Hague. When the
marksmen wanted to have their portraits painted, or when the magistracy
wanted to be immortalized, it was Ravesteyn's brush that had to
undertake the work. He was not very highly paid, in common with all
other Dutch artists of that period.
=Van Ravesteyn's Masterpiece.=--His great masterpiece, the splendid
shooting picture of 1618, the most important one that had been painted
up to that time in Holland, brought him only 500 gulden; but in freeing
him from all guard duties and from beer and wine taxes, the rulers of
The Hague showed that they wanted to honor their artist.
=Portraits by Van Ravesteyn.=--The portraits of this magnificent
portrait-painter are noble in conception and full of life and
character; and in his first period were brilliant in color. Indeed, the
flesh tones of his first period are even too red in his male portraits.
Yet the pictures which he painted before 1625-30 are stronger and more
full of spirit than the later pictures, which are cooler and flatter in
the tones and softer in the painting. There is a series of twenty-three
portraits of officers who are unknown.
=Pot's Schutzenstueck.=--It was not until 1886 that the greatsmuelddddddd
Schutzenstueck, a Civic Guard picture in the Haarlem Museum, which had
always been so greatly admired by critics, was discovered to be the
long-lost picture painted by Pot (1585-1657) in 1630, which had been
falsely attributed to Van der Helst. At the date when he painted the
picture Pot was so famous that the historiographer, Ampzingh, had rhymed
two years earlier, 1628, "then shall also Hendrik Pot rightfully wear
his crown. We wonder what his busy hand is creating to-day." He calls
the Allegory of the Death of William I., the great Prince of Orange,
painted by Pot in 1620, and now unfortunately lost, "a very fine and
artistically painted picture." We have no means of following his
development, because his pictures are rare, and seldom dated. The Hague
picture shows us a young gallant in bright green costume in the gay
company of three sirens and an old woman whose calling is unmistakable.
The young woman on his right is in violet; the one on the left, in pink;
and the third, in yellow and blue. All this is in a strongly pronounced
local color. The drawing is careful and good. This is far superior in
all respects to a similar picture in the Berlin Gallery. The background
of this picture is a fine gray. The details are convincingly and
beautifully painted. The painting of the high lights reminds us of the
Hals School. The picture was probably painted about 1630, and takes a
commanding place among the contemporary pictures of this style. It was
bought for 1300 gulden. A similar picture hangs in the National
Gallery.
=Two Portraits by Frans Hals.=--"The Government was happily inspired,"
writes Mr. Bredius, "in 1881, when it bought for The Hague Gallery two
portraits by the great Frans Hals [1580-1666], who had not been
represented up till that time. Yet there were and still are
dissatisfied people who maintain that the authorities ought to have
tried to acquire a still better example of the art of the master,
these pictures of his being too trifling and not worthy of the
collection," etc. But people forgot that such an opportunity does not
often occur, and then that the price is often so high that the slim
purse of The Hague Gallery makes a purchase not to be thought of.
"The smaller and more beautiful of the pair, the male portrait, is
quite capable of giving us a good idea of the virtuosity of the
portrait-painting of Hals. How fine, how self-assertive, is the
attitude of this twenty-nine-year-old patrician Haarlemite! How
sympathetically the costume is painted! How well are the head and
hands modelled and drawn! The portraits were painted in the year
1625."
The portraits here described are of Jacob Olycan and his wife, Aletta
Hanemans.
=Bode's Opinion of Hals's Pictures.=--In his celebrated study of Hals of
this period, Bode says:
"About the year 1625 the master had advanced to a style of impression
and way of handling that in general remained stationary for about ten
years. A gay, delightful humor laughs out at us from all these
pictures: from the rich, full local colors, the clear blonde tones,
playful easy handling, which quickly, in a few minutes with a few
scattered strokes and sweeps of the brush and palette knife blade,
brings the personality of the subject upon the canvas, and soon the
conception is rendered to the smallest detail in lovely, delicate
completeness."
=Characteristics of Thomas de Keijser's Work.=--Of all important
painters who flourished in Amsterdam when Rembrandt settled there at the
end of 1631, Thomas de Keijser (1596-1667) was by far the greatest. His
portraits, particularly those of small dimensions, take high rank among
those which the Dutch school in its glory produced. His work is
distinguished by a masterly technique, a splendid characterization in
portraiture, a powerful but brilliant selection of color, and a broad,
heavy brush.
=Description of a Portrait painted by him.=--These qualities are found
in the Portrait of a Man of Distinction, signed and dated 1631. The man,
nearly life size, is seated before a table covered with a reddish
Oriental carpet, and with his left hand is turning over the leaves of a
book that rests upon a desk. He is not looking at the book, however, but
at the spectator. His hair is gray and quite short, he wears a
moustache, his eyes are full of fire, and his face is expressive. He has
on a large black hat, and a white collar spreads out over his black silk
doublet; his stockings are black silk, and his shoes are ornamented with
rosettes. The right hand, which is superb, rests on his hip. The floor
is paved with black and gray tiles and in the sober background, which
serves to bring out the face, a library is indicated on the left.
=Group of Four Burgomasters.=--The portrait is painted on oak, as is
also that of the Amsterdam Burgomasters Deliberating with Regard to the
Visit of Marie de Medici to that city. This very small picture, in which
the figures are only eight and a half inches high, was painted by De
Keijser in 1638, when the widow of the French King Henri IV. visited
Amsterdam.
"It is no small glory," says Blanc, "for De Keijser to have painted a
picture which in value of execution may be placed between the Peace of
Munster and the Syndics by Rembrandt."
=Description of the Figures.=--Here we find four burgomasters sitting
around a table covered with a green cloth in an austere hall, whose gray
walls are broken by niches containing statues. These four old
men--Abraham Boom, Petrus Hasselaer, Albert Coenraet Burgh, and Antonie
Oetgens van Waveren--are dressed in black and wear black felt hats
unadorned with plumes. Their grave deliberations regarding the
entertainment of the royal guest are interrupted by the entrance of the
lawyer, Cornelis van Davelaer, who, hat in hand, salutes them with the
greatest respect, as he announces the arrival of Marie de Medici.
=Blanc's Opinion of the Picture.=--Blanc, who greatly admires this
picture, calls attention to the fact that no useless piece of furniture
or accessory of any kind disturbs the solemnity of this little scene,
which, on account of the simple manner in which it is conceived, is
great, notwithstanding its size. He says:
"With the exception of Rembrandt, I do not know of a single Dutch
painter, not even Van der Helst (who painted such great canvases), who
would not have belittled his picture, either by elegance of touch and
finish, or by the richness of the costumes and arms, or by the effect
of a carpet variegated with a thousand shades. I imagine that Gerard
Ter Borch, in spite of his habitual dignity, would have found some
pretext for introducing into his composition a beautiful sword with a
baudrick, a crossbow, or a chandelier; that Metsu would certainly have
found some excuse for placing a richly chiselled silver _aiguiere_ or
a golden goblet on the table; and I am sure that through the door by
which the lawyer, Davelaer, enters, Pieter de Hooch would have let you
see the antechamber of the Council, with its high chairs covered with
Utrecht velvet, or a winding stairway, or a distant door opening into
a garden or street. The attention would then have been somewhat
distracted by the very striking accessories, or by the optical charm
of the chiaroscuro. Here we find nothing of the kind; not a single
concession to conventional treatment. By the gravity of their
attitude, we see that these four citizens, chosen by a free people who
sit here with covered heads, express in themselves the majesty of the
United Provinces, and they consider themselves of equal rank with the
Queen of France, whose arrival is being announced; you feel at once
that they bring a plebeian pride to their magnificent reception of
that princess who was, like them, originally from a republic of
merchants. All the costumes being black,--that beautiful, warm,
transparent, silky black peculiar to Velasquez and Anthonis Moro,--you
only notice in this picture the hands and the heads. The heads have an
expression that will remain engraven in the mind forever, for the
painter has accented them so deeply, and brought into contrast both
physical and moral features. Notwithstanding their individuality, they
all have a certain grandeur. The peculiar trait of this master,
however, is the neutral background, the exquisite sobriety of the tone
of the wall, recalling the beautiful gray of the great Spanish
painter; and from this stand out the black of the doublets and the
white collars."
Blanc also calls attention to the splendid painting of the faces: the
eyes sunken by age, the wrinkles of the skin, and the withered cheeks.
Bredius writes:
"What character has the artist put into these heads! We feel at once
that it must have been this kind of men who conducted Amsterdam to
greatness and fame. What worth and dignity in the way they hold
themselves! What self-confidence in the proud glance!"
=Other Portraits in the Mauritshuis.=--Of other notable portraits in the
Mauritshuis there are three by Moreelse (one of himself); six by
Honthorst, including one of a child gathering fruit, originally in the
Castle of Honsholredijk; nine by Mierevelt (chiefly of various Princes
of Orange); three by Ravesteyn, one a group; two by Moro, one of a
goldsmith, the other supposed to be Prince William I. in his youth;
three by Netscher; Ter Borch's of himself; two by Frans van Mieris; one
by Cuijp, and other examples by Rubens and Van Dijck.
=Ferdinand Bol's Pay for Portraits.=--Of Rembrandt's numerous pupils,
one of the most eminent in portraiture was Ferdinand Bol (1616-80),
whose earliest signed work is dated 1642. In his earliest period he
devoted himself chiefly to large pictures of Biblical subjects; but,
like many other artists, he very soon found that there was a great deal
more money to be made in portraiture. At that time, when photography was
unknown, it was only natural that everybody who could afford it had his
picture painted. From the burgomaster to the ordinary tailor or
skipper--all wanted to have pictures of themselves and their families
hanging on their own walls; and the purchaser could indulge himself in
this natural vanity at comparatively small cost, for the demand
naturally increased the supply; and there were only too many painters
who were glad enough to serve their patrons. As the artists became
famous their prices naturally increased; and some received higher pay
than others who to-day have a greater reputation. Rembrandt probably
received as much as anybody else for a time; but at the end of his life
there was a greater demand for portraits by others, such as Maes, who
were more pliant to the changing mode. Rembrandt received 500 gulden
each for his famous portraits, whilst others were content with 150, 100,
and even 30 or 40 gulden. Caspar Netscher, for instance, received only
from 50 to 70 gulden for his elegantly finished pictures. The usual
custom was for an artist to paint portraits for a living, meanwhile
working and developing himself along the lines of his special genius.
Thus we find several of the Little Masters practically relinquishing
portraiture as soon as they had made a big reputation in _genre_, or
other fields.
=Bol's Work in Portraiture.=--Bol was a portrait-painter exclusively; he
married first in 1653, and a second time in 1669. Probably both wives
belonged to rich and important families, for Bol was kept busy his whole
life long and became wealthy, dying in 1680 in his beautiful house with
its fine grounds and stables.
With him, as with so many other successful painters, his last pictures
were not his best. In his earlier portraits he represents his sitters in
beautiful chiaroscuro. The painting is broad and spirited; the color
strong and brilliant. He painted so much in Rembrandt's style at first
that many of Bol's pictures have been taken for those of his master; and
later, when Bol's reputation had faded, unscrupulous dealers did not
hesitate to change his signature on the canvases for that of Rembrandt.
A celebrated instance of this practice is the so-called Portrait of
Flinck and his Wife in Munich, which by many connoisseurs was long
admired as Rembrandt's work; but, by Hauser's skill, the false Rembrandt
signature was obliterated and the real one of Bol brought to light.
=Bol's Portrait of De Ruyter's Son.=--The Mauritshuis owns one of the
best portraits by Bol, painted in his later period, that of the handsome
twenty-year-old son of the great Admiral de Ruyter. This son, Engel de
Ruyter, was born in 1649 and died in 1683. Bol painted him in the year
1669, as may be seen by the date on the picture. It is only quite
recently that the pendant, a portrait of the great Admiral de Ruyter,
has come to be regarded as a copy after Bol. The charming little marine
in the picture is undoubtedly by the hand of Willem van de Velde the
younger, and adds greatly to the interest of the painting because it is
of itself a fine picture of that great master. In many of his later
portraits, Bol is somewhat dull in his color and painted them too
rapidly, besides giving to his flesh too strong a red-rose tint; but
that cannot be said of him in this case, where he has done his very
best. In particular, he has handled the rich costume with affectionate
and masterful touch.
[Illustration: F. BOL
Admiral de Ruyter]
=Description of the Sitter.=--The genial countenance, which displays
none of the real martial type of his celebrated father, rises finely out
of the red drapery. The bearing is elegant, though perhaps there is a
little too much pose in it. The portrait is particularly interesting,
because the sitter had a career of great promise which was cut short all
too soon. Nine years after the portrait was painted, the youth had
already risen to the rank of Vice-Admiral and had been created a Spanish
count, having also refused the title of duke; but before he had attained
thirty-four years of age, he died, not a hero's death like his father,
as he had desired, but in his own luxurious dwelling in Amsterdam.
However, he had already while very young fought valiantly beside his
father in the Battle of Solebay.
=A Picture by Salomon Koninck.=--Another pupil of Rembrandt whom we
shall see in the Rijks is G. van den Eeckhout. A picture formerly
attributed to him, the Adoration of the Magi, is now known to be by
Salomon Koninck (1618-88). One of the Magi in a red cloak is kneeling
before the Infant Jesus and another on the right wears a golden mantle.
The color is vigorous and the work shows the knowledge of chiaroscuro
for which Rembrandt's school was so famous.
=Two Pictures by Nicholas Maes.=--Nicholas Maes (1632-93) is represented
in the Mauritshuis by only two pictures,--one of them of questionable
origin, moreover; and therefore the student must go to Amsterdam for
varied examples of his work. The portrait here is that of the Grand
Pensionary, Jakob Cats, an original replica of which hangs in the
Budapesth gallery. Diana and Her Nymphs shows some of the qualities to
be expected of one who worked in Rembrandt's studio for eighteen years;
but it is now sometimes attributed to Vermeer of Delft. The signature,
"N. M. 1650," is said to be false.
=Maes's Work as a Portrait-Painter.=--Maes was a pupil of Rembrandt and
became a very successful portrait-painter by copying the master's style.
He soon became rich by his talents, his wit, his polished manners, and
by flattering his sitters. He charged high prices for his pictures; and
he deserved his great reputation. The chiaroscuro of his paintings is
very vigorous. If the shadows are not heavily massed as with Rembrandt,
they are at least strongly accented; and, as the half-tones are very
summary, the passage from light to dark is very brusque, and by this
means the painter attains a powerful effect and strong relief.
=His Visit to Jordaens at Antwerp.=--Having become rich, and getting
tired of everlastingly painting the rich burghers of Amsterdam and their
wives, Maes thought he would like to go to see the works of the great
artists of Antwerp, who at that time were so much talked about
throughout Europe. Having been initiated into the high freemasonry of
art by Rembrandt, he was cordially received by the Antwerp painters and
soon recognized by them as a brother. Among others, he went to visit
Jordaens and was shown into a room filled with pictures, which he
examined while awaiting the appearance of the latter, who was watching
his visitor through the keyhole. When he entered, Jordaens said: "I see
plainly that you are a great connoisseur, or perhaps an able painter,
for the best pictures in my gallery detained you longer than the
others."
Maes simply replied, "I am a portrait-painter."
"In that case," replied Jordaens, "I sincerely pity you. So you also are
one of those martyrs of painting who so richly deserve our
commiseration!"
In fact, Maes's weariness at having to put up with the whims of human
vanity probably had much to do with his turning to _genre_, by which he
is now best known and for which he is most highly prized.
=Maes's Pictures of Familiar Scenes.=--The average art-lover, however,
cares little for the portraiture of Maes, but prizes him as a painter of
familiar scenes, like Pieter de Hooch. Although less varied and less
supple, but not less robust than the latter, Maes was his equal in the
power of his effects. The triviality of the subject which he often
selects is relieved by the charm of an astonishingly vigorous and
spirited execution. Burger says:
"On passing through a kitchen, perhaps, you see an old woman scraping
carrots, having various kitchen utensils about her. If you have seen
this humble interior in one of Maes's pictures, it will be impossible
for you not to halt and spend some time in looking at it. The painting
of Nicholas Maes is one of those that become encrusted in the memory.
The light gleams in it, the canvas glows, the subject stands out, the
eye runs over it, and if the figures were of natural size one would go
forward to meet them, so strong is the impression, so solid is the
tone, so palpable, and modelled in relief are the forms.
"In his little familiar scenes, Maes is not always insignificant or
vulgar in his choice of subject. Most often, indeed, his composition
is ingenious, witty, and piquant. In the first place, it is set in the
most picturesque corner of the room; the painter likes to take up his
position in a place whence he can see at once the house from top to
bottom,--both the stairs descending to the cellar and those mounting
to the first floor. Then the figures he brings into the scene usually
have some malicious trick to play, some secret conversation to
overhear, some theft to discover, or some infidelity to discover."
