A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools

Cuyp (Dutch: 1620-1691). See 53.

The castle may be the same as that seen in No. 1289. Some lines from Beattie's "Scotland" have been applied to it: —

Behold our lakes …Each girdled with its mountain beltOf rock and tower and forest trees,And gemmed with island sanctuariesLike floating palaces, they seemThe elysium of a poet's dream.

This picture was originally bought at Horn, in the Netherlands, of an old clothesman, for 1s. 3d. Sir Robert Peel paid 350 guineas for it.

825. THE POULTERER'S SHOP

Gerard Dou (Dutch: 1613-1675). See 192.

This picture, as an acknowledged chef d'œuvre of the master, has long been celebrated. It was purchased by Sir Robert Peel from the Fonthill Collection in 1823 for £1270. Mrs. Jameson, on seeing the picture at Sir R. Peel's, wrote: "All executed with such a nicety of touch – such an inconceivable truth and minuteness of imitation – as to render the picture a very miracle of art. A higher merit consists in the admirable painting of the heads, especially that of the old woman, which is full of life." "A wicker market-basket is a common homely thing, but look at its presentment here – every polished, well-used twig of it following the true undulations of form and colour, light and shade, through the marvellous patience and skill of the vanished Dutchman – and see if it does not produce an exquisite poetic tremor by the thoughts it evolves. There is a dead image of the barnyard cock which Mr. Darwin may compare with the barndoor fowl of to-day as accurately as if it were photographed. His once fiery eye is glazed and sightless as a dim pearl, his neck feathers ruffled but no longer in anger or pride; his pale, amber-coloured legs helplessly and ingloriously reversed, their impatient and masterful scratching among his dames in the stubble over for ever; the glossy purples, greens, and blacks of his tail-feathers rising sharp and delicate out of the speckled hazes of colour which it required days and days to lay side by side among the crushed and crowding plumes. The cock, the horologe of Thorpe's light, crows no more to the answering hill-farms. He is destined for the spit of the housewife who holds up the hare. But his fate was glorious, for by what tens of thousands since the year 1650 or thereabouts have his perfections been admired and praised. It was worth living for, and, to chanticleer, worth dying for, to become the occasion of such a miracle of art" (Smetham's Literary Works, p. 240).

826. FIGURES AND ANIMALS

827. FORDING THE STREAM

828. LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE

Karel du Jardin (Dutch: 1622-1678).

This painter was the ablest of the followers of Nicolas Berchem, and like that master often painted Italian scenery. He stayed for some years in Rome, where his pictures were greatly admired, and where, in the jovial artist circles of the day, he was given the nickname of "Barbe de Bouc" (goat's-beard). On his return from Italy he is said to have stayed some time at Lyons, where he married a widow with whom he afterwards settled in Holland. He resided at the Hague from 1656 to 1659, and there was much influenced by the example of Paul Potter. He next moved to Amsterdam, which he made his home for some years. He returned in the end to the Italian haunts of his early years, and died at Venice. In his best pastoral works, the truth and finish of his execution, the brilliancy of their atmosphere, and the harmonious colouring, are attractive. He also painted portraits and large groups, and executed some good etchings.

It has been said of Du Jardin that his works are "excellent when they are not detestable," a remark which is well exemplified in these pictures. No. 827 is at once vulgar in incident and unpleasant in colour. No. 826, on the other hand, one of the pastoral idyls for which Du Jardin is famous, is a chef d'œuvre of the painter (Sir Robert Peel paid 930 guineas for it). No. 828 has a true Italian air, and there is a touch of almost pathetic humour in the contrast between the cow and the woman. It is the beast that has its eyes on the sunset and enjoys the benediction of the evening hour. The woman is cumbered with much serving, and spins with her back to the light.

829. A STAG HUNT

Jan Hackaert (Dutch: 1629-1696).

Hackaert was a native of Amsterdam, but between the years 1653 and 1658 he travelled much in Switzerland, Germany, and Italy. At this time he chose his subjects from the mountains. In painting the landscape of his own country he especially affected woodland views, with effects of light shining through the trees.

The figures in this picture are attributed to N. Berchem.

830. THE AVENUE, MIDDELHARNIS

Hobbema (Dutch: 1638-1709). See 685.