=Samuel van Hoogstraaten.=--It is singular how few pictures are known by
Rembrandt's remarkable pupil, Samuel van Hoogstraaten (1625-78), a
versatile painter of landscapes, portraits, marines, architecture,
fruits, flowers, and, more particularly, interiors, in which he followed
Pieter de Hooch. In his Lady in a Vestibule he has demonstrated his
knowledge of perspective, of which he was very proud. The chief feature
of the picture, however, is the beautiful chiaroscuro, for which he has
to thank Rembrandt's teaching. The lady is walking in a portico of very
fine architecture, and reading. With one hand she is holding up her
straw-colored dress. This figure is only two feet high, while the
spaniel that accompanies her is life size!
=Effects of Rembrandt's Teaching on his Pupils.=--Thirty of Rembrandt's
pupils made great names for themselves by copying that great master in
one or other of his manners. Some made a system of what with him was
merely a mood or caprice. Not being able to follow him in the expression
of the human soul, they made a specialty, some of portraiture, some of
costume, some of chiaroscuro, some of _genre_, and some of landscape.
=Philip Koninck's Landscapes.=--Philip Koninck (1619-88) is almost the
only pupil of Rembrandt who painted landscapes almost exclusively, and
he listened to the teachings of his master with great docility. His
principle was to regard nature from a little distance, so as to grasp
the masses, rather than to enter into details. The Mauritshuis possesses
a beautiful and characteristic specimen of his genius. In composition
and treatment, it reminds us of Rembrandt's Landscape of the Three
Trees.[2] Blanc says:
"Among the Dutch landscape painters perhaps there is not one, unless
it is Van der Hagen, who would have dared to paint this monotonous
plain, all the lines of which are horizontal, all the clumps and rows
of trees of the same height, and in which the only objects in the
foreground are a cottage half hidden among trees, and, a little
farther on, a low sandy hill which does not rise beyond the level of
the middle distance. The vast stretch of country is traversed by so
many courses of water that it almost looks as if it were threatened
with an inundation. The meadows are on a level with the sea; the
distant villages look like flotillas at anchor, and the houses seem to
be floating on the canals. The painter has placed his point of view so
high that neither the sails of the windmills, nor the points of the
belfries, nor the tops of the highest trees stand out against the sky.
The picture is cut in half by the almost straight line of a horizon
which gradually recedes until lost to view, and the towns we perceive
in the distance, the rows of trees, the hamlets, and rivers all run
parallel with this horizon. That is to say, that Philip Koninck (and
this picture resembles all the others of his we know) is conceived
entirely at variance with the ideas that are generally held regarding
the picturesque."
Gilpin says:
"'The greatest enemies of the picturesque are the symmetry of the
forms, the resemblance and parallelism of the lines, the polish of the
surfaces, and the uniformity of the colors.'
"Very well! Here is a landscape by Koninck that fulfils all the
conditions of the non-picturesque; and which, nevertheless, produces a
certain impression of grandeur and sadness, solely by means of the
canvas being furrowed into infinite depths, the gradations of the
perspective being extremely well observed, and the uniformity of the
ground being happily contrasted with a sky full of movement, a fine
disorder of clouds which the breeze slowly drives before it as a
shepherd does his flock."
=Dutch Painters who imitated Italians.=--Rembrandt, although he arose at
a time when the influence of Italian art was supreme, never went to
Rome; nevertheless, he owed a great deal to the studies of those artists
who had been there. The Hague Gallery contains several pictures of this
period; and these are sufficient to give us a very good idea of the
qualities of Dutch art just before Rembrandt, in 1629, set up for
himself in Amsterdam at the age of twenty-one.
=Hendrik Goltzius.=--An influential founder of a large school of
painters who modelled themselves on the great Italians was Hendrik
Goltzius (1558-1616). He started for Rome in 1590, and indulged to the
full his intense admiration for Michelangelo, which led him to surpass
that master in the extravagance of his designs. The works by his own
hand he most valued were his eccentric imitations of the designs of
Michelangelo. His portraits show exquisite finish, and are fine studies
of character. The beauty and freedom of his execution make amends for
his extravagance. In the Mauritshuis are three pictures painted shortly
before he died--Mercury, Hercules, and Minerva.
=His Academy at Haarlem.=--On his return from Italy Mander, who was a
great friend of Goltzius, induced him to open an academy at Haarlem, in
combination with Mander and Cornelisz, and with the assistance of his
old pupils, Matham, Muller, Sanraedam, and De Gheyn, as professors. As
might be expected, Italian taste predominated in this academy, not
solely on account of the personal preference of the founders, but
because the Italian style had been popularized in the Low Countries by
Lambert Lombard, and his pupils, Hubert Golz, Lambert Zutman, Dominic
Lampson, William Key, and Frans Floris (1518-70). Of these the most
famous was Floris, who also studied in Italy, and himself founded a
large school. The Hague possesses in Venus and Adonis a charming example
of his style.
=The Italian Style followed by Cornelisz.=--Cornelis Cornelisz
(1562-1638) had never been to Italy, but his education and environment
had given him Italian tendencies. We learn that even after he had
attained proficiency he never dispensed with the model; nevertheless, he
was neither a slavish imitator of nature, nor altogether a painter of
style. He has two large pictures in The Hague Gallery that were painted
about the time he joined Goltzius in the Haarlem academy. These are the
Massacre of the Innocents (1591) and the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis
(1593). The dominating idea of the artist in the Massacre of the
Innocents, which covers a canvas 8-3/4 by 8-1/4 feet, is the wish to
appear a great master of drawing by curves and modeling that exaggerate
the relief of the muscles. There are more than two hundred figures which
are almost all entirely nude. The executioners, and the infants in
particular, show an attempt at noble form which rises above nothing more
than affectation. There is an obvious striving after the genius of
Michelangelo which, in the Dutch master, is merely pretentious imitation
of what would be facile and superb in the great Florentine. There is not
a single attitude nor a movement that is not _contrasted_; for instance,
if the left arm is behind, the right leg is in front. In fact, the study
of nature is completely subordinated to academic conventions. The color
is far more natural than the drawing. The artist has been extremely
successful in rendering the flesh tints of life as well as of death, and
he has varied the _nuances_ in accordance with sex and age, giving very
faithfully the tenderness and freshness of the flesh tints of infancy,
and the softness of the female form, the stronger tones of the
executioners in action, and even the cadaverous hue of the bloodless
corpses. As for the expressions of the faces, they are vulgar though
energetic.
=His Love of painting the Nude.=--The love of Cornelisz for compositions
thronged with nude figures in the most varied attitudes wherein he could
exhibit all the resources of his learning and study of the works of
Michelangelo is again shown in the large canvas, measuring 8 by 14 feet,
entitled Banquet of the Gods of Olympus, or Marriage of Peleus and
Thetis.
=Gilles Coignet.=--Cornelisz had received his tastes and instruction
principally from Gilles Coignet (1540-99), who set out for Italy with
another painter named Stello in 1555 and worked principally at Terni,
between Loretto and Rome, for five years. He painted historical and
mythological subjects of easel size, but was more successful in
landscapes, and more particularly in candle-light subjects and
moonlight. He took up his abode in Amsterdam in 1586. His influence on
the Haarlem school was pronounced.
=Elsheimer's Excellence in Chiaroscuro.=--The Mauritshuis possesses two
Italian Landscapes by Adam Elsheimer (Elshaimer or Elzheimer)
(1574-1620), a German painter, whom the Italians call Adam Tedesco, who
possessed great influence over his contemporaries, particularly the
elder Teniers and Rembrandt, who followed out the same characteristics
of chiaroscuro. Elsheimer delighted in the effects of moonlight and
evening dusk; also in torchlight, conflagrations, and every other kind
of artificial light,--all of which he represented with greater
excellence than had ever been done before him. Visiting Italy, he became
charmed with the country and settled in Rome, where his little pictures,
usually painted on copper with microscopic and beautifully finished
figures, had great success. Elsheimer was visited by all the artists of
his country, including Poelemburg, who saw him in 1617. He was almost as
great in chiaroscuro as Rembrandt; and his immense reputation did not
diminish until after the eighteenth century.
=Cornelis van Poelemburg.=--A picture of Women Bathing, by Cornelis van
Poelemburg (1586-1667), is a fine example of his style. He studied first
under Bloemaert, but during a protracted visit to Italy he fell under
the influence of Elsheimer; and on his return to his own country he
became quite the rage as a painter of classic landscape. In Rome he had
been fascinated by Raphael's pictures, and studied him with affectionate
admiration. Poelemburg possessed a happy and tranquil nature.
=His Attractive Landscapes.=--"The little pictures that his
imagination painted breathe a quiet happiness, and are imprinted with
a suave poesy. They nearly always represent a countryside adorned with
ancient ruins and frequented by demi-nude nymphs. His landscapes,
enveloped in vapor which, while decreasing the dryness of the
outlines and crudity of the tones, would soften the aspect of the most
rugged spots, serve as a background for the whiteness of the goddesses
who dance with fauns or repose in the shade of some abandoned
monument. Sometimes, as though the vale that they dwell in were
reserved for the gods, Poelemburg's nymphs do not fear to remove their
light vesture and bathe in some open pool where only the painter may
see them. But, most frequently, it is in the neighborhood of a grotto,
at the foot of rocks perpetually washed by a spring of fresh water,
that one likes to surprise them, nude, trembling, their bodies
rendered whiter by the transparent veil of the atmosphere, playing
with the water they are disturbing, swimming after one another and
half-hidden by the current of their chaste fountains."
=Dutch Artists who migrated to Rome.=--Bartholomeus Breenborch
(1599-1659) was another member of that band of artists who at the
beginning of the seventeenth century deserted the banks of the Meuse for
those of the Tiber, and exchanged the land that was to produce Rembrandt
for the country of Raphael's birth. A few Dutch artists successfully
resisted the lures of the Eternal City; but the majority of painters of
that period followed the example of Elsheimer, Poelemburg, Karel
Dujardin, Herman Swanevelt, Andreas and Jan Both, and others, and formed
a little Dutch colony among the Seven Hills.
=Breenborch compared with Poelemburg.=--Breenborch devoted himself to
history and landscape alternately. His historical subjects were chiefly
Biblical and mythological. He was fond of painting classical landscapes
with ruins; and the only artist who could excel him in painting charming
little figures in a landscape was Van de Velde. The chief characteristic
of Poelemburg, with whom Breenborch is so often compared, is grace. The
only picture of this artist in The Hague Gallery, Mercury appearing to
the Nymph Herse, resembles Poelemburg both in subject and treatment.
=Van der Ulft's Architectural Paintings.=--Van der Ulft (1627-90),
another artist of this school, was originally a painter on glass.
Later, he turned to historical compositions of small dimensions; but his
real talent lay in the representation of architectural monuments, and
scenes inside city walls. It is strange that he never visited Italy, but
formed himself by the study of the works of returning Roman art pilgrims
and of engravings. His perspective is exact; his ancient ruins,
triumphal arches, and statues are correctly placed in his pictures, and
his architectural backgrounds, abounding in strong and golden grays,
form an excellent frame for the little figures that animate his spirited
paintings. He delighted to paint Roman processions. The Hague picture
shows an army on the march in a landscape adorned with architectural
remains.
=Nicolas Moeyaert's Best Points.=--A follower of Elsheimer, who later
became a disciple of Rembrandt, was Nicolas Moeyaert (1630-?), who
settled in Amsterdam in 1624 and joined the Painters' Guild in 1630. In
some of his pictures he imitated Rembrandt very closely. He excelled in
portraits, animals, landscapes, and historical and Biblical scenes. The
Hague Gallery contains three: Mercury appearing to the Nymph Herse;
Triumph of Silenus, and a Biblical scene, also called the Visit of
Antiochus to the Augur.
=Description of one of his Pictures.=--Antiochus, about to engage in a
war, is consulting the augur. In the centre stands the king dressed in a
long blue robe, with a white girdle and a purple cloak lined with fur;
also a furred bonnet. He is talking to an old man, the augur, who has a
long white beard. He is wrapped in a yellow cloak, is barefooted, and he
is writing in a book. By him are some animals, including a dog and some
rabbits, and on the right of Antiochus are two goats and a sheep. On a
rock on the left is a group of ten persons; and in the centre of the
picture between the two high rocks stand a tower and a temple. For
pupils Moeyaert had Berchem, Van der Does, Salomon Koninck, and J. B.
Weenix.
[Illustration: MOEYAERT
The Visit of Antiochus to the Augur]
=Pieters and Lastman.=--Gerrit Pieters, the best pupil of C. Cornelisz,
also went to Rome. He painted assemblies, _genre_, and small portraits;
his success prevented him from devoting himself to historical painting,
which he preferred. A pupil of his was Pieter Lastman (1583-1633), who
also made a long sojourn in Italy under Elsheimer's influence. He groped
about in different styles for a long time, devoting himself principally
to Biblical subjects. He learned a good deal about light effects from
Elsheimer; on his return he imparted what he knew to Rembrandt, who
studied with him for a short time. Later, when his brilliant pupil grew
famous, Lastman humbly followed his lead. Jan Lievens (1607-74), was
another of his pupils. A picture by him, painted in 1622, when Rembrandt
was still only fourteen years old, and therefore could not have
influenced him, is in the Mauritshuis. It is called The Resurrection of
Lazarus.
An artist who accompanied Lastman to Italy in 1605 was named Jan Pinas
(f. 1608-21). He painted portraits, landscapes, and historical subjects.
=Herman Swanevelt's Study of Nature.=--Herman Swanevelt (Herman of
Italy) (1600-55) was a pupil and imitator of Claude Lorraine in Rome,
whither he went in 1624, and where his excessive application to study
gained for him the name of "the Hermit" from the band of Dutch and
German artists established in that city. Unlike Claude, with whom he
used to walk in the environs of Rome, and who never sketched from
nature, Swanevelt always had his pencil in his hand, taking note of all
that he saw, studying the oaks and large plants, and copying the
buildings, campaniles, and vine-wreathed arcades and ruins. He left
nothing to his imagination. While Claude's landscapes speak of the
Golden Age, Swanevelt's are actual reproductions of the country as he
saw it. His buildings are not imaginary villas, temples, and palaces,
but are the Roman ruins and the facades and cloisters that he knew. In
his arrangement and composition he resembled Claude; and, like him,
often placed in the corner of his picture wooded mountains or large
trees, and sometimes even placed them in the very centre to make a
striking contrast to the very light background.
Naturally rude and savage, Swanevelt contributed some of his character
to his work. He liked bold mountains clothed with dark forests, deep
ravines, solitary places, and torrents bounding from the rocks; and he
understood how to mingle the heroic style with rural beauty.
Two Italian landscapes, one dated 1650, the other formerly attributed to
Claude Lorraine, hang in the Mauritshuis.
=J. van Swanenburch.=--Rembrandt spent three years in the studio of J.
van Swanenburch (d. 1638), who had finished his studies at Rome, and
worked in Naples for a long time, returning to Holland in 1617.
=Bloemaert, Founder of the School of Utrecht.=--Abraham Bloemaert
(1564-1651) constitutes in many respects the link of transition with the
succeeding epoch; for however his frequent mannerisms and gaudy coloring
betray the tasteless period in which he was born, his later pictures
show a power, taste, and broader touch. He painted a great number of
religious and mythological subjects, portraits, landscapes, and animals.
By reason of his talent and his long life (ninety-two years), he
exercised great influence over the School of Utrecht, and may be
regarded as its founder.
=Some of his Pupils.=--Among his principal pupils may be mentioned: J.
and A. Both, the Honthorsts, J. B. Weenix, Knupfer, Cornelis van
Poelemburg, and the father of Albert Cuijp. Two pictures painted in the
prime of his life are in The Hague Gallery; they deserve attention if
only for their size and the number of figures they contain. The subjects
are: Hippomenes receiving the Prize (signed and dated 1626), and the
Marriage of Peleus (signed and dated 1628). The latter was carried off
by the French, but returned after 1815.
=Description of the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis.=--"It is composed
of fourteen large figures, half nude, representing the gods of Olympus
celebrating the marriage of Thetis. Seated at table and distinguished
by their divine attributes, the gods appear to be troubled at the
sight of Discord, who descends from above, borne on a cloud, and
throws down among them the golden apple destined for the most
beautiful. In the foreground, with her back turned to the spectator,
is shown the figure of Venus, who displays unveiled her divine
shoulders, her voluptuous neck, and her incomparably beautiful body,
which will carry off the prize, and which has no need of the girdle of
beauty to render the goddess beloved. Elsewhere than in The Hague
Gallery this mythological painting would perhaps not excite more
remark than any other picture, but there, in the midst of a family,
_bourgeoise_, and Protestant school, which avoids the nude and ignores
academic conventions and style, a picture of this kind cannot fail
strongly to attract attention. Abraham Bloemaert, like the famous
Cornelis of Haarlem, has the air of an Italian who has gone astray in
these northern regions. These noble contours and learned lines, this
modelling of the flesh pursued with a certain pedanticism by the
former, and with grace and facility by the latter, and finally these
more or less violent foreshortenings,--those, for instance, offered by
this picture in the figures of Discord and the Loves who scatter
flowers or suspend from trees the curtain that decorates the place of
banqueting,--all this is at variance with the jollity and naturalism
of the Dutch; all this betrays the influence of a foreign style, an
influence that reigned in Holland in the sixteenth century,
disappeared at the arrival of Rembrandt, and did not return till the
appearance of Gerard de Lairesse, more than a century later."[3]
=Others who painted in the Italian Style.=--Nicholas (or Claes) Berchem
(1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), and Jan (or Johannes) Both
(1610-52), painted in the Italian style. Berchem was a pupil of his
father, Pieter Claes, and of J. B. Weenix, Moeyaert, Pieter de Grebber,
and probably Jan van Goyen. Karel Dujardin was a pupil of Berchem. All
three travelled in Italy; and all three are represented in The Hague
Gallery. Berchem has an Italian Landscape and Figures; an Italian
Landscape or Pastoral (dated 1648), with life-sized figures.
=Berchem's Picture of a Boar-Hunt.=--A Wild Boar Hunt, of the year 1659,
shows that he could successfully treat an animated scene. Crowe says:
"It is a model of precision combined with elegance of execution;
though at the same time that blue dark tone which, to the eye of a
connoisseur, so much detracts from the value of his later works,
already partially appears. This is more seen in a landscape dated 1661
in the same museum, though otherwise belonging to his more attractive
works. But here also the conventional and monotonous treatment of his
cattle begins to be visible.... But the most striking example of the
master's deterioration is afforded us by one of his latest works, the
Cavalry Engagement, in The Hague Museum, which is a very type of crude
and discordant effect and hardness of detail."
His fourth picture is An Italian Quay, dated 1661.
=Pictures by Dujardin, Jan Both, and Others.=--Karel Dujardin, famous
for his animals, portraits, and landscapes, can be well studied in a
fine Italian landscape, called A Cascade in Italy, rich and warm in tone
and dated 1673.
Johannes Both has two Italian landscapes, one of which glows with
sunshine and is remarkable for breadth and delicacy.
Other pictures showing this Italian influence are The Ambuscade and an
Italian landscape by Moucheron, with figures by J. Lingelbach; the
Terrestrial Paradise by Jan Brueghel the Elder; and The Torrent, by Adam
Pynacker.
=Adam Pynacker and Jan Both compared.=--Pynacker, though inferior to Jan
Both in his Italian landscapes, surpasses him in variety. His tone is
cooler than Both's, and he excels in painting early morning scenes. In
addition to pastoral scenes, he loves rocky heights, mountain ranges,
Italian harbors, bold bridges, and waterfalls.
Pynacker enlivened his landscapes with human figures and cattle, both of
which he was able to draw and paint extremely well.
=Albert Cuijp's Portrait of Sieur de Roovere.=--The famous Albert Cuijp
(1620-91) belongs to this group, being a pupil of his father, Jacob
Gerritsz Cuijp, who was a pupil of Abraham Bloemaert.
There is but one Cuijp in the Mauritshuis, Portrait of Sieur de Roovere
directing the salmon fishery near Dordrecht, which need not detain us
long, for we shall find more interesting examples of this master in the
Rijks. Burger calls this A View in the Environs of Dordrecht, and says
it is "a beautiful painting, but perhaps a little brusque." A gentleman
wearing a black hat with red plumes and mounted on a bay horse, is seen
on the left, to whom a fisherman in heavy boots is offering fish. On the
right lies a spaniel. In the middle distance are some fishermen, a black
horse, the other side of a canal, and a house. The two principal figures
are about a foot high.
=The Beginning of the School of Dutch Landscape.=--Jan Hackaert
(1629-99) forms a connecting link between those painters who represent
Northern and those who represent Southern scenery. He travelled when
young into Germany and Switzerland. The Hague has a good example of an
Italian landscape with figures by Lingelbach; but better examples of his
work are in the Rijks. This brings us to the beginning of the great
school of Dutch landscape, when the painters began to take an interest
in the scenery of their own country. Two great names are Jan van Goyen
(1596-1666) and Jan Wijnants (1600-77), important not only because of
their own productions, but because they were the first painters of Dutch
landscape, and each had followers and pupils who attained great fame.
Jan van Goyen was a pupil of Esais van de Velde and the master of
Salomon Ruisdael, who produced Jacob Ruisdael, who in turn produced
Hobbema. Another famous pupil was Simon de Vlieger, who was also a
follower of Willem van de Velde.
=Jan Wijnants and his Followers.=--Around Wijnants cluster Adriaen van
de Velde, Wouwermans, Lingelbach, Barent Gael, Schellinkx, and Helt
Stockade.
=Characteristics of Van Goyen's Works.=--Jan van Goyen was fortunate in
being the son of an amateur of painting, who encouraged his talent.
After studying with various artists of no special reputation, he
travelled in France and on his return studied with Esais van de Velde.
He is always simple in painting and manner. Ordinarily he selects
tranquil river scenes on which merchant ships or fishing-boats are
quietly sailing. You often see hamlets on piles, and, very frequently,
the steeple of a church, standing out in picturesque contrast to the
horizon line. Sometimes a ruined tower forms the chief motive of his
composition.
=His Marines and Watery Landscapes.=--One of the principal
characteristics of Van Goyen's marines and landscapes is their
peacefulness, calmness, and slight touch of sadness. It is not the
sadness inspired by Ruisdael's groves, but a gentle melancholy feeling
that touches the imagination and induces dreams. The sun never appears
in Van Goyen's pictures. Humid clouds veil his skies, which in their
light portions have the silvery tones of Teniers. His beach or shore is
generally enveloped in a grayish mist, and in the moving clouds you feel
the breath of wind and fancy you hear it sigh. His long flat surface, so
dull and solitary, is animated only by a fishing-boat or a shallop.
Holland, because of its water-ways, is a silent country and the
impression of silence and peace is marvellously reproduced in Van
Goyen's pictures. He never allows a brilliant tone to disturb the
uniformity and harmony of his watery landscapes; but behind the clouds
that float across the sky you divine the far-away sun, like a light
behind a curtain. The famous View of the City of Dordrecht, by the
latter, signed and dated 1634, is a splendid example of his qualities
and style.
=His Illustrious Pupils.=--After his marriage, Van Goyen established
himself in Leyden, his native town, where he opened a school, to which
flocked painters who afterward became illustrious. Among them was Jan
Steen, who married Van Goyen's daughter Marguerite.
Only one of Esais van de Velde's (1590-1630) pictures--A Dinner in the
Open Air, painted in 1614, hangs in this gallery, so that one cannot
learn here how much Jan van Goyen owed to his master.
Hermann Saftleven (1606-81), a pupil of Jan van Goyen, painted, as a
rule, views of the Rhine and Moselle with small boats and figures. He
was a good portrait-painter and was successful with animals. His
Landscape with Cattle is a charming example of his work.
To Salomon Ruisdael, who so greatly resembles Jan van Goyen with his
pictures of canals, bordered with houses and trees, river banks, etc.,
we shall return when visiting the Rijks; for the Mauritshuis possesses
no picture of this artist. He taught his more famous brother.
=The Greatest of the Dutch Landscape-Painters.=--"Jacob Ruisdael
(1628-82) is beyond all dispute the greatest of the Dutch
landscape-painters. In the works of no other do we find that feeling
for the poetry of Northern nature and perfection united in the same
degree. With admirable drawing he combined a knowledge of chiaroscuro
in its most multifarious aspects, a coloring powerful and warm, and a
mastery of the brush, which, while never too smooth in surface, ranges
from the tenderest and most minute touch to the broadest, freest, and
most marrowy execution. The prevailing tone of his coloring is a full,
decided green. Unfortunately, however, many of his pictures have, in
the course of years, acquired a heavy brown tone, and thus forfeited
their highest charm. Many also were originally painted in a grayish
but clear tone."
=His Favorite Subjects.=--"He generally presents us with the flat and
homely scenery of his native country under the conditions of repose;
while the usually heavy clouded sky, which tells either of a shower
just past or one impending, and dark sheets of water overshadowed by
trees, impart a melancholy character to his pictures. Especially does
he delight in representing a wide expanse of land or water. If the
former, the scene is frequently taken from some elevation in the
surrounding country, commanding a view of his native city, Haarlem,
which is seen breaking the line of the horizon with its spires.
"Taken altogether, his wide expanses of sky, earth, or sea, with
their tender gradations of aerial perspective, diversified here and
there by alternations of sunshine and shadow, may be said to attract
us as much by the deep pathos as well as picturesqueness of their
character. On the other hand, we often find the great master taking
pleasure in the representation of hilly and even mountainous
districts, with foaming waterfalls, in which he has won some of his
greatest triumphs; or he gives us a bare pile of rock, with a dark
lake at its base; but these latter subjects, which embody the feeling
of the most elevated melancholy, occur very rarely. In his drawing of
men and animals he was weak, and occasionally obtained the assistance
of other masters, especially of A. van de Velde and Berchem."
=Difference between his Earlier and Later Works.=--"As he seldom dated
his pictures, and early attained his full development, we find a
difficulty in determining the order in which they were painted. His
earlier works, however, may be identified by the extraordinary
minuteness with which all objects--trees, plants, and every diversity
in the soil--are represented; by a decision of form bordering on
hardness, and by less freedom of handling and delicacy of aerial
perspective."[4]
=Reynolds's Estimate of him as a Landscape-Painter.=--Four very fine
examples of Jacob van Ruisdael are owned by the Mauritshuis: a Cascade,
a Strand, View of Haarlem, and View of the Vijver at The Hague.
After a study of these beautiful works, Sir Joshua Reynolds's estimate
of the painter will not seem excessive: "The landscapes of Ruisdael," he
says, "have not only great force, but have a freshness which is seen in
scarce any other painter."
=His Character seen in his Paintings.=--Ruisdael is considered by many
critics the greatest of the Dutch landscape-painters. His execution is
always masterly, and his works always express a poetic sentiment.
Ruisdael delights in portraying sombre forests, rushing cascades, trees
bent by the wind, gathering storm-clouds, and all the dark mysteries of
the woodlands. His misfortunes probably had much to do with increasing
his natural melancholy, to the great gain of his artistic development.
As a rule, the paintings of his mature period have greatly blackened
because he loved to paint sombre backgrounds, and always used a very
dark green for his foliage and other verdure. His earlier works have
remained brighter in tint; for at the beginning of his career he painted
the dunes and meadows, woods and roads near Haarlem, bathed in light
from sunny skies half veiled with clouds.
[Illustration: RUISDAEL
Distant View of Haarlem]
=His Picture of Haarlem.=--The View of Haarlem, taken from the dunes of
Overveen, shows a bird's-eye view of an immense stretch of country. In
the foreground is shown a level meadow on which strips of white linen
are being bleached; and on the left are the houses of the washerwomen.
Beyond, a vast stretch of country almost destitute of trees or
dwellings, reaches to the horizon line, where the town of Haarlem, with
its bell-tower, is discerned.
"All these miles of country," exclaims Burger, "are represented on a
little canvas only one foot eight inches high!"
This picture is regarded as one of the gems of The Hague Gallery.
The Cascade is noted for its warm lighting and careful execution; and
the beautiful Beach at Scheveningen for its heavy gathering clouds and
dim and broken light upon the water and shipping.
=Ruisdael's Sea Pieces.=--Ruisdael's sea-pieces are few; and, unlike
Willem van de Velde, he never represents the ocean in repose; his sea is
always stormy and sometimes raging, and the sky is full of heavy, angry
clouds. The waves are always fluid and full of motion.
=Some of his Notable Works.=--The Mauritshuis has the rare luck to
possess three pictures by Ruisdael, which are splendidly preserved, and
each of which exemplifies a separate style of the master. A fourth one,
bought more recently, is also exceedingly interesting in its way,
because it gives a view of the Vijverberg in The Hague; but the rest of
this picture is of such dubious art, and the color so sunken, that it
cannot hold its own beside the others in the collection. The Strand and
the View of Haarlem belong to the artist's middle period (between 1660
and 1670) as well as the Cascade. Bredius says:
"The still, heavy impasto and the clearness of the color make me think
it is one of the first waterfalls that Ruisdael painted. We never, or
hardly ever, find pictures of the painter's earliest period (covering
the years 1646 to 1655) in the Dutch galleries.
"A fine, strong, cleverly painted little picture of Ruisdael's,
painted in 1653, was sent to the Amsterdam Gallery with the Dupper
Collection. Another very clear, lovely, and beautifully worked study
of the Dunes, with a Grove, similar to the picture in the Louvre, is
owned by Madame van Vollenhoven in Amsterdam. A somewhat dark but
strong and spirited study, the Hut in the Dunes, also of his early
period, was lately acquired by the Haarlem Gallery, which hitherto had
owned nothing of Ruisdael's. These early pictures, of which, for
instance, the Leipzig Exhibition in the Autumn of 1889 was able to
show very important examples (the figures are often supplied by
Berchem), are very highly esteemed by connoisseurs."
=Love of Nature seen in his Earlier Works.=--"In these works we see
the youthful painter turning exclusively to Nature: a clump of bushes
on a dune; a glimpse of the 'Haarlemer Hout'; a grove of trees on the
shore, he paints exactly as he saw them. But how he saw them! In these
early pictures his color is brighter, his manner of painting thicker
and stronger than in his later works. Instead of the beautiful clouds
for which Ruisdael was so famous, we often see the sky still painted
in a more antique manner, with striped clouds in the style of his
uncle Salomon.
=His Growth toward Composition.=--"Gradually his subjects become more
'composed,' but in the best sense of the word. Only occasionally does
he wander away, as, for instance, in the Dresden Jewish Cemetery,
which lay in the neighborhood of Amsterdam, but which he set in a
fanciful landscape unknown to himself. He had quite another intention
in the picture before us: the View of Haarlem from Overveen, with its
bleaching-green in the foreground. Above it a beautifully clouded sky
with the floating clouds casting their shadows here and there over the
broad landscape. Amsterdam owns a similar picture; the Berlin Gallery
another; the Ritter de Steurs in Maestricht, a fourth; and there are
still others in private collections in England and Paris. Each of
these pictures has a new excellence,--Nature glorified through an
artistic eye and immortalized with the practised hand of an artist.
What mastery there is in the representation of the broad, broad
space!"
=His Carefulness of Detail.=--"Nevertheless Ruisdael does not neglect
the detail of his landscapes. We need only notice in him the
tree-characteristics--how carefully he handles every kind of foliage
in accordance with the forms of its leaves and branches; but with him
the whole is never subordinated to the details. When he paints the
sea--he does not paint it often--he does it better and more
artistically than any other painter. What a mighty effect his great
marine in Berlin produces! The real air from the sea seems to blow
upon us. Views of the seashore by him are even rarer. The Hague
picture shows us a beautiful view of a sea and sky happily illuminated
without the dark, melancholy tone which so often dwells in his works,
and which we would consider as a reflection of his own sad moods. Who
can it be that painted the fine figures in this picture? Perhaps it
was Eglon van der Neer."
=Vermeer's View of Delft.=--Vermeer of Delft (1632-75) was a pupil of
Karel Fabricius (whom we shall meet in the Rijks), who was a pupil of
Rembrandt. One of the most important and beautiful pictures in The Hague
Gallery is Vermeer's View of Delft. On an appreciative eye and receptive
mood it leaves a tenacious impression which will never be forgotten.
Until about thirty years ago, Vermeer of Delft was hardly thought of,
although in his own day his pictures were highly prized and sought
after, and later his work received great praise from Sir Joshua
Reynolds. It was the French critic Burger (Thore), who rehabilitated
this great artist.
Bredius exclaims:
"How this picture shines out from the others around it like a stream
of light out of dark clouds!
"All the light which the artist saw fall upon his town, he has
succeeded in concentrating at once in this picture, the broad,
masterful, sure painting, the luminous colors, the clear sky which
arches over the town, all excite our highest admiration."
A drawing said to be a sketch for this picture is in the Stadel
Institute of Frankfort. The picture which brought 200 florins in 1698
was sold for 2,900 gulden at the Stinstra sale in 1822. (See
Frontispiece.)
=A Painter of Light and Sun.=--The beautiful picture of Diana and her
Nymphs, which was bought as a Maes in Paris in 1876 for 4,725 gulden, is
now attributed by some people to this master, and by others to Vermeer
of Utrecht.
Lemke says:
"Vermeer was a painter of the light and sun school; and this was his
chief study--to catch and hold fast the moment. What Frans Hals did
for physiognomy, grasping the flying moment in an incomparable manner
with winks, smiles, leers, gesticulations, etc., and fixing it in
paint, that Vermeer, as a landscape-painter, delighted to do for the
sunshine. He shows its rays streaming into a room or the play of light
and shadow when the light with the moving air falls through heavy
foliage against a bright house and paints it with rays of light and
shade. Unlike the moment of Rembrandt and Ruisdael, which is fixed for
all eternity, with Vermeer the moment vibrates in the light. The
shadows lose their sharp outlines, and the fine brush-work suggests
the living change and play of the light. Rembrandt paints light in
darkness and lets it glow in the dark, or streaming into it, or in a
broad flood of brilliance; but Vermeer prefers to set darkness or
twilight against the light. For interiors, Vermeer has another palette
and mode of painting than for the outdoor pictures. When he selects
the moment for this, where the scene consists of trees, houses, water,
etc., it would seem that the artist wanted to make us blink, as if we
were looking at the sun."