Perhaps the best rendering of a Dutch village in the Gallery – beautiful alike in its general effect and in the faithful way in which every characteristic of the country is brought out. Note the long avenue, a High Street, as it were, of lopped trees, to lead the traveller to the village; the bright red roofs, suggestive already in the distance of the cheerful cleanliness he will find; the broad ditch on either side of the road – the land reclaimed from the water, and the water now embanked to fertilise the land; the neat plantations, allotments it may be, each as trim and well kept as a lawn; and lastly, the nursery-garden on the left, in which the gardener, smoking, like the true Hollander, as he works, is pruning some grafted trees. Middelharnis is one of several places that dispute the honour of being Hobbema's birthplace.

This picture – which is signed, and dated 16-9 (third figure illegible) – is generally recognised as the painter's masterpiece. The subject is unusual, showing a more open landscape and a wider expanse of sky than Hobbema ordinarily represented. The power and freshness with which he has treated the theme are remarkable. "Such daylight," says Waagen, "I have never seen in any picture." It is to be noted further that the artist makes no effort to attain the picturesque, and that the picture offends in some respects against the laws of composition. Thus "M. Michel complains of the road coming straight, at once cutting the picture awkwardly in two, of the slender trees with which it is symmetrically bordered, and which have on their tops only small plumes of foliage, of the parallel ditches which hold in the road on either side, and of the cross-road which cuts the picture horizontally, and lastly, the rose-trees and shrubs planted regularly in straight lines. All this, he says, does not make a very picturesque picture. For our own part, it is the fearless and truthful manner in which Hobbema has treated what must at first sight have appeared an unpromising subject, that is one of its greatest charms" (Cundall: The Landscape Painters of Holland, p. 53). Like Hobbema's pictures generally, this masterpiece was held in little honour in its own country. It was sold at Dort in 1815 for £90. Sir Robert Peel bought it in 1829 for £800. It is said to have been restored and retouched by Reinagle (see Mrs. Jameson's Handbook to the Private Galleries of London, p. 354 n.).

831. THE RUINS OF BREDERODE CASTLE

Hobbema (Dutch: 1638-1709). See 685.

This fine picture also is somewhat unusual in subject for Hobbema, who was ordinarily content with humble village scenes. It affords a good instance of his literal truth to nature. M. Michel, in his monograph on the painter, gives side by side a reproduction of it and a sketch from his own pen of the ruins as they exist to-day, which, with the exception of the addition of a modern barbaric bell-turret and some battlements, preserve almost the identical appearance which Hobbema portrayed upwards of two centuries ago. "The ivy continues to entwine its garlands round the disjointed bricks, and, as formerly, the ducks sport in the stagnant waters of the moat, or take a luxurious siesta amidst the tufts of grass on its banks, while the rooks and crows, installed as masters in the recesses of the ancient walls, fill the air with their incessant cries" (quoted in Cundall's Landscape and Pastoral Painters of Holland, 1891, p. 52). The ducks191 are ascribed to Wyntrank; the figures to Lingelbach. The picture is signed, and dated 1667. It was, however, at one time re-christened as a Wijnants, in order to procure a better price at auctions. In 1825 it sold for £880.

832. A VILLAGE WITH WATERMILLS

Hobbema (Dutch: 1638-1709). See 685.

This is one of Hobbema's most usual subjects – a cottage, a mill, a few trees. The effect is that of a summer sky, with light fleecy clouds, and gleams of sunshine seem to pass over the scene. Sir Robert Peel paid £525 for the picture. It should be compared with Ruysdael's of a similar scene (986).

833. A FOREST SCENE

Hobbema (Dutch: 1638-1709). See 685.

834. A DUTCH INTERIOR

Pieter de Hooch (Dutch: 1630-about 1677). See 794.

This picture is interesting as enabling us to discern the painter's technical process. "The more luminous parts of it, such as the costumes of the two men at the table, are painted in semi-opaque colour over a brilliant orange ground. Here and there the orange may be seen peeping out, and its presence elsewhere gives a peculiar pearliness to the tints laid upon it. De Hooch painted very thinly. In this picture the maid with the brazier is an afterthought. She is painted over the tiles and other details of the background, which now show through her skirts. Before she was put in, this space to the right was occupied by an old gentleman with a white beard and moustache, and a wide-brimmed hat, all of which can be descried under the brown of the mantelpiece" (Armstrong: Notes on the National Gallery, pp. 36, 37).