=Vermeer's Portrait of a Girl.=--Vermeer did not confine himself to
landscape. In 1903, The Hague Gallery acquired by bequest a remarkable
portrait by this master, the portrait of a girl wearing a buff coat, a
blue and cream turban, and magnificent pearl earrings, on which are
"concentrated," says the enthusiastic Frank Rinder,
"those dreams of gray, which are Vermeer's. Although in this portrait,
with its liquid spots of light, we at once apprehend the presence of
Vermeer, with his nostalgia for the interpretation of a beauty
visioned inwardly rather than seen with the eye, the picture passed
through the auction rooms at The Hague in 1878, fetching only 230
florins. It was bequeathed in 1903 to the Mauritshuis by M. des
Tombes."
"In his laying on of paint he was distinguished," says Frank Rinder,
"even among his technically well-equipped contemporaries; by virtue of
his isolated vision, he is of all the Little Dutchmen the one inimitable
weaver of spells."
=Jan Wijnants's Love for the Dunes.=--Jan Wijnants (1615-80) has two
pictures in the Mauritshuis, Clearing in the Forest (1659) and Road
through the Dunes (1675). Wijnants, the Haarlemite, loved his dunes, and
when he lived for years in Amsterdam (probably he died there), he
painted them even more frequently,--every little hill, with its sandy
rises and with little stunted trees, and those roads marked with deep
wagon-ruts, almost always bright and illumined with warm sunshine. How
had he observed them? How did he always know how to discover the
paintable spot? Frankly, his fancy sometimes made the hills somewhat
higher than we really find them at Haarlem; indeed, sometimes, he
created landscapes with so poetic a flight, or we might say he sometimes
composed them to such an extent that in truth we might seek them in vain
in Holland; as, for instance, the great pictures in the Munich museum.
We are, therefore, forced to conclude that he had seen Claude Lorraine's
pictures, and wanted to paint somewhat in the same spirit. In Haarlem he
was painted by Wouwermans, and as a fine little cavalier.
=His Pictures enlivened by other Artists.=--When he settled down in
Amsterdam in 1660, the always ready Adriaen van de Velde often assisted
him by enlivening his landscapes with charming little figures. He had no
idea that at present a Wijnants would be so much more highly valued on
account of his little figures than it would be without them. Lingelbach
undertook this work later, straining after Van de Velde but not
reaching him. In his early pictures, Wijnants is somewhat labored; but
by and by he acquires that sureness of painting which must have become
ever easier to him because he almost always painted the same subjects
and the same style of landscape. In his last pictures he was quite broad
and decorative in style, but less convincing. One picture with fine
little figures by Lingelbach bears the date 1675. In his Clearing in the
Forest (1659) he has depicted his favorite subjects: the old oaks
mutilated by the storm and partly stripped of their bark; the fallen
trunk of a tree and large, handsome plants, whose leaves pour raindrops
over the blades of grass that have pushed their way up between them. Van
de Velde has added to this lovely landscape a distant farm, cattle
walking along the road, and a pond crossed by a rustic bridge. "With
such simple objects," exclaims Blanc, "Wijnants and his pupil have
produced a masterpiece, expressing a poetry that few could perhaps
explain, but which every well-organized man can feel."
=Neglect of Dutch Scenery by Dutch Artists.=--Wijnants, like Van Goyen,
is not only an excellent painter but chief of a school. Until their time
the artists of the Netherlands hunted for scenery outside of their
country; for instance, Memling and Saftleven chose the borders of the
Rhine; others, like Savery, liked to wander in the Tyrol; others, like
Paul Bril, visited the Alps; others, like Everdingen, went to Norway to
get inspiration from pine forests and foaming cascades; and Asselijn,
Berghem, Jan Both, Moucheron, and Pynacker sought the sunny clime of
classic Italy. Into the "Italian landscapes," which they either brought
home or finished from memory when they returned, they frequently
introduced among the classic ruins and sunlit verdure the cattle and
peasants of their own country.
=Wijnants the Leader of a new School.=--Wijnants was one of the first to
take pleasure in his own country. In the environs of Haarlem, his native
town, he saw much that would make pictures of charm; so, while other
painters were roaming in foreign lands, he took walks in the
neighboring meadows and followed the paths that led to the dunes,
noticing everything on the way,--the tufts of grass, the shrubs, the
moss-covered stones, the trees, the roads, the hillocks, the flowers,
and taking note of the reflections of light on the bark of the trees,
the lichens growing on the stump of a tree, the common bugloss, burdock,
and thistle, and the swarming insects. Wijnants was the first to show
that poetry was to be found in the lonely walk that led to the sea.
=His Influence on other Artists.=--Nature seems to have been his chief
master; but he soon became the master of others. Adriaen van de Velde,
for instance, feeling his vocation for landscape, entered his studio in
Haarlem. It is said that one day his wife said to him, "Wijnants, this
child is your pupil to-day, but one day he will be your master." Instead
of being jealous, the painter never ceased to boast of his pupil's
talent, and even allowed him to contribute the figures in many of his
landscapes,--for Wijnants could paint only earth, trees, and sky. A
great number of the figures in Wijnants's pictures, therefore, are the
work of Adriaen van de Velde, who always introduces them modestly and in
such a way that they render the landscape even more attractive. Philips
Wouwermans and Lingelbach also were employed by Wijnants to add figures
to his pictures, and a few times Adriaen van Ostade aided him, also
Gael, Schellinkx (who painted the dunes very well himself), Jan
Wouwermans, Nicholas de Helt Stockade, the painter of battles, and
Wyntranck, the clever painter of farmyard animals.
=Dutch Landscape-Painters who followed Wijnants.=--Wijnants was, as has
been said, one of the creators of the Dutch landscape, one of the first
to imitate Nature in her humbler expression, finding beauty in common
things. After him came such landscape-artists as Philips Wouwermans,
Adriaen van de Velde, Daniel Schellinkx, Isaac Ostade, Karel Dujardin,
Paul Potter, and in some respects the great Ruisdael.
=Van de Velde's Favorite Subjects.=--Adriaen van de Velde (1635-72) was
a painter of animals, figures, interiors (rarely religious and
historical subjects). He is worthily represented in The Hague Gallery by
two pictures: a Dutch Roadstead and a Landscape with Cattle. Van de
Velde is also responsible for the figures in the pictures of Van der
Hagen (No. 47), Van der Heyde (No. 53), and Wijnants (No. 212), in this
gallery. Bode says:
=Impressionism and Naturalism.=--"Adriaen van de Velde is one of the
few artists by whom landscape and figures composed in a masterly
manner are both felt and thought out harmoniously. He stands so close
to our modern impression as does scarcely another of his day, being so
simple in his motives and going so straight to nature, that he knows
how to reveal the intimate connection between the outside world and
our own feeling. A real painter of moods, he excels in awakening in us
dark and gloomy feelings; his shadowy forest-glimpses on summer days,
with herdsmen reclining beside their panting cattle in obvious rest.
His bright mornings with the hunting-parties called together to the
halloo, with the gentlemen and nobles promenading on the walks near
their equipages, ring fresh and gay in the heart of the spectator; in
his homelike evening-feeling with the sound of the returning cattle,
he affects us with the feeling of happy departure and well-earned
rest."
[Illustration: A. VAN DE VELDE
A Dutch Roadstead]
=His Helpfulness to other Artists.=--The strong feeling in the figures,
and, particularly, the lifelike color of the landscape, is so individual
that almost all the landscape-painters of his home--Amsterdam--made use
of his assistance in peopling their landscapes,--Wijnants, Ruisdael,
Hobbema, Hackaert, F. R. de Moucheron, Ph. de Koninck, Verboom, and,
above all, Jan van der Heyde, have made excessive use of his services
and ability. Even with these artists, who were so foreign to each other
in style, the figures that he introduced are so fine that the force of
the landscape in both feeling and artistic effect is strengthened in the
highest degree; indeed, many of these pictures have attained a higher
fame solely through these contributions by the hand of Adriaen van de
Velde.
=His Skill as a Colorist.=--"The paintings of this artist have an
additional attraction in their rich and harmonious coloring, the
fineness of the tone, and the peculiar tender manipulation of the
pigments, which have such a soothing artistic effect.
"Some pictures painted in his last years have suffered by the sinking
in and change of color (notably the increase of blue in the green
leafage), by which some of their effect has been lost. The Landscape
with Cattle has not sunk in; but it has, nevertheless, lost some of
its original color in the green of the trees. The idyllic landscape
with its joyous, bright sunlight and its peaceful animal life, is a
good specimen of this style of Van de Velde's work. The picture is
signed 'A. V. Velde, 1663.'"[5]
=His Sea Pieces.=--The second picture of this artist in this gallery, A
Dutch Strand (1665) with numerous figures, is more important. Two
similar views of the seashore by him are at Cassel and in the Six
collection; and all these examples show that great and simple
representation of the sea, in which he is also remarkable for his fine
poetic feeling, equalling that in similar works by his brother Willem.
=Wouwermans's Delight in painting Horses.=--Philips Wouwermans's
(1619-68) half century of life was industriously spent in producing
about eight hundred pictures. Although his preference for the
representation of the horse is evident in almost all his works, there is
great variety in the treatment. Wouwermans is at the same time a
striking landscape-painter. In many of his pictures the landscape is
astonishingly often foreign and sometimes even Italian in subject, and
the figures are merely lay-figures. The Country Riding-School plainly
exhibits the artist's delight in horses. How beautifully painted are the
grays on the right! He draws a brown horse so often that it must have
been in particular favor. Some of his pictures must certainly have cost
the painter a great deal of time, especially when numerous figures occur
in them; as, for instance, in his horse-fairs and battle pictures.
=The Fruits of his Great Industry.=--It would appear that Wouwermans was
well paid, for he was able to give his daughter, who married the
flower-painter, De Fromantiou, a handsome dower,--Houbraken says 20,000
gulden! He was buried with pomp in Haarlem, on May 23, 1668, having
bequeathed to his widow, who was destined not to survive him two years,
a very good estate; and to us such a treasury of his art that we can
enjoy it all over the world, in almost every important public and
private collection.
=The Variety and Abundance of his Works.=--Whether he shows us the horse
wildly rearing in the battle or quietly watering at the river, or being
trained by an expert hand, or returning home to a well-cared-for stall
after a long ride, we always admire again the rich variety of the
master, who, an eminent horseman of knowledge and enthusiasm, never
wearies us as such. Many of his pictures are a true reproduction of the
farm life, or of the warfare of his day; and, on that account, have,
moreover, a historical value. Dresden alone possesses sixty-two, and St.
Petersburg fifty, of his pictures. The Hague Gallery has to be content
with nine. These are a Battle; the Hunt with Falcon; Arrival and
Departure from an Inn; A Country House; The Hay-Wagon; the Hunters'
Halt, a charming example of his earliest period; A Landscape with
Horses; and a Camp. In all these the horse plays an important part.
=Description of The Hay-Wagon.=--The Hay-Wagon is a popular work
representing a large canal and a large hay-wagon drawn by two horses,
and a man on horseback with a woman behind him on a pillion; farther
away are seen men loading boats with the hay. In the foreground on the
right are a woman with a little boy, a chariot drawn by a horse which is
led by a peasant.
[Illustration: P. WOUWERMANS
The Hay Wain]
=The Arrival at an Inn.=--The beautiful Arrival at an Inn represents an
inn and a barn. On the one side a coach is arriving, and on the left a
mounted lady and cavalier. Others are getting booted and spurred and
saddling mettlesome steeds prefatory for departure. In the left
foreground, a dwarf, a charlatan, and a monkey, eating a simple meal,
regardless of the bustle around them, give a touch of the life of the
travelling mountebank. A handsome castle closes the view on the left.
[Illustration: P. WOUWERMANS
The Arrival at the Inn]
=Crowe's Appreciation of Wouwermans.=--"Wouwermans's authentic works
are distinguished by great spirit and animation, and are infinitely
varied and full of incident, though dealing recurrently with cavalry
battle pieces, military encampments, scenes of cavalcades, and hunting
and hawking parties. He is equally excellent in his vivacious
treatment of figures, in his skilful animal painting, and in his
admirable and appropriate introduction of landscape backgrounds. Three
different styles have been observed as characteristic of the various
periods of his art. His earlier works are marked by the prevalence of
a foxy brown coloring, and by a tendency to an angular form in the
draughtsmanship; the productions of his middle period have greater
purity and brilliancy, and his latest and greatest pictures possess
more of force and breadth, and are full of a delicate silvery gray
tone."[6]
=Reynolds on Wouwermans's Three Different Manners.=--On his visit to the
Royal Collection in 1781, Sir Joshua Reynolds was greatly impressed with
the pictures of this artist, and said:
"Here are many of the best works of Wouwermans whose pictures are well
worthy the attention and close examination of a painter. One of the
most remarkable of them is known by the name of The Hay-Cart; another,
in which there is a coach and horses, is equally excellent. There are
three pictures hanging close together in his three different manners:
his middle manner is by much the best; the first and last have not
that liquid softness which characterizes his best works. Besides his
great skill in coloring, his horses are correctly drawn, very
spirited, of a beautiful form, and always in unison with their ground.
Upon the whole, he is one of the few painters whose excellence in his
way is such as leaves nothing to be wished for."
Johannes Lingelbach (1623-74), a native of Frankfort-on-the-Main,
settled in Amsterdam on his return from Italy. He was frequently
employed by Wijnants to insert figures and animals in his landscapes. He
was a successful imitator of Wouwermans.
=Crowe's Estimate of Lingelbach's Powers.=--"Lingelbach's coloring, as
was almost always the case with Wijnants's, and also with Wouwermans's
in his latest manner, is characterized by a cool and often delicate
silvery tone, which with him sometimes degenerates into coldness and
want of harmony. In his flesh, especially, a cold red tone often
prevails, added to which, neither in clearness nor impasto, does he
equal the above-named masters. He ranks, however, high for skill in
composition, good drawing, careful execution, to which is sometimes
added a happy vein of humor. He may be studied under all his different
aspects in the galleries of the Louvre, The Hague, and Amsterdam. Of
the four pictures by him in the gallery of The Hague, the Italian
Seaport, dated 1670, is remarkable for a power and warmth quite
unusual in this painter."[7]
=Examples showing the Variety of Lingelbach's Style.=--The variety of
his style is well exhibited in The Hague Gallery by four pictures of
different dates. These are the Italian Seaport, with large figures,
signed and dated 1670; the Departure of Charles II. from Scheveningen
for England in 1660, a very rich, luminous, and fine work; a small
Cavalry March, in which the little figures are beautifully executed and
are thoroughly original; and a Landscape with a Hay-Wagon, much in the
manner of Philips Wouwermans.
=Weakness of the Mauritshuis in Marines.=--The Mauritshuis is weak in
marines: two by Willem van de Velde; three by Backhuysen, two by Abraham
Storck, a view of the Amstel at Amsterdam by Torenburg (1737-86), a few
Italian Seaports, and a few Beaches at Scheveningen painted by the
landscape artists are all that the gallery owns.
=Excellence of W. van de Velde's Marines.=--Willem van de Velde
(1633-1707) stands very high in the ranks of the marine painters of the
seventeenth century. In the last years of that century we have artists
like Simon de Vlieger, Jan van de Capelle, Hendrik Dubbels, and Abraham
van Beyerex (in his rare marines); but Van de Velde is a master in his
sphere, especially when he represents the calm sea under bright
sunlight.
In his View on the Y we obtain enjoyment from the fine aerial
perspective, the correct drawing of the ships, and the numerous little
figures. The accuracy of the detail does not detract from the wonderful
composition, the play of the sunlight on sail and water, and the
beautiful sky, lightly flecked with clouds. Probably, the gaily
decorated ship on the left is the yacht of the Princes of Orange; the
boat which is being rowed away from it is bringing important visitors to
shore, while the trumpeter on the ship loudly announces their departure.
Although not of the very first rank, this picture belongs to the best
work of the master's middle period.
The other picture, of exactly the same size, is also identical in
subject and treatment. Both are small. The other picture owned in the
Mauritshuis is the Capture of the Royal Prince (June 18, 1666).
=His Greatness as a Marine Painter.=--"There is no question that
Willem van de Velde the younger is the greatest marine painter of the
whole Dutch school. His untiring study of nature of which his numerous
sepia drawings are the best evidence, his perfect knowledge of lineal
and aerial perspective and the incomparable technical process which he
inherited from his school,--all these qualifications enabled him to
represent the great element under every form, whether that of the
raging storm, the gentlest crisping wind, or of the profoundest calm,
with the utmost truth of form and color. Nor are his skies, with their
transparent ether and light and airy clouds, less entitled to
admiration than his seas; the surface of which he diversified, with
the purest feeling for the picturesque, by various vessels, near and
distant, which are drawn with a knowledge that extends to every rope.
Finally his various lightnings create the most charming effect of
light and shade. With this combination of qualities, so calculated to
please a seafaring nation, it is no wonder that he should have become
the most popular painter with the Dutch and English."[8]
=The Fulness of his Knowledge of the Sea and Ships.=--Both England and
Holland, the two greatest sea nations, agree that Willem van de Velde
was the greatest marine painter up to his time. In fact, no one had so
well observed the motion of the waters, their breaking, or their repose;
and no one knew so well the habits of sailors, the rigging of boats,
their behavior and their variety. He knew how to make them picturesque,
whether isolated between the sky and the water in the most beautiful
lines, or in cleverly foreshortening them while they gently rock on the
waves singly, or in picturesque groups. Nobody has better understood the
profound calm of the ocean, or better expressed the emotion produced by
an infinite horizon.
=The Van de Velde Family.=--The family was talented. Willem the Elder,
born at Leyden in 1611, was a magnificent draughtsman, and taught his
sons, Willem and Adriaen, drawing. Willem, however, became a pupil of
Simon de Vlieger, and the pictures that he sent to his father, then in
the service of the English king, astonished the Court. James II. sent
for the young man and offered him a pension. In England he frequently
colored his father's drawings; and on the Thames from Greenwich to
London he had a great opportunity for the study of shipping.
=The Simplicity of W. van de Velde's Pictures.=--With very simple
details, Willem van de Velde produces marvellous effects. He paints the
ocean from the shore to the distant horizon; and this straight line is
in beautiful contrast to the rounded clouds, while the severity of the
tall masts is relieved by the curves of the puffing sails. Sometimes a
group of fishermen on the beach or the end of a wharf of piles is seen
in the foreground; but he more frequently begins his picture in the
middle distance and gives the foreground up to waves slightly agitated
or with a buoy tossing in the rising tide, in such a way as to suggest
that the picture was painted not from the shore but from a vessel at
anchor.
=W. van de Velde compared with other Painters.=--Sir Joshua Reynolds
said: "Another Raphael might be born; but there could never be a second
Willem van de Velde"; and Havard calls him "not only the greatest marine
painter of the Dutch school, but also one of the greatest in the whole
world." Blanc draws the following distinction between Van de Velde and
Backhuysen: "Backhuysen makes us fear the sea, whilst Van de Velde makes
us love it."
=Backhuysen, a Painter of Ships and Shipping.=--Backhuysen (1631-1708)
probably owed his darker moods to his master Allart van Everdingen, who
was a pupil of Pieter Molijn (1600-54), whose works are now so rare, and
who was also one of the founders of Dutch landscape-painting. Backhuysen
was a painter of ships and shipping, as well as of the sea, and had a
practical knowledge of nautical matters.
=Examples showing his Style.=--Three pictures in The Hague Gallery
afford good examples for study of his style. One, Entrance to a Dutch
Port, dated 1693, shows an agitated sea, very remarkable for the happy
distribution of sunlight and shadows of clouds upon the water, and broad
yet delicate treatment; another is a View of the Wharf Belonging to the
Dutch East India Company, and is dated 1696; and the third has for its
subject The Landing of William III. of England in the Oranje Polder in
1692.
=Imitators of Backhuysen.=--Pictures by Jan van de Capelle and Jan
Dubbels often pass for Backhuysen's; and another imitator is Abraham
Storck, who is greatly inferior in elegance of touch. Good examples of
Storck's style--a Marine and a Shore--hang in The Hague Gallery. Storck
was much influenced by Lingelbach. The latter was also quite successful
with his harbors and quays, with their shipping and human figures.
=Simon de Vlieger as a Painter of the Ocean.=--A greater painter,
however, is Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), who is supposed to have studied
under Jan van Goyen, and painted landscapes in the style of that master;
he is famous for his marines. He frequently painted sea pieces which
included the coast. He was the first to represent the ocean in its
varying moods. His execution is free and soft, and his aerial
perspective very fine. Like the majority of the Dutch painters he loved
to paint Scheveningen. His Beach at Scheveningen, signed and dated 1643,
is a fine example of his work.
=The Diversity of his Subjects.=--"De Vlieger often paints birds of
the farmyard, which, both in truth and delicacy, are equal to anything
produced either by Hondecoeter or Flamen. His horses, hares, and sheep
may certainly pair with those of Van der Hecke, Jouckeer, or Jean
Leducq; his pigs are observed differently from those of Karel
Dujardin, but perhaps they are more true to nature because he has not
put any malice or irony into his representation of them. The diversity
of his subjects, the talent he displays in grouping figures and
animals in an extensive landscape, or in a boat passing along a canal,
or on the beach of Scheveningen where, in The Hague picture, we see
them huddling together as if the ocean had just cast them ashore with
its shells and fishes; the art of lighting them so as to delight the
eyes without too greatly distracting the mind from the spectacle of
vast nature and the infinite ocean--all that makes Simon de Vlieger
one of the most remarkable Dutch masters."[9]
De Vlieger was as eminent in interiors, ruins, and processions as in
marines and landscapes. He loved to frame familiar and rustic scenes in
beautiful landscapes; and he had no need to call upon others, such as
Barent Gael, Schellinkx or Van de Velde, for his figures, as so many of
his contemporaries did.
=Painters of Architectural Pictures: De Vries.=--Pictures in which
architecture forms the chief interest had their beginning with Jan
Vriedeman de Vries, who devoted himself to the study of Vitruvius and
Serlio. His works were very successful, though in the mannered taste of
his time.
=Hendrik van Steenwyck and his Son.=--A scholar of his, Hendrik van
Steenwyck (1550-1604), who became a master in Antwerp in 1577, painted
chiefly interiors of Gothic churches of fine perspective, both lineal
and aerial, and was the first to represent the light of torches and
tapers on architectural forms. One of the very numerous Francken family
usually added the human figures. His son Hendrik van Steenwyck was his
pupil and follower, though he painted in a cooler tone and was inferior
in all respects.
=Pieter Neeffs and his Son.=--Pieter Neeffs (1620-75), however, was the
elder Steenwyck's best pupil. He followed him in style but excelled him
in warmth of tone, power, and truthfulness in expressing torchlight
effects. Many of his pictures contain figures by Frans Francken the
younger, Jan Breughel, and David Teniers the elder. In the Mauritshuis
we find a good example of Pieter Neeffs,--The Interior of a Church, with
figures by Frans Francken III.
His son of the same name was his pupil and follower, but produced
pictures of inferior merit. To this group belongs Bartholomew van
Bassen, who painted interiors of the Renaissance churches and halls.
=Van der Heyden's Architectural Paintings.=--Jan van der Heyden
(1637-1712) is "the Gerrit Dou of architectural painters." His subjects
chiefly are well-known buildings, palaces, churches, etc., in Holland
and Belgium, canals in Dutch towns with houses on their banks, fine
perspective, the views selected with great taste. The trees are rather
minute in foliage. The figures in many of his works were supplied by A.
van de Velde, and after his death by Eglon van der Neer and Lingelbach.
A View of the Church of the Jesuits at Dusseldorf, signed and dated
1667, is a valuable work. The figures are by A. van de Velde. "The warm,
clear chiaroscuro in which the whole foreground is kept is admirable,
while the sunlight falling on the middle distance has a peculiar
charm."[10] He is also represented in The Hague Gallery by a still life.
=Other Architectural Painters.=--Other architectural painters are Gerrit
Berckheyde, who painted exteriors of buildings in his own country, and
occasionally interiors of churches; Jacob van der Ulft (1627-90), whose
large picture in the Mauritshuis of troops marching has already been
mentioned; Pieter Saenredam, whose works form a transition from the
earliest architectural painters like Pieter Neeffs to the maturest
expression of this class; Dirck van Deelen, a pupil of Frans Hals, who
has a view of the Binnenhof with the last great Meeting of the States
General; Emanuel de Witte, who, strange to say, was a pupil of Evert van
Aelst, the painter of dead game and still life; Hendrik van Vliet, pupil
of his father, Willem, who has an interior of part of the Old Church at
Delft in the Mauritshuis, of peculiar warmth, brilliancy of effect, and
delicate treatment of reflected lights; and last of all, Gerard
Houckgeest (?-1655), who is represented by the Interior of the New
Church at Delft and Tomb of William I. in the New Church at Delft.
=The Excellence of Houckgeest's two Paintings.=--"This almost unknown
artist is a new proof of the astonishing efflorescence of excellent
painters in Holland about the middle of the seventeenth century. Two
views of the Interior of the New Church at Delft, in The Hague Museum,
are on a level with the highest development of the school. It would be
difficult to render the brilliancy and transparency of full sunlight
more completely than in the one which contains the monuments of the
Princes of the House of Orange. The other picture also, inscribed with
the master's monogram, and 1631, is in every respect, and especially
in the soft and full treatment, of the utmost excellence."[11]
=Dou, Founder of the Leyden School.=--The founder of the Leyden school
of painters, Gerrit Dou (1613-75), is represented in the Mauritshuis by
a masterpiece of the first rank, which is considered one of the gems of
the gallery. It is known as The Good Housekeeper, The Household, and The
Young Mother.
=Description of The Good Housekeeper.=--In a large room that serves as
hall, dining-room, and sitting-room, as well as kitchen, is seated a
lady, handsomely dressed in a morning costume. She has evidently just
returned from market; for there is a plucked fowl in a basket on the
window seat and an unplucked bird on the table, where a cabbage also
lies. A hare hangs on the wall above, and below the table one notes a
fish on a platter, and near a pot a bunch of carrots. A lantern has
fallen on the floor in the foreground. The lady is sewing, with a basket
beside her and a sewing-pillow on her knee; while a little servant
watches the baby in its basket cradle. The pillar that supports the roof
is carved, the brass chandelier is of splendid design, the draperies are
heavy, and a coat-of-arms is painted on the windows. Everything betokens
wealth and comfort.
The young mother looks at us in a very friendly way with her attractive
little face. Our attention is first attracted to the group in the
foreground; but gradually we admire the complete representation of all
the little things around; the wonderful, finely expressed chiaroscuro,
the beautiful stream of light, and the boldness of the shadowed yet
plainly visible group in the background. The picture belongs to the
artist's middle period and is dated 1658; and although it has darkened,
it is still full of rich color.
[Illustration: GERRIT DOU
The Good Housekeeper]
=The Good Housekeeper presented to Charles II.=--When Charles II. left
Holland for his Restoration in England, the directors of the East India
Company could think of no finer present to offer him than a picture by
Gerrit Dou, which they bought for 4,000 florins from M. de Bie. It was
this very picture of The Good Housekeeper, which was afterwards brought
back to Holland by William III. and hung in his castle at Loo.
=Dou's Style imitated by his Pupils.=--It is by such pictures that we
test the numerous works of his pupils, which are now, and have been from
the end of the seventeenth century, offered for sale as Dou's. Very
early in life Dou made use of magnifying glasses, and with great care he
ground his own colors. Sandart relates that he once went with Pieter de
Laer to pay a visit to Dou, who was painting a broomstick "which was
slightly longer than a finger-nail." When Sandart praised his great
industry, he answered that he "had to work about three days longer on
it."
=His Devotedness to his Work.=--When the weather was not fine, he
stopped his work. He devoted his whole life to work. His palette,
colors, and brushes he carefully protected from dust, which gave him
much trouble; he put them away with the utmost care, and when he sat
down to paint he would wait a long time until the dust had entirely
settled. His studio was a large one with high lights, facing the north
and looking out on the still waters of the canal.
=His Fondness for Domestic Subjects.=--He almost always depicts a view
of the interior of a burgher's dwelling. He is the painter of nice,
quiet domesticity, and his people almost invariably look gay and happy.
When he attempts to portray strong emotions, his people do not look as
if they felt them; even his Dropsical Woman in the Louvre is dying
peacefully and with resignation. Dou was an excellent observer of all
surroundings, and the slightest objects in his pictures are represented
with the utmost completeness. Dou could readily please, and form a
school, in a Northern and Protestant country, where people lead an
indoor life, a silent, concentrated family life, where man is attached
to his dwelling, adorns it with care, and closes it in, with the feeling
of a sanctuary. In fact, Dou painted only familiar subjects on canvases
or panels of small size, such as are suited to the small cabinet of a
_curieux_, and he was one of the first to set in honor the most
_recherche_ style of painting in Holland,--that of little pictures
executed in that precious manner which the French of the eighteenth
century called the _beau fini_.
=Dou and Rembrandt contrasted.=--Dou differed greatly from his master,
Rembrandt. The one had the fire of genius; the other had patience. Even
when Rembrandt highly finished his pictures, he knew when to neglect
some accessory, to sacrifice some detail to the expression of the
essential parts, and thus to give full value to everything in the
picture that could appeal to the heart or interest the mind. Dou, on the
contrary, applying himself to what he considered the last word of
painting, tried to give equal importance to everything that entered into
his composition, without admitting any of those negligences that are
often such happy artifices, and taking as much care in the finish of a
pewter pot as in expressing the feeling in a woman's features, or the
thought in a man's physiognomy. Therefore, Dou's natural tendency,
instead of being modified by Rembrandt, became only more pronounced. As
his master broadened, his manner grew more smooth and polished.
=The Fruit of Dou's Precautions.=--His care in making his own brushes,
colors, and varnishes, and his precautions to keep his wet canvases free
from dust (he chose a studio overlooking stagnant water) have been
rewarded by the present condition of admirable preservation of his
pictures. His minuteness wearied his sitters and he soon failed as a
portrait-painter. It is related that he made a distinguished Dutch lady,
Madame Spiering, pose five days for her hand alone.
=He forsakes Portraits for Scenes in Common Life.=--As his sitters left
him one after another, Dou devoted himself entirely to represent the
scenes of common life without giving himself any trouble in selection,
being sure that in them he would find opportunities to display his
veritable genius, that of detail. He was content to take what first
offered as a subject, and the circle of his invention did not go beyond
that. He simply observed life in the neighboring shops: the
pepper-seller, when she is dangling the scales with the tips of her
fingers; the marketwoman verifying the transparence of her eggs by the
light of a candle, and the mysterious interior of the barber-surgeon. If
he sees in the street a servant coming home from market loaded with
vegetables, counting what she has spent and what she is going to steal
from the change, there is a picture already made. In the public square
he stops to study the faces of the simple dupes gathered around a
charlatan vaunting his elixir, teaching the practice of love-philtres,
and drawing teeth painlessly. His artist's eye finds motives readily at
hand; sometimes in the room of the embroiderer, absorbed in her
needlework; sometimes in the juvenile schoolroom, where the martinet
overawes his frolicsome pupils. He also delights in representing the
joys of the domestic hearth, that ever simple and ever charming picture
of the _mater familias_ busy with household cares, while the children
are rolling about on the floor at their grandmother's feet. Finally, he
sometimes goes so far as to be malicious and to complicate the
picturesque accidents of a winding staircase which a woman descends
softly to surprise her husband in the kitchen with the servant.
The simplicity of trivialities Dou made the subject of the finest and
most precious pictures in the world. The Herring Seller is as finely and
minutely painted as The Philosopher in Meditation.
=He preferred Interiors to Open-Air Scenes.=--Dou seldom painted
open-air pictures. Interior light suited him better; and moreover he had
learned chiaroscuro from Rembrandt. However, one of his most famous
pictures, The Charlatan (in the Old Pinakothek, Munich), is an
exception.
"Upon the whole, the single figure of the Woman Holding a Hare, in Mr.
Hope's collection, is worth more than this large picture, in which
perhaps there is ten times the quantity of work."[12]
=His Foreground in Many Cases bordered by a Window.=--His small pictures
of one or two figures were usually framed by a window. He has often
painted his own portrait thus, sometimes holding a trumpet, and
sometimes playing a violin. Having once found this natural border, the
painter framed all his models with it. To-day we see the girl with
beautiful blond hair blowing soap bubbles and smilingly watching the
prismatic globes rise in the air; to-morrow, the pretty girl who is not
sorry to have on her window-sill more than one pretext for showing
herself,--the canary-cage, hanging outside; a letter to read; a pot of
geraniums to water, and what not. And this fresh face, which has for a
background the transparent shadow of a room wherein a group of people
are conversing, comes forward to be gracefully framed by the vine that
runs along the sash, and with its contours relieves the cold regularity
of the architecture.
It is certain that this patient imitator of nature must have been very
industrious, if we may judge from the number of his pictures and the
time he devoted to each. His pupil, Karel de Moor, says so. The
pronounced liking of his countrymen for his pictures left him no repose.
=The Best Example of his Candle-light Scenes.=--He frequently painted by
the aid of a concave mirror, and to obtain exactness, looked at his
subject through a frame crossed with squares of silk thread. The Evening
School, in the Amsterdam Gallery, is the best example of the
candle-light scenes in which he excelled. President van Spiering of The
Hague paid him 1,000 florins a year simply for the right of preemption.
=Godfried Schalcken, Pupil and Imitator of Dou.=--The other picture
credited to Dou, A Young Woman Holding a Lamp in her Hand, and which was
so greatly admired by Sir Joshua Reynolds, is thought to be by Godfried
Schalcken (1643-1706). Those who are curious on this question may turn
to a picture by Schalcken called a Lady at her Toilette, by
candle-light, an effect which he was so fond of painting.
=His Device for securing Candle-light Effects.=--Schalcken was a pupil
of Dou, under whom he acquired delicacy of finish and skill in the
treatment of light and shade. He gained a reputation for his small
domestic scenes, chiefly with candle-light effects; and, to treat these
accurately, he is said to have placed the object he intended to paint in
a dark room with a lighted candle and peeping through a small hole
painted by daylight the effects he saw. A pupil of Samuel van
Hoogstraaten and Gerrit Dou (who were pupils of Rembrandt), he became an
imitator of the latter, following him in his depth of tone, extreme
finish, and preference for night scenes.