835. COURT OF A DUTCH HOUSE

Pieter de Hooch (Dutch: 1630-about 1677). See 794.

A courtyard at Delft: superbly painted, and a good picture of Dutch home life – of its neatness, its cleanliness, its quiet, and its content. Notice over the entrance a commemorative inscription, partly covered already by vine leaves, dated 1614. The day's work is done, and the wife stands in the porch, waiting for her husband's return; a servant brings down the child too into the courtyard to greet its father. "It is natural to think your own house and garden the nicest house and garden that ever were… They are a treasure to you which no money could buy, – the leaving them is always pain, – the return to them a new thrill and wakening to life. They are a home and a place of root to you, as if you were founded on the ground like its walls, or grew into it like its flowers" (Fors Clavigera, 1876, p. 51). Such a home (says Mr. Pater in his Imaginary Portraits) "was, in its minute and busy wellbeing, like an epitome of Holland itself, with all the good-fortune of its thriving genius reflected, quite spontaneously, in the national taste. The nation had learned to content itself with a religion which told little, or not at all, on the outsides of things. But we may fancy that something of the religious spirit had gone, according to the law of the transmutation of force, into the scrupulous care for cleanliness, into the grave, old-world, conservative beauty of Dutch houses, which meant that the life people maintained in them was normally affectionate and pure." This picture was much admired by Constable. "The least mannered," he said, "and consequently the best pictures I have seen, are some of the works of De Hooge, particularly one of an outdoor subject, at Sir R. Peel's. His indoors are as good, but less difficult, as being less lustrous" (Leslie's Life of Constable, p. 299). The picture is signed, and dated 1658.

836. A VIEW IN HOLLAND

Philip de Koninck (Dutch: 1619-1688).

Koninck, or Koning, was born at Amsterdam and became a pupil of Rembrandt. He painted historical subjects and portraits, but it is for his landscapes that he is now most admired. These are generally expansive views in which aerial perspective is well given: "The distances of the painters of the older schools had been full of objects and figures as minutely rendered as those on the foremost places, only ever so much smaller. Compare with these distances the simply treated expanse of country offered to view in P. de Koninck's landscapes. Here we do not have merely a series of objects getting smaller as they recede, but a far more generalised representation of the whole face of nature bathed in an atmosphere in which objects are lost to view" (Baldwin Brown's Fine Arts, p. 301).

There is a repetition of this picture in the Royal Museum at the Hague. One may presume that Koninck's pictures had aristocratic purchasers; for, unlike the painters of "pastoral landscape," he is fond of introducing persons of distinction – here it is a hawking party; in 974 a carriage-and-six with outriders.

837. THE HAY HARVEST

Jan Lingelbach (Dutch: 1623-1674).

Though a German by birth, Lingelbach is included amongst the Dutch painters; for he lived chiefly in Amsterdam, and was largely employed in inserting the figures in the landscapes of Wynants and others. He also passed some years in Italy, and frequently painted Italian scenes and incidents.

838. THE DUET

Gabriel Metsu (Dutch: 1630-1667).

Metsu is one of the genre painters who are now appraised most highly – sums of £2580 and £3200 severally were given at the Secrétan Sale for pictures of his. In the Hertford House Gallery are some good specimens which the late Sir Richard Wallace acquired at great cost. Though, like most of his brother-artists, he was fond of painting tavern-scenes (e. g. No. 970), he was also a painter of high life and the drawing-room, like Terburg and Netscher. "In each of these spheres he combined humour with expression, a keen appreciation of nature with feeling, and breadth with delicacy of touch, in a manner unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries" (Crowe). "When his pictures have escaped the ordeal of ruthless cleaning they are pervaded by the finest tone, and the whites in them have that delicate glow which distance and atmosphere lend to snowy peaks. It is obvious that he caressed this least manageable of colours with unceasing love. Altogether his works have a quality of distinction rare in those of any school" (Burton). Metsu's father was a painter, whose third wife (the mother of Gabriel) was a painter's widow. The boy was taught by Gerard Dou, and already at the age of fourteen was admitted a member of the Leyden Guild of Painters. In 1650 he removed to Amsterdam, where he fell under the influence of Rembrandt. The large picture in the Louvre of "The Woman taken in Adultery," signed by Metsu and dated 1653, shows this fact. Metsu did not, however, adhere to religious subjects, but applied the lessons he learnt from the great master to subjects more congenial to his talent.