=Schalcken's Weakness in Drawing.=--Blanc says he was aware of his
weakness in drawing, particularly the extremities of the human body, and
this was one reason he liked partly to conceal his subjects in shadows
and half-lights. His master, Dou, had made a sensation with his Evening
School (in the Rijks) in which the effect of candle-light is treated
with such skill; but what was a caprice with Dou, Schalcken made a
habit. His pictures are a series of fantastic scenes and illusions. This
painter saw the night only; his pictures whether mythological,
historical, religious, or commonplace scenes, are always nocturnal ones.
Blanc says: "His brush was a permanent candle."
=His Great Popularity.=--Schalcken, however, attained an enormous vogue,
and many of the wealthy Dutch had their portraits painted by him,
pleased with the mysterious or piquant light he threw upon them. He went
to London, where he painted William III. with a candle in his hand. This
is now in the Rijks. Schalcken found Kneller too strong a rival, and
returned to Holland, having, however, acquired a good deal of money. The
Mauritshuis also contains four others of his pictures: a Portrait of
William III., King of England; _La morale inutile_; A Visit to the
Doctor; and a Venus.
=The Best Examples of Ostade's Work.=--Among the best recognized
examples of Ostade's work are: The Fiddler and his Audience (1673) and
Peasants in an Inn (1662), in The Hague; The Village School (1662), in
the Louvre; the Tavern Courtyard (1670), at Cassel; and The Sportsman's
Rest (1671), at Amsterdam.
=Description of The Fiddler.=--One of the gems of The Hague Gallery is
The Fiddler by Adriaen van Ostade (1610-85). The old dilapidated inn
with its broken casement window is picturesque because of the graceful
festoons of vine-leaves that grow above the roof and penthouse. A
wandering fiddler is playing to the innkeeper and his wife, who lean
over the door, while five children and a dog are variously grouped. A
young man with a large tankard in his hand also enjoys the music in his
lazy position.
[Illustration: A. VAN OSTADE
The Fiddler]
=Description of Peasants in an Inn.=--"Peasants in an Inn was painted
in 1662; but it exhibits all the qualities of Ostade's best work. The
figures are drawn true to life. Very charming is the poodle gazing
with great interest at the child, who is eating his bread and butter.
By allowing the full daylight to fall from the left through the door
while the background is lighted by a high window, Ostade gives himself
every opportunity to express his chiaroscuro as beautifully as he
desires. The little pot on the tree-trunk and all the other still life
of this picture forcibly remind us that Ostade was an unusually great
master in this field. His small pictures of still life, principally
representing pots and other kitchen stuff, are pearls of the first
water; but they are somewhat rare. The coloring of this picture is
warm, but it melts into cool tones, which we find still more strongly
in The Organ Grinder of the same gallery, which was painted eleven
years later."[13]
The Demand in Marriage, painted between 1650 and 1655, also hangs in the
Mauritshuis. This picture is owned by Dr. A. Bredius.
=Ostade's Pictures Generally taken from Low Life.=--The number of
Ostade's pictures as given by Smith is 385; but it is thought that he
painted even more. About 220 pictures have been traced in public and
private collections.
Adriaen Ostade was the contemporary of David Teniers and Adriaen
Brouwer, and, like them, chiefly devoted himself to painting rustic and
village life, tavern and gambling scenes, brawls and open-air games.
Smokers, drinkers, fish-wives, quacks, strolling musicians, itinerant
players, wood-cutters, children at play, alehouse-keepers and their
wives, all find sympathetic treatment. Like Brouwer, Ostade wandered
about the towns and country, finding his models in the taverns and
cottages.
=Increase in the Value of his Pictures.=--He painted with equal vigor at
all times; and so highly appreciated is he that pictures worth little in
his day now bring large sums. For instance, in 1876 Earl Dudley paid
L4,120 for a cottage interior. According to Houbraken, Ostade was a
pupil of Frans Hals, while he was also teaching Brouwer.
=Crowe's Opinion of Ostade's Style.=--"There is less of the style of
Hals in Adriaen Ostade than in Brouwer, but a great likeness to
Brouwer in Ostade's early works. During the first years of his career,
Ostade displayed the same tendency to exaggeration and frolic as his
comrade. He had humor and boisterous spirits, but he is to be
distinguished from his rival by a more general use of the principles
of light and shade, and especially by a greater concentration of light
on a small surface in contrast with a broad expanse of gloom. The key
of his harmonies remains for a time in the scale of grays. But his
treatment is dry and careful, and in this style he shuns no
difficulties of detail, representing cottages inside and out, with the
vine leaves covering the poorness of the outer side, and nothing
inside to deck the patch-work of rafters and thatch, or tumble-down
chimneys and ladder staircases, that make up the sordid interior of
the Dutch rustic of those days. His men and women, attuned to these
needy surroundings, are invariably dressed in the poorest clothes. The
hard life and privations of the race are impressed on their shapes and
faces, their shoes and hats, worn at heel and battered to softness, as
if they had descended from generation to generation, so that the boy
of ten seems to wear the cast-off things of his sire and grandsire. It
was not easy to get poetry out of such materials. But the greatness of
Ostade lies in the fact that he often caught the poetic side of the
life of the peasant class, in spite of its ugliness and stunted form
and misshapen features. He did so by giving their vulgar sports, their
quarrels, even their quieter moods of enjoyment, the magic light of
the sungleam, and by clothing the wreck of cottages with gay
vegetation."[14]
=Ostade the Greatest Dutch Painter of Peasant Life in his Day.=--Adriaen
van Ostade is rightly regarded as the greatest of the Dutch painters of
the seventeenth century who represented the peasant life of that day. In
song and dance, weddings and _kermesses_, at bowling, love-making, and
drinking, Ostade always was an observer of country folk, although he
himself was a townsman, and held a rather exalted position in the world.
His second wife seems to have raised him into a very high social class
of Amsterdam families, as numerous records of executions of wills, which
the painter must have signed in Amsterdam, inform us. To some extent,
his peasants involuntarily progress parallel with the force of his own
life. In his earliest pictures, when Ostade was still a modest artist,
his peasants are also still quite peasant-like; in his tavern-scenes
things are still very lively. Later, when the painter became closely
related to refined and well-to-do patricians, his peasants also became
more prosperous and polite; in a word, more decorous. Unfortunately, his
painting also became somewhat more polished and smooth, so that the
early pictures, and particularly those of the middle period, more
strongly delight the heart of an artist than the cool, smooth works of
the later period. Ostade is eminent in his coloring, chiaroscuro, and
composition: he knows how to arrange his groups in the most spontaneous
and natural manner; and truly artistic is his method of illumination,
for which, knowingly or unknowingly, he has to thank Rembrandt. In his
earliest pictures, which have a somewhat cold tone grading into gray,
reminding us of his teacher Hals (from 1631 to 1640), there still
remains some local color. The subjects, mostly peasants in poor homes or
in the tavern, are energetically conceived. Bode rightly says:
"Instead of the pleasant humor and the poetry of the prosperous middle
class which are common to the later pictures, these earlier works
display an effort for characterizing according to life and movement; a
keen humor in the spirit of Hals and Brouwer; and, particularly, a
characteristic inquiry into the separate individualities, such as the
lifelike representation of an expressive scene, the feasting, round
dances, and fighting of his jovial peasant folk."
=Bredius on the increasing Brightness of his Pictures.=--"He died in
1685. Before 1640 his chiaroscuro was already finer, and between 1640
and 1655 (his flowering-time) many of his pictures show no traces of
Rembrandt's influence. The tone of his works was quite different and
approaches a warm brown; the chiaroscuro, as, for instance, in his
well-known Painter's Studio in Amsterdam; and later, very closely
repeated (Dresden, 1663), attains the highest degree of freedom; then
his pictures become somewhat slowly cooler, the tone gets constantly
grayer, but the drawing always remains strikingly correct, the
grouping natural, and the pictures become brighter, smoother, and more
polished. In the meantime Ostade had become a finer, more respectable
gentleman. Well on in years, he could leave this life without worry,
and was buried at Haarlem by his admirers and pupils on May 2, 1685."
=Ter Borch's Freedom from Grossness.=--Ter Borch (1617-81) is excellent
as a portrait-painter, but still greater as a painter of _genre_
subjects. He depicts with admirable truth the life of the wealthy and
cultured classes of his time, and his work is free from any touch of the
grossness which finds so large a place in Dutch art. His figures are
well drawn and expressive in attitude; his coloring is clear and rich,
but his best skill lies in his unequalled rendering of textiles in
draperies.
=The Elegance of his Sitters.=--Ter Borch was not only an excellent
painter of Conversations, he was, indeed, the creator of his _genre_.
With a little less wit and a little less taste, perhaps, than Metsu, he
charms you with his family concerts, his _tete-a-tete_ lovers, his light
afternoon repasts, and in selecting for heroes the most elegant
cavaliers of the world in which he lived. His pretty pages with great
puffed sleeves striped with velvet, and those blond ladies with
transparent complexions, plump hands, and round waists, constitute a
type that no artist has so well represented as Ter Borch. Before
depicting these delightful and familiar scenes, he first learned to
imitate all that could add to the charm of these pictures of private
life,--silken draperies, Turkish rugs, leather, ermine, velvet, and
satin,--more particularly satin, and _white_ satin above all else. The
most striking example we shall see at the Rijks, in the picture called
Paternal Advice, known also as the _Robe de Satin_.
=Resemblance between his Paintings and those of Metsu.=--There is so
much resemblance between Gerard Ter Borch (or Terburg) and Metsu that at
first it is hard to distinguish them. Their subjects are much the same;
for instead of painting scenes of low life--inns with carousing
peasants, etc.--both turn with sympathy to high life; _sujets de mode_
is the name given to their works in which satins, velvets, silks, and
lace, rich robes and mantles, elegant hangings, and table-carpets figure
so largely.
=The Difference between Ter Borch and Metsu.=--The difference between
Ter Borch and Metsu is defined by Blanc, who says it is the difference
between _bonhomie_ and _finesse_; the one is naive and gracious, the
other ingenious and piquant. Both, however, are charming in the way they
introduce us into a house and show us some little comedy that is being
played by the unconscious lovers, family group, or party of friends.
Like Metsu, Ter Borch is particularly fond of making music a motive of
his pictures. A timid love often expresses itself to the notes of a
mandolin or lute; sometimes we surprise a musical party singing and
playing instruments; a lady composing music or trying a new piece for
the first time, while her gallant and richly dressed lover stands by her
side. Sometimes we see a young lady quite alone in jacket of
puce-colored velvet plucking her lute, which rests on her satin skirt.
Sometimes again the conversation takes place in front of a clavecin,
where the lady's hands are painted in correct position, though she
pauses to hear what her lover has to say, while her spaniel sleeps on
the foot-warmer.
=Ter Borch's Conversations characterized.=--"Pretty little dramas,"
Blanc calls these Conversations of Ter Borch, "dramas without action or
noise, which excite the thought only, and whose intrigue consists only
in a clasp of the hand, the lowering of an eyelid, or the exchange of a
glance and a smile." He also calls attention to the type of woman
represented by Ter Borch, Van Mieris, and Metsu, all of whom have high
foreheads on which a few little curls wander, like those made
fashionable at this period by Ninon de Lenclos, and known as "_boucles a
la Ninon_."
=The Women of Ter Borch's Pictures.=--The women of Ter Borch's pictures
are like Rousseau's pen-portrait of Madame de Warens, who
"had an air caressing and tender, a very gentle glance, ash-colored
hair of uncommon beauty, which she arranged in a very _neglige_ style
that produced a piquant effect. She was small and a little thick in
the waist; but it would be impossible to find a more beautiful head or
a lovelier bust, hands, and arms."
Dr. Bredius, who calls attention to Ter Borch's position in the hall of
fame as singular in the fact that he has never been assailed by critics,
nor, on the other hand, sufficiently appreciated, says:
"Without striking originality, without any commanding dramatic
quality, without humor, and without any startling light effects, Ter
Borch is yet entitled to the name of the first _genre_ painter of
Holland,--indeed, of all schools,--merely by his perfect talent and
fulfilment as an artist. Rightly is Ter Borch called the most eminent
painter of the Dutch school. Not only does he paint high society
almost exclusively, but he does it in a distinguished style. The pose
of his figures, the composition of his picture, the fine color, the
admirable drawing, all breathe an elegance which is not met with
elsewhere in the Dutch school. Thereby, he is the one and only master
of his subject. What he paints is always completed to the highest
degree. We never find in him a trace of effort. What he does must be
so and not otherwise. We look for humor in him in vain; but nobility
we always find, and not least in his likenesses, which,
notwithstanding their small dimensions, are 'the last word of a
portrait.'"
[Illustration: TER BORCH
The Despatch]
=Description of The Despatch.=--The Despatch, dated 1655, belongs to his
second period. On a low chair beside a table on which stand a decanter
and beaker, an officer is sitting with his wife or sweetheart. She is
sitting on the floor reclining against his knee. Both are young. He
holds the despatch in his hand and she looks somewhat distressed. In
front of them stands the trumpeter, who, it appears, has brought the
message. The officer is fully dressed, and on the table beside him lie
his weapons.
=His own Likeness, painted by Himself.=--The other picture of Ter
Borch's in this gallery is his own likeness, painted by himself about
1660. He is dressed entirely in black and stands out strongly against a
gray background. He wears a large wig, the curls of which shade his
rather melancholy face, distinguished by a long nose and grayish
moustache. It was probably painted while Ter Borch was a burgomaster of
Deventer.
=Caspar Netscher's Family Group.=--Much in the same style as Ter Borch's
Conversations is Netscher's Family Group. Caspar Netscher (1639-84) was
a pupil of Ter Borch, and this is one of the best works of his best
period. The painter, in a red slashed jacket, is accompanying on his
lute his daughter, who is singing, and whose timidity is well expressed.
She wears a dress of white satin and has feathers in her hair. On the
other side of the table covered with a Persian carpet, and in the half
light, sits Netscher's wife. On the back of the arm-chair in which
Netscher is sitting is his signature and the date 1665. Netscher is also
represented by two portraits--Mr. and Mrs. Van Waalwijk.
=Few Examples of Metsu.=--Metsu, like many other Dutch masters, is
poorly represented in the great public galleries of his own country.
While The Hague Gallery has but three and the Rijks only four, the
Louvre, for example, has eight and Dresden six.
Those who have seen pictures by Metsu (1630-67), Ter Borch, or Caspar
Netscher, will have a better knowledge of the customs and costumes of
the upper classes at the period of the Stadtholders, their faces, their
polished manners, their interiors, and even their thoughts, than if they
had read many books of travel, whole volumes of geography, description,
and history.
=The Rich Dutchman as painted by Metsu.=--As he appears in the pictures
of Gabriel Metsu, the rich Dutchman is domesticated, methodical, and
well regulated in his life. His house is the universe for him. In this
cherished and well-arranged abode, he concentrates as many joys as the
ancient kings of Asia assembled in the palaces of Susa or Ecbatana. His
country's and his own ships have "ploughed the sea from end to end,
penetrating to Japan for porcelain and amber, and bringing back from Goa
pepper and ginger." From the ends of the earth have come to him all
things that could charm his family life and distract the melancholy that
the sad nature of the North and its long winters inspire. Asia has sent
to him her muslins, spices, and diamonds; the polar ice has furnished
him with the furs that edge the velvet robes which his wife and his
eldest daughter wear indoors. The birds, insects, shells, and mineral
specimens of the most distant climes fill his cabinet, carefully
arranged under glass. In his gardens flourish rare plants, the choicest
flowers and bulbs cultivated by himself or under his own eyes. His
furniture, of exquisite taste and workmanship, carefully looked after
and incessantly cleaned, does not suffer by the changes of fashion; it
is transmitted from father to son, and lasts for generations. His alcove
bed is supported by ebony columns and closed in with green damask
curtains. Hanging from the ceiling, a candelabrum of gilt bronze spreads
its branches twisted into elegant volutes. The floors are waxed till
they are a pleasure to the eye, the windows are polished, the door-knob
is shining, the furniture gleams like a mirror, and yet the daylight
falling through lightly tinted taffeta curtains sheds over all these
objects only a soft, moderate, and harmonious radiance.
=How Metsu depicts the Manners of the Dutch.=--"The manners of
Holland, as well as its material physiognomy in civil life, its
interiors, its furniture, the decoration and luxury of its apartments,
are all written down in Metsu's pictures with charming clearness,
which is all the more pleasing since this merit seems to be
involuntary in the painter. After two hundred years, his work may
serve for the complete reconstitution of a well-to-do interior as it
was composed in the seventeenth century by the climate of the country,
the character of its inhabitants, and the historic circumstances in
the midst of which the Dutch merchants, the masters of the commerce of
the world, then lived.
"By Metsu's favor we are able to penetrate into those interiors which
are so jealously closed to strangers. Most often it is by a window
that serves as a frame for his picture that Metsu gives us access to
the boudoirs of fashionable ladies, and makes us take them by
surprise, sometimes in velvet _deshabille_ writing their secrets;
sometimes finishing their toilette in view of a hoped-for visit; and
sometimes breathing over the keys of their clavecin the sighs of their
hearts and the thoughts they do not express."
=His Carefulness in selecting Details.=--"Metsu rarely paints an
interior without introducing the pet spaniel of the period, which
often contributes much to our comprehension of the scene by the
character of its attitude.
"There are some Dutch masters who unintelligently accumulate
innumerable details everywhere. They make a picture of manners the
pretext for a ridiculous display of furniture, crystal, lustres,
_chinoisarie_ and curiosities of every kind; their interiors resemble
bazaars. Metsu puts beside his subjects only those details necessary
to make the intrigue clear, and to explain the conversation.
=His Treatment of Still Life.=--"However great may have been his
talent for painting still life, he never allowed himself to be carried
away, like so many others, by that vulgar pleasure; but, on the other
hand, what finish! what a precious touch! And then how he loves to
give full value to the beauties of local color, or to shade a Turkey
carpet, or to grade down the lights on gold and silver vases. What
pleasure he takes in the Bohemian glasses and the transparent liquors
that half fill them! The glasses in his pictures have great
importance, for the life of a retired Dutchman is spent in continual
smoking and drinking; but in Metsu we no longer see the
Pantagruelesque glasses of several stages that Van Ostade's peasants
always have in their hands; these are fine and more discrete glasses,
of elegant form, tall and oblong glasses in which the Haarlem beer
froths; glasses cut and fashioned in twenty different ways, octagon
glasses each facet of which ends with a curve and which cut the light
with their sharp edges, or glasses the calyx of which forms a reversed
cone on a heron's claw, or elongates into a swan's neck, and finishes
like a trumpet; lastly, the glasses of the grandparents, sometimes of
an imperishable thickness and solidity, sometimes as delicate, light,
and thin as an onion skin."[15]
=Favorite Subjects.=--Metsu is fond of representing the patricians of
his day and their womankind either in pleasant entertainment, or, more
frequently, in individual figures engaged in quiet work. A picture of
this class is The Amateur Musicians. The lady on the left is very
quietly playing her instrument with the same sense of repose that is
expressed by the lady who seems to be writing down the notes. Only on
the face of the elegant gentleman standing behind her chair is painted a
merry, almost roguish, smile.
[Illustration: METSU
The Amateur Musicians]
=The Elegance of Metsu's Figures.=--The figures are drawn with
certainty; the artistic handling of the subject is remarkable; and a
fine feeling for color is shown in the selection of the tones. In
Metsu's figures we notice an elegance and a nobility which are not found
elsewhere except in Ter Borch.
=The Influence of other Artists on Metsu.=--It is strange that the
earliest works of Metsu, which are the most broadly painted ones, show
little of Dou's influence, which is always so unmistakable in his
pupils, so that Bode believes he finds in them the working of Hals's
influence; and, in fact, the large pictures of Metsu's early period are
painted with a broad brush in Hals's gray tones. When Metsu removed to
Amsterdam, he fell more under Rembrandt's influence, and the beautiful
chiaroscuro of his later works incontestably proves this.
=His Miscellaneous Works.=--Metsu's Biblical and allegorial pictures are
the least important of his works. Besides The Amateur Musicians, signed
by Metsu, the Mauritshuis possesses a fine Portrait of a Huntsman dated
1661, and a great academical, constrained allegory of Justice Protecting
the Widow and Orphan, a picture that was found in the vestibule of a
house in Leyden in 1667. It was painted in 1655.
Crowe, who does not believe that this "rough and frosty composition" is
the work of Metsu, says:
"What Metsu undertook and carried out from the first with surprising
success was the low life of the market and tavern, contrasted with
wonderful versatility by incidents of high life and the drawing-room.
In each of these spheres he combined humor with expression, a keen
appreciation of nature, with feeling and breadth, with delicacy of
touch, unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. In no single instance
do the artistic lessons of Rembrandt appear to have been lost on him.
The same principles of light and shade which had marked his school
work in The Woman Taken in Adultery[16] were applied to subjects of
quite a different kind. A group in a drawing-room, a series of groups
in the market-place, a single figure in the gloom of a tavern or
parlor, was treated with the utmost felicity by fit concentration and
gradation of light; a warm flush of tone pervaded every part, and,
with that, the study of texture in stuffs was carried as far as it had
been by Terburg, or Dou, if not with the finish or the _brio_ of De
Hooch. Metsu's pictures are all in such admirable keeping and so warm
and harmonious in his middle, or so cool and harmonious in his closing
time, that they always make a pleasing impression. They are more
subtle in modulation than Dou's, more spirited and forcible in touch
than Terburg's; and, if Terburg may of right claim to have first
painted the true satin robe, he never painted it more softly or with
more judgment as to color than Metsu."
One of the best pictures of Metsu's middle period is The Market Place of
Amsterdam, in the Louvre.
=Two Fine Portraits by F. van Mieris.=--Frans van Mieris (1635-81)
reached the highest rung of art in his portraits, of which The Hague
Gallery possesses two fine examples. One is of Florentius Schuyl,
Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Leyden, painted in
1666, and a still more important picture of the painter himself and his
wife. He has made a charming _genre_ picture of it, which Sir Joshua
Reynolds admired, not knowing who the characters were. The artist shows
himself standing and pulling the ear of the beautiful little dog which
his wife holds in her lap, while, to protect her pet, she gently wards
off her smiling husband with her right hand. The little dog's mother is
trying to spring into the lady's lap in order to take care of her
offspring. Both the drawing and modelling here are masterly, and endow
the scene with such charm that this work must be pronounced one of the
best by his brush. The tablecloth and the lute lying upon it are
beautifully painted.
=Description of Soap Bubbles.=--Sir Joshua also noticed the picture of
Soap Bubbles dated 1663, representing a boy at an open and vine-framed
window, blowing bubbles that are exquisitely painted and show beautiful
reflections and prismatic colors. His red hat with white plumes is lying
on the window-sill, near a bottle containing a sprig of heliotrope, and
above hangs a cage. Behind the child in the half-light stands a young
woman with a dog in her arms. On the window-frame is written the date in
Roman numerals. Willem van Mieris often imitated this composition of his
father's, who frequently repeated it himself.
=Pictures by Van Mieris Full of Refinement.=--Van Mieris takes us into
an elegant world, although he himself was fond of low life, a heavy
drinker and the companion of Jan Steen. He was the son of a goldsmith
and diamond-setter of Leyden, who wanted him to follow his business. He
was naturally influenced by his earliest surroundings, and in his
father's shop became familiar with the dress and manners of people of
distinction. His eye was also fascinated by the sheen of jewelry and
stained glass. Houbraken writes:
"Seeing his talent for painting his father placed him with Abraham
Torenvliet, a famous glass painter and a good draughtsman. From him he
passed to the school of Gerrit Dou, where in a short time he eclipsed
every one and gained the affection of the master, who loved to call
him 'the prince of his pupils.' At the end of a few years, his father
sent him to the historical painter Abraham van Tempel; but he did not
remain long with him, for his natural taste would allow him to follow
no other manner than that of Gerrit Dou,--a manner extremely finished,
demanding attention and excessive care."
=His Love of Elegant Accessories.=--Houbraken calls Metsu a painter of
_sujets de mode_. This term applies also to Frans van Mieris; for
certainly with him costumes, materials, and accessories play an
important part. If his people were less attractive one might imagine
that they were only a pretext for showing off the velvet jackets, satin
skirts, and rich furs. Very often Van Mieris shows us a spacious and
magnificently decorated hall, in the background of which a richly
dressed lady and her lover are walking; again he allows us to peep into
a charmingly furnished room where a lady in white satin is playing the
lute to entertain her guest, a handsome cavalier in black velvet; or we
surprise a lady as she is about to drink a glass of wine which a page
offers her on a silver salver. At other times we find a group of ladies
and gentlemen about to enjoy a light repast; or see a table invitingly
spread with luscious fruit in rich silver dishes; or watch a lady feed
her parrot. Sometimes the pet monkey is discerned behind the looped-back
curtains of taffetas. Frans van Mieris seldom chose panels above 12 by
15 inches in size. He never ventured to design life-sized figures.
=The Kind of Subjects he treated Best.=--"Characteristic of his art in
its minute proportions is a shiny brightness and metallic polish. The
subjects which he treated best are those in which he illustrated the
habits or actions of the wealthier classes; but he sometimes succeeded
in homely incidents and in portraits, and not unfrequently he ventured
on allegory. He repeatedly painted the satin skirt which Terburg
brought into fashion, and he often rivalled him in the faithful
rendering of rich and highly colored woven tissues. But he remained
below Terburg and Metsu, because he had not their delicate perception
of harmony, or their charming mellowness of touch and tint; and he
fell below Gerard Dou, because he was hard and had not his feeling for
effect by concentrated light and shade. In the form of his
composition, which sometimes represents the framework of a window
enlivened with greenery, and adorned with bas-reliefs, within which
figures are seen to the waist, his model is certainly Gerard Dou."
=His Lack of Humor.=--"It has been said that he possessed some of the
humor of Jan Steen, who was his friend, but the only approach to humor
in any of his works is the quaint attitude and look of a tinker in a
picture at Dresden, who glances knowingly at a worn copper kettle
which a maid asks him to mend.... If there be a difference between his
earlier and later work, it is that the former was clearer and more
delicate in flesh, whilst the latter was often darker and more livid
in the shadows."[17]
Blanc says:
"Among so many Dutch painters who copy nature it is very pleasant to
find one who deigns to select his models, and who, preferring grace to
ugliness, would rather paint beautifully women elegantly dressed than
_magots_. Strange, indeed! He loved distinction, yet lived in a
tavern; he loved luxury, and was soon ruined; and, in spite of a life
devoid of dignity, Van Mieris always kept a love of beauty and
elegance, as is shown in his delicate faces, fine complexions,
beautiful hands, grace of attitude, taste in costume and furniture,
and choice of splendid materials."
=Willem van Mieris.=--The Grocer's Shop, by his son and pupil, Willem
van Mieris (1662-1747), signed and dated 1717, also hangs in The Hague
Gallery. In extreme finish and minuteness of painting, this picture
would not disgrace Mieris the Elder or Gerrit Dou.
=Its Wealth of Still Life.=--You see only two figures, a young boy who
is buying and a young woman who is selling; but these figures are of no
more importance than the foods of all kinds exposed in the shop, on the
sill of the window, and outside. The lower part of the window is
decorated with a bas-relief, representing Cupids playing with a bird.
This bas-relief is half hidden by a superb piece of tapestry, on which
the painter has placed a basket of dried fruits. Great bags of grain,
peas, and beans, and everything that is sold by the bushel are exposed
on the pavement of the street, with a bucket and some tubs filled with
olives, sardines, and anchovies. On the wall hang a basket and a
bird-cage, and a magnificent damask curtain with large flowers falls in
graceful folds from an outside ring. Among the innumerable details of
the shop you note a little rat gnawing at the grains which have fallen
through a hole in one of the sacks.
The pendant to this picture hangs in the Louvre, where it is called
_Marchande de Volailles_.
=W. van Mieris influenced by his Father and by G. de Lairesse.=--Willem
van Mieris was a pupil of his father, and at first had no other ambition
than to imitate his style and produce those charming Conversations in
which rich furniture, shining chandeliers of brass or copper, Japanese
porcelains, silken curtains, Turkish table-carpets, flowers, and
elegantly dressed people make a somewhat restricted, although
delightful, world. Willem, falling under the influence of Gerard de
Lairesse, who was much in vogue in Holland, selected such subjects as a
young lady playing on the clavecin, or making lace, or walking in the
country in a lilac satin robe with large sleeves that reveal through
their slashes a beautiful arm, and a straw hat ornamented with a
sweeping plume. Becoming a shepherdess this attractive lady next sits in
his pictures with bare feet, in the shade of an oak, and beside her
Corydon talks of love.
=His Success with Mythical and Biblical Subjects.=--Next he turned his
attention to subjects from fable, romance, and mythology; and Diana,
Armida, Cleopatra, Bacchus, Jupiter, Tarquin, the Sabines, etc., fill
his panels or copper plates, which were hardly larger than your hand.
Biblical and religious subjects occupied him for a time and then he
again turned pagan. His success grew greater every day, and his Dutch
patrons who loved scenes of familiar life demanded from Van Mieris
pictures in the style of his famous father--those charming _genre_
pictures still being produced by Slingelandt, Van Tol, and other
imitators of Gerrit Dou.
=A Window-frame his Favorite Setting.=--Like Gerrit Dou, Willem van
Mieris selects a window-frame of stone, which he often decorates with
graceful creepers or a bouquet of tulips or jonquils placed on the sill,
or throws over it a bright piece of tapestry. From it a blond lady leans
to flirt with the unseen passer, a child blows bubbles, a portly dame
waters her flowers; or the artist himself sits calmly by. When tired of
this, Willem van Mieris takes us to his favorite shop.
=Arie de Vois.=--Among the portraits one must not fail to notice the
picture of A Huntsman Holding a Partridge by Arie de Vois (1630-80).
This was originally in the collection of William V. and was bought for
1,210 florins. His pictures are so rare that we are not surprised that
the Mauritshuis contains but one example. The Rijks is more fortunate in
owning four by this delightful painter.
=Abraham de Pape's Style.=--Abraham de Pape (1625-66), supposed to have
been a pupil of Gerrit Dou, is represented by An Old Woman Plucking a
Cock, with a little boy kneeling beside her. It is a very good example
of this master; and at the Gerrit Muller sale brought no less than 490
florins. Crowe says:
"This almost unknown artist is decidedly one of the best _genre_
painters of this time. He is true and speaking in action, animated in
his heads, harmonious, and even in some of his pictures warm in
coloring, and very careful and soft in execution."
=A. van der Werff's Biblical and Mythological Pictures.=--Adriaan van
der Werff (1659-1722) occupied a peculiar position among Dutch painters.
While his contemporaries were devoting themselves to the study of
nature and becoming realistic, he adhered to the pursuit of the
ideal and produced pictures inspired by Biblical or mythological
subjects,--pictures noted for their beauty and elegance, and moreover
finished with wonderful smoothness of touch, which he had learned from
his master Eglon van der Neer. His figures as a rule are small, and the
flesh-tints are of an ivory tone. Van der Werff was so popular that it
was impossible for him to execute all the commissions sent him. His
greatest patron was the Elector Palatine John William; the pictures that
Van der Werff painted for him are now in Munich, where this master may
best be studied.
=Description of The Flight into Egypt.=--He is fairly well represented
in the Rijks; but The Hague has only two of his works,--a Portrait of a
Man, dated 1689, and The Flight into Egypt, dated 1710. This is only one
foot six inches high and one foot two inches wide. The Virgin is in
profile in a Prussian-blue mantle, accompanied by St. Joseph, who is
leading an ass. The road runs by the side of a brook, and the landscape
is diversified with trees, ruins, and a portico. This picture was given
by the artist to his daughter, who sold it to Mr. Schuijlenberg for
4,000 florins. At the Schuijlenberg sale at The Hague in 1765 it brought
6,500 florins.
=Reynolds on Van der Werff's Manner.=--This picture was much admired by
Sir Joshua Reynolds, who saw it in the King's collection. In describing
Van der Werff's manner he said:
"He has also the defect which is often found in Rembrandt,--that of
making his light only a single spot. However, to do him justice his
figures and heads are generally well drawn and his drapery is
excellent; perhaps there are in his pictures as perfect examples of
drapery as are to be found in any other painter's work whatever."
=Philip van Dijk and his pupil, Louis de Moni.=--To this group belongs
Philip van Dijk (1680-1753), a pupil of Arnold Boonen, and an imitator
of Van der Werff. Judith with the Head of Holofernes is a good example
of his historical work; and two good _genre_ pictures, A Lady Playing
the Guitar, and A Lady at her Toilet, show this artist in a happier
mood, where he gives free play to his more delicate touch. His
Bookkeeper also hangs in this gallery. His pupil, Louis de Moni, shows
the decline of the school. An Old Woman and a Boy, in a window, the boy
blowing soap bubbles, is dated 1742.
=Ochtervelt a follower of Metsu and of Pieter de Hooch.=--Jacob van
Ochtervelt (?-1700), who occupies a first place among the second-rate
painters of his day, was a follower of Metsu and also of Pieter de
Hooch. The Fish Vender, representing a woman in a room where a man is
offering her fish, in conception and careful finish recalls Metsu, while
in lighting and combination of color it reminds one of Pieter de Hooch.
The general tone is warmer than most of Ochtervelt's pictures.
=Jan Steen's Favorite Subjects.=--One of the greatest of all the Dutch
_genre_ painters is Jan Steen (1626-79), "the jolly landlord of Leyden."
As a draughtsman and colorist he takes high rank, and as a student of
human nature he has been compared to Hogarth and Moliere. His pictures
are studies of life and character, and are full of humor. He paints
feasts and merry-makings, weddings, quacks, tavern-brawls, dentists,
invalids, children at play, family parties, etc., with sympathy and
joyousness.
=His Character-painting.=--As a character-painter, he is unapproachable.