839. THE MUSIC LESSON

Gabriel Metsu (Dutch: 1630-1667).

A picture that might serve as an illustration of "the gamut of Hortensio" (see Taming of the Shrew, Act. iii. sc. 1).

840. A LADY FEEDING A PARROT

Frans van Mieris (Dutch: 1635-1681).

This painter, the son of a goldsmith (one of twenty-three children) and the pupil of Gerard Dou, is known as "Old Frans," to distinguish him from his grandson of that name, who, like his son William (see 841), was also a painter. The works of Frans are very much superior to those of his successors. "Unlike William Mieris, he rarely cared to carry the eye from the beautiful painting of the figures by working up or covering the base of the casement with highly finished bas-reliefs. That kind of thing may be looked for in William Mieris's curiously finished pictures, but certainly is not wanted in the works of Francis. His female figures, independently of being always well painted, are often graceful and pretty; he could paint a lady at her toilet with the delicacy and feeling of Metsu and Terburg, and was besides happy in varying the expressions and faces of his female beauties; he was fond of painting them in richly coloured jackets trimmed with fur. He was also a capital hand at painting birds" (Seguier). The elegance and high technical qualities of his productions brought him numerous and distinguished patrons. The Grand Duke of Tuscany visited him at Leyden, and the Archduke Leopold William desired to attract him to Vienna. Mieris, however, would not leave Leyden; nor did his large and lucrative practice induce any carelessness or neglect in his work.

841. A FISH AND POULTRY SHOP

Willem van Mieris (Dutch: 1662-1747).

The son of Frans (see above, 840). He succeeded to his father's practice, but was an indifferent imitator. A comparison between him and the leading "Little Masters of Holland" will show the difference between true finish and laborious trifling.

Decidedly an "artistic" shop: notice the elaborate bas-relief (as also in 825), with marine subjects suitable to a fishmonger's, below the shop-window, and the handsome curtain ready to serve as shutters. The picture is sometimes called "The Cat," from the cat eyeing the duck whose head hangs from the window-sill.

842. A GARDEN

Frédéric de Moucheron (Dutch: 1633-1686).

This painter came of an Antwerp family, but he studied and afterwards settled at Amsterdam. He also studied and worked for some years in Paris. He confined himself to landscape; Lingelbach, A. van de Velde and others were employed to paint in his figures.

The figures here are ascribed to Adrian van de Velde.

843. BLOWING BUBBLES

Gaspard Netscher (Dutch: 1639-1684).

Netscher, one of the chief painters of Dutch "high life," had a somewhat eventful career. He was born at Heidelberg, which was then being besieged. His mother, after seeing her two elder children die of hunger before her eyes, escaped with Gaspard through the investing lines to Arnheim. The boy was intended for a doctor, but took to painting and studied under Terburg. In 1659 he started on a tour to Italy, but at Bordeaux he fell in love with a girl from Liège, whom he married. He settled at Bordeaux, but his pictures, such as this, which are now so much valued, then brought him but slight remuneration; and after returning to the Hague, he turned his attention to portrait-painting. Several of his portraits are of English sitters, and it is supposed that he visited this country, but this is uncertain. Netscher's portraits are generally on a small scale, and very highly finished. He was patronised by William III., and was rapidly acquiring fame, when he died at the age of forty-five. His genre pieces resemble those of F. Mieris.

844. MATERNAL INSTRUCTION

Netscher (Dutch: 1639-1684). See 843.

Notice in the background, over a cupboard, hanging in a black frame, a small copy of Rubens' "Brazen Serpent," now in this collection (59).

845. A LADY AT A SPINNING WHEEL

Netscher (Dutch: 1639-1684). See 843.

846. THE ALCHYMIST

Adrian van Ostade (Dutch: 1610-1685).