Nobody so well as he has understood all human passions, all
emotions--hilarious joy, deep-seated satisfaction, fear, grief, and
_Weltschmerz_ with such mastery, and known how to represent them in the
smallest possible space.
=His Method of showing Background to Advantage.=--With regard to Jan
Steen's interiors it is interesting to note that, like Ostade's, they
are painted from an elevation, so that the figures in the background are
not hidden by those in the foreground. Ordinarily he opens a window in
the background to illuminate the distant figures and thus is formed an
echo of the principal light. The number of utensils is less than with
most painters of this class, for Jan Steen had too much sense to
multiply them uselessly. Like Metsu, he often painted little pictures on
the walls of his interiors, and it is singular that these depict heroic
landscapes, battle scenes, mythological subjects, etc., and never tavern
or _genre_ scenes such as he himself painted.
=Refinement and Culture in his Pictures.=--Another thing to notice is
that whether in houses of affluence or in common taverns his people do
not drink grossly and from jugs, as in the taverns of Adriaen Brouwer.
Each one takes his place gracefully and naturally at the table or in the
room; and the details of the furniture accord with the politeness of the
people or the players. On the mantelpiece, for instance, stands a bronze
figure of Love; a guitar hangs from one of the panels; and here hangs a
fine landscape in an ebony frame. The collation consists of delicious
fruits that rejoice the eyes; perhaps also open oysters, which glisten
in the light like pearls; ripe grapes and beautiful peaches, whose furry
skins are blushing like the cheeks of a young girl, and finally some
lemons half peeled, the skin falling in a golden spiral. All this shows
the influence of Van Mieris, who was a friend of Steen and who spent
many hours in his tavern at Leyden.
=Reynolds's Appreciation of Jan Steen.=--Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was so
delighted with the Steens he saw in Holland, wrote the following
appreciative criticism of the artist:
"Jan Steen has a strong manly style of painting, which might become
even the design of Raffaelle, and he has shown the greatest skill in
composition and management of light and shadow as well as great truth
in the expression and character of his figures."
=Jan Steen's Fondness for painting his own Family.=--Jan Steen was very
fond of painting his own family; his wives, his aged parents, and his
children provided him with varied models of assorted ages and sizes. He
had six children by his wife Marguerite van Goyen, daughter of the
painter; and when she died, he married a widow, named Mariette
Herkulens, who had two. He has characterized the pleasures of all ages
in his picture called The Family of Jan Steen, bearing the legend "_Soo
de ouden songen pypen de jongen._" (As the old ones sing so will the
young ones pipe.) This is particularly interesting, because the artist
has painted himself between his wife Marguerite van Goyen and Mariette
Herkulens, who was destined to be his second wife. They were both quite
handsome, especially Marguerite. Mariette Herkulens was a meat vender.
=How he ridiculed the Physicians.=--Physicians were always butt for
Steen's caustic wit. It was a common practice in the seventeenth century
to turn them into ridicule; and as Moliere brought them on the French
stage, Jan Steen painted them with all their charlatanism and gravity
and that severity of costume so studied for effect.
=Description of The Young Lady who is Ill.=--The Hague Gallery contains
two of these,--one known as The Young Lady who is Ill (sometimes called
The Doctor Feeling the Pulse of a Young Woman). In this picture a doctor
dressed in black, with a pointed hat like that worn by Sagnarelle in the
_Medecin malgre lui_, is seated at the bedside of a young and pretty
girl with round arms and clear, pale complexion, who looks with interest
at the potion that is being prepared according to the doctor's
instructions. The latter pretends to be looking at the medicine which an
elegant woman is bringing, but he is really looking at the beautiful
throat of the blond and well-dressed Dutch lady, who lowers her eyes,
charmed to let him gaze at her brilliant white neck, her little
_retrousse_ nose, and her hair arranged _a la Ninon_, which is half
covered with a sort of black cap. "If it were not for a little touch of
malice and certain inconsistencies in the somewhat careless execution,"
Blanc says, "this picture might pass for a Van Mieris or a Metsu."
=Description of The Doctor's Visit.=--In The Doctor's Visit, a physician
dressed in black, with pointed hat and holding his gloves in one hand,
with the other is feeling the pulse of a young lady who is sitting near
her bed in a _neglige_ costume. With a very knowing and solicitous
manner the doctor seems to interrogate the throbs of the pulse; but
while he seeks for the secret of the illness, the chamber-maid has found
it out, as her glance indicates; and, that you may not be left in doubt,
the painter has placed on the corner of the chimney a little statue of
Love the Conqueror. In some of his pictures of this class Steen adds the
legend "_Wat baet hier medecyn--het is der minne pijn_" (Of what use is
medicine here? Love is the trouble).
=Other Pictures by Jan Steen, in the Mauritshuis.=--In addition to those
already mentioned, the Mauritshuis owns A Village Feast, a picture of
his first period; the Dentist, who is extracting the tooth of a peasant;
A Menagerie; and an Interior known as The Oyster Feast and Jan Steen's
Tap-room.
=Description of Jan Steen's Tap-room.=--The latter is not an inn of the
common or rustic type such as is seen in Ostade's or Brouwer's pictures,
for the room is furnished in the best style of the period. In it we see
about twenty figures in several groups. On the left, an old man is
playing with a little child; near him a young girl is kneeling as she
cooks the oysters; and in the centre an old man offers an oyster to a
seated woman. Children are amusing themselves everywhere: here one is
making a cat dance; another is holding a dog; another is carrying a jug
and a basket of fruit. At the table on the right and a little back Jan
Steen sits playing a lute, a young woman is listening to him, a fat
companion with a glass of liquor in his hand is laughing; and in the
background are groups of players and smokers. Above and in the
foreground a large violet curtain is looped and casts its shadow over a
part of the interior. This fine picture is only 2 feet 3 inches by 2
feet 8 inches.
=Description of A Menagerie.=--A Menagerie is nearly four feet square,
and represents the courtyard of a country house--that of William III. at
Honsholredijk, which is seen in the distance. Near the stone terrace,
beneath the steps of which is a pool, a peacock sits on a branch of an
old tree; ducks are swimming in the pool, and hens, turkeys, and pigeons
are picking up grains in the courtyard. A little girl in a pale
straw-colored dress and a white apron is sitting on the steps and giving
a lamb milk out of a cup. A man, carrying a basket of eggs and a green
pot, is laughing and talking with her. Another old farm-servant is also
laughing as he regards his young mistress; another person, who carries a
hen under his left arm and her brood of chickens in a basket, is one of
those dumpy and deformed creatures that Jan Steen likes to paint. Burger
considers the head of the man with the basket of eggs is one of the most
wonderful heads that were ever painted by Jan Steen or any of the Dutch
Little Masters.
=Troost, the Dutch Watteau or Hogarth.=--Cornelis Troost (1697-1750) was
born at the close of the great period of Dutch art. The great painters
were all dead. Dutch painting had lost its originality and native vigor.
Under these circumstances Troost made himself the painter of his period
and of his country. Impelled by a witty and caustic humor, he thought to
bring back in the eighteenth century what Jan Steen had illustrated in
the seventeenth. But, inferior in every way to that master, he saw
contemporary society only on the stage or in books; and, instead of
painting manners, customs, and absurdities of the middle classes by
observing them in nature, he painted them as they were represented on
the stage. Almost all his heroes were characters of the comedy or the
novel. Troost has been called the Dutch Watteau and the Dutch Hogarth.
His pictures may be classified as follows: Conversations, Comic
subjects, Portraits, and Military subjects. The first follow the style
of Watteau; the second, Hogarth; and the last are reminiscent of Frans
Hals.
=His Excellence in Drawing and Color.=--Excellence of drawing and
richness of color distinguish all his works, which are also valuable for
their accurate portrayal of the manners and customs, costume and
furniture of his day. Troost worked in oil, pastel, and gouache with
equal facility; and produced many excellent mezzotints and etchings.
=Blanc on Troost's Style.=--"What we admire in him to-day is the
talent of the painter properly so-called, the art of enlightening and
grouping his figures and placing them on the stage, the brush-work,
the selection and quality of the tones,--in other words, order,
chiaroscuro, color, and touch. A man of wit, he shines in composition;
although adroitly calculated, his own humor always appears spontaneous
and natural. Troost never introduces useless personages nor
superfluous ornaments into his pictures. He clearly sets forth what he
wants to show; and, contrary to the habits of the other masters of his
nation who take pleasure in the accumulation of accessories, he only
puts into his interiors necessary furniture and significant utensils;
and in his open-air Conversations the surroundings are not overloaded
with detail, but simple and agreeable, being calculated to achieve the
idea of the picture, so admirably are they connected with the action
of the figures. Troost and Terburg, of all the Dutch masters of
_genre_, are the ones who best understood the concentration of the
interest of a picture, and what is called the repose of the
composition."[18]
=A Picture Illustrative of the Concentration of its Interest.=--"On
looking over his pictures in the little room devoted to his work in
the Mauritshuis, we find more than one example of this intelligent
sobriety. Take for instance _L'Amour mal assorte_. Here we have an old
man declaring his love to a young widow. He has thrown on the floor
his cane, hat, and gloves; and, in his senile ardor, he clasps the
facilely chaste Susanna. What a pretty interior! A Slingelandt, a
Gerard Dou, or a Mieris would have multiplied here the details of
domestic comfort; here there is not a detail, not a single piece of
furniture too much; but yet there is nothing lacking that should be
there,--neither the clock, the canary in its cage, the portrait of
the deceased husband whose place the guest desires to fill, nor the
flower-vase with its full-blown rose, like the charmer whom the
admirer wants to gather."
=Pictures of Love and Intrigue.=--"Again we have The Deceived Tutor, a
scene anticipated from 'The Barber of Seville.' Here we see coming
down the street a maiden led prisoner by her tutor, a jealous bear
clothed all in black. While she occupies his attention with a sweet
smile, her little hand receives the kiss of a lover whom chance has
led that way. Other scenes of similar intrigue treated in this light
vein are The Lover in Disguise and The Lover Artist. The scenes are
taken from the comedies and vaudevilles of Langendijk, Lingelbach,
Asselijn, Van der Hoeven, Van Paffenrode, and D. Buysero."
=The Dispute of the Astronomers.=--"A picture that does not deal with
love and intrigue, but is full of a different kind of humor is The
Dispute of the Astronomers, from a comedy by P. Langendijk, in which
two astronomers in the heat of their discussion on the systems of
Copernicus and Ptolemy make use of the plates and bottles on the
supper table to illustrate the sun and the planets. Another
interesting pastel is one depicting the old Dutch custom of a band of
men and children singing hymns before the doors of the village on
Twelfth Night, carrying a huge paper star, lighted within."
=Hondecoeter, Painter of Living Birds.=--The great Melchior
d'Hondecoeter (1636-95) began his career with marines; but it was not
long before he acquired celebrity as a painter of birds only, which he
represented not exclusively like Fyt, after a day's shooting, or as
stock in a poulterer's shop, but as living beings with passions of joy
and fear and anger. Though without Fyt's brilliant tone and high finish,
his birds are always full of action. William III. employed him to paint
his menagerie at Loo, and this picture shows that he could overcome the
difficulty of painting India's cattle, elephants, and gazelles.
Hondecoeter's best pictures have remained in Holland, and The Hague and
Amsterdam galleries possess his most interesting canvases. The four at
the Mauritshuis are: Geese and Ducks, Hens and Ducks, The Menagerie of
William III. at Loo, and The Jackdaw Stripped of his Borrowed Feathers.
All these are worthy of study, although Hondecoeter's most celebrated
picture, The Floating Feather, hangs in the Rijks.
Blanc says:
"In one of these the artist has amused himself with making his usual
heroes play a scene of human comedy; and, as a professional fabulist
would have imagined it, he has shown a jackdaw stripped of the
borrowed plumes with which he had adorned himself in his vanity. This
is a very fine picture, although it has somewhat blackened in certain
parts. Hondecoeter seems to us to have been happier in another canvas
in which he has grouped various birds. It seems as if on this occasion
he wanted to prove what prodigies he was capable of in the touch of
divers plumages; and the effect he has obtained is, in truth,
astonishing. We could not find the equivalent of this lightness of
touch and of this coloring either in Gryff[19] or in the two Weenixes,
or in any of the masters who have tried to paint birds, with the
possible exception of Giacomo Victor."[20]
=His Preparation for Bird-painting.=--"It is true that before having
succeeded so well in the representation of the bird, Hondecoeter made
a long study, not only of its external form, but of its habits,
customs, and manner of life. His studio had been turned into a
menagerie, or, rather, a game preserve. He had paid particular
attention to the education of a handsome cock, which seemed to
comprehend every word and gesture of his master; and who, at the
slightest sign, came near the easel and posed, often in very fatiguing
attitudes, for hours."
=Hondecoeter's Skill in painting Farmyard Scenes.=--"In painting,
Melchior d'Hondecoeter was a very able man without leaving the poultry
yard, and was satisfied with painting on the spot either the bloody
dramas or the peaceful scenes of the farmyard--the hen teaching her
chickens to scratch for grubs, the duck giving her little ones their
first swimming lesson, the superb cock keeping watch over his
seraglio, the peacock spreading his magnificent tail, and those
memorable combats in which for a fine-plumaged Helen, two rivals spur
one another while awaiting the hawk's talons. He painted 'the crested
gentry' and knew how to interest us in them by means of picturesque
truth, rustic grace, color, and spirit.
"Melchior, after the death of his father, found an excellent guide in
his uncle, J. B. Weenix, and followed his manner till his death in
1660 without servility."[21]
Burger says:
=His Pictures of Bird Families.=--"No one has painted better than he
cocks and hens, ducks and drakes, and particularly little chicks and
ducklings. He has understood such families as the Italians have the
mystical Holy Family; he has expressed the motherhood of the hen as
Raphael has the motherhood of the Madonna. In fact, the subject is
more naturally treated because it has less sublimity. Hondecoeter
gives us here a mother-hen, who could face the Madonna of the Chair.
She bends over with solicitude, with outspread wings, beneath which
peep the excited heads of the little chickens; while on her back is
perched the privileged _bambino_: she does not dare move, the good
mother!"
A picture of Cock and Hens by his father, Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter
(1604-53), was acquired in 1876. He was the teacher of his more talented
son, who also studied with his uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-60), no
pictures of whom are owned by the Mauritshuis.
=Jan Weenix's Tasteful Compositions.=--Two pictures of Jan Weenix
(1640-1719) hang in this gallery and are good examples. One is The Dead
Swan, the other is Game. Though Weenix painted portraits, landscapes,
and even seaports, his chief works represent dead animals, the size of
life. Peacocks, pheasants, partridges, geese, and most frequently swans,
figure in his pictures. Sometimes, too, he introduces a living dog and
paints it in the most spirited manner. Weenix had great taste in
composition and arranged his models (more often dead than living) around
the base of a handsome vase or urn in a beautiful park.
=Reynolds and Blanc on Jan Weenix's Paintings.=--"What excellence in
coloring and handling is to be found in the dead game of Weenix!"
exclaimed Sir Joshua Reynolds, who declared that he saw no less than
twenty dead swans by this painter during his walks through the Holland
galleries. "In his works of small dimensions," says Blanc, "his
execution is delicate and caressing; but it is broad and accentuated in
his decorative paintings. At his best he was the equal of his father,
which is no small praise."
=Jan David de Heem, the Greatest of the Group of Fruit and Flower
Painters.=--First in this group comes Jan David de Heem (1606-03 or 04),
the pupil of his father, David de Heem, and not only the first to
develop the art of fruit-painting, but the greatest master of the class
that the school produced. In the beautiful arrangement of his subjects
he has been compared to Giovanni da Udine. He is also a great colorist;
some of his early works approach Rembrandt in their golden tone.
Although his two most important works are in the galleries of Vienna and
Berlin, and splendid examples hang in the Louvre, Dresden, and Cassel,
the Mauritshuis owns two very fine examples. One is a Table with Fruits,
very tasteful in arrangement and soft in treatment; the other is a
Garland of Flowers and Fruits, enlivened with insects.
When Sir Joshua Reynolds visited the Prince of Orange's collection, he
saw these pictures and noted: "Fruits by De Heem, done with the utmost
perfection."
=His Greatness as a Painter of Fruits, Flowers, and Insects.=--De Heem
was one of the greatest painters of still life in Holland; no artist of
his class combined form and color more successfully. His drawing is
correct, and his colors are brilliant and combined harmoniously. He is
familiar with every object of stone and silver, every flower, whether
humble or gorgeous, every fruit of Europe or the tropics, every twig and
leaf and blossom. Burger has said of Heda, but it is true of De Heem,
that "he glorified insects, butterflies, and all the minute beings that
swarm in vegetation, and made the moths drink in cups of chased gold."
=His Pictures that point a Moral.=--De Heem was also famous for his
pictures that point a moral or illustrate a motto--those canvases known
as Vanitas. Here the snake lies coiled under the grass; there a skull
rests on blooming plants. "Gold and silver tankards or cups suggest the
vanity of earthly possessions; salvation is allegorized in a chalice
amid blossoms; death, as a crucifix inside a wreath." Sometimes De Heem
painted alone, or with men of his school, Madonnas or portraits
surrounded
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