Adrian, the elder of the two Ostades, was a pupil of Frans Hals. Later in life, he felt the influence of Rembrandt, and he painted some religious subjects. But he is best known for his scenes from peasant life. These are now greatly esteemed, and pictures which the painter himself probably sold for a few shillings now fetch hundreds and even thousands of pounds. Adrian Ostade is the contemporary of Teniers, and it is interesting to compare their respective delineations of rustic life. "The contrast lies in the different condition of the agricultural classes of Brabant and Holland. Brabant has more sun, more comfort, and a higher type of humanity; Teniers, in consequence, is silvery and sparkling; the people he paints are fair specimens of a well-built race. Holland, in the vicinity of Haarlem, seems to have suffered much in war; the air is moist and hazy, and the people, as depicted by Ostade, are short, ill-favoured, and marked with the stamp of adversity on their features and dress. 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 mis-shapen features. He did so by giving their vulgar sports, their quarrels, even their quieter moods of enjoyment, the magic light of the sun-gleam, and by clothing the wreck of cottages with gay vegetation" (Crowe). Ostade was especially fond of the foliage of the vine. He is often coarse, but sometimes shows a genuine sense of humour. He had, says Sir F. Burton, "artistic qualities of a high order – consummate skill in composition and taste in arrangement; subtlety of chiaroscuro and refined delicacy of colour; appropriate, and never overstrained action in the figures, and precision, combined with breadth, of handling. His earlier pictures are the coolest in tone; those of his middle period more golden, showing gradually the influence of Rembrandt. His drawings and etchings are extremely fine." His father, Jan Hendrik, was a weaver; the children adopted the name of Ostade from a small hamlet, near Eindhoven, which their parents left to settle at Haarlem. There Adrian lived and worked, being enrolled as a member of the Civic Guard in 1636, and becoming Dean of the Painters' Guild in 1662. He was twice married; the second time, to a daughter of Jan van Goyen.

Under the three-legged stool is a paper on which is written a warning of the vanity of the alchymist's labour —oleum et operam perdis: "you are wasting your cost and pains" – a warning not unjustified in a painter's mouth, for more than one old master devoted the end of his life to the fruitless task of making gold (e. g. Parmigiano, see 33). The English painter, Romney, too, dabbled in alchemy when he was a young man, and in his declining years sketched a melodrama representing the progress of an alchymist in quest of the philosopher's stone. The picture is signed (on a shovel hanging against the wall), and dated 1661. It is, says Mr. J. T. Nettleship in a comparison between Ostade and George Morland, "a marvellous example of the atmosphère de tableau. Everything takes its place, but is also a wonder of finish. The whole picture gives you a large feeling of space and tone. And there is no bogeydom, no straining after weirdness; the whole is a common workshop, the scene of the man's daily life; he feeds well, one is sure – if he has dreams his face does not betray them, it is just the face of a born craftsman. It is impossible to look at this picture without acknowledging the influence such work must have had on Morland. But Morland never achieved such delicacy united to breadth, such finish combined with harmony of effect, though before he took the wrong turn he came near achieving it" (George Morland, p. 23).

847. A VILLAGE SCENE

Isaac van Ostade (Dutch: 1621-1649).

Isaac, born at Haarlem, was the younger brother of Adrian van Ostade, with whom he remained as pupil till 1641, when he set up in business on his own account. There is a record of a transaction of his in that year which throws an interesting light on the picture-dealing world of the day. In 1643 a dealer summoned him for breach of a contract made in 1641 to deliver six pictures and seven "rounds" for twenty-seven florins. Part of Isaac's defence was that his pictures had since risen in value. The case was referred to the Painters' Guild, which decided that he must perform his contract, but that the number of the "rounds" should be reduced to five and the price of the whole be increased to fifty florins. It may be conjectured that the low value thus set upon the cottage scenes in his brother's manner induced Isaac to cultivate a different style of his own. This consisted largely of village inns (of which the present picture is a capital example), and winter scenes (among which No. 963 in our Gallery is a masterpiece). He combined a genuine appreciation of nature with great skill in the treatment of figures. He was fond, as will be seen, of introducing a white horse to serve as the principal light in his compositions.