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

1479. A WINTER SCENE ON THE ICE

Hendrik van Avercamp (Dutch: 1586-1663). See 1346.

A winter scene such as Mr. Pater describes in his Imaginary Portraits (p. 91), with "all the delicate poetry together with all the delicate comfort of the frosty season," in "the leafless branches, the furred dresses of the skaters, the warmth of the red-brick house fronts, and the gleam of pale sunlight."

1481. A PHILOSOPHER

Cornelis Pietersz Bega (Dutch: 1620-1664).

This painter, who lived and died at Haarlem, was the son of a sculptor and a pupil of Adrian van Ostade. "Though," says Havard (p. 148), "a more finished draughtsman, with more regard for grace of form and for the beauty of his figures, in all other respects he was very inferior to Ostade. When we notice his dry and heavy execution, his ruddy flesh-colouring, and his opaque shadows, we are surprised that he should have so far neglected the examples placed before him."

This picture, executed throughout with extreme care and finish, is signed, and dated 1663.

1489, 1490. PORTRAITS OF VENETIAN SENATORS

(Venetian School: 16th Century.)

Transferred from the South Kensington Museum, where the portraits were attributed to Tintoret.

1493. LANDSCAPE, WITH VIEW OF THE CARRARA MOUNTAINS

G. Costa (Italian: born 1826).

Giovanni Costa, Professor in the Florentine Academy of Fine Arts, is distinguished alike as a painter and a patriot. He fought in the Venetian campaign of 1848, was a follower of Mazzini, in 1853 joined the Piedmontese regiment of lancers known as the Aosta Cavalleggieri, served on Garibaldi's staff at Mentana, and in 1870 fought his way through the streets of Rome at the head of the Italian army, and was the first to enter the Capitol. This ended his military career; but he afterwards served on the Municipal Council of Rome and interested himself specially in the prevention of inundations of the Tiber. It was in 1852 that Costa first began the study of landscape painting, in which he was destined to become the greatest ornament of the modern Italian School. His home was in the Alban Hills, near Rome, and afterwards at Florence, where in 1859 he inaugurated the "open-air school" in Italy. In 1864 he returned to Rome, and in 1870 was appointed to his professorship at Florence. In the earlier portion of his artistic career, Costa exhibited at Paris (with Corot, Troyon, and others); afterwards he found in England his chief patrons, and many of his pupils. In 1853, at Rome, he made the acquaintance of Leighton, whose intimate friend he remained until the President's death. Another celebrated English artist with whom Costa was intimate was Mason; there is considerable affinity in some respects between the work of the two men. The Italian painter has depicted almost every part of his beautiful country. He has been called "the Italian Millet," for the feeling of sublimity which he knows so well how to impart to the simplicities of peasant life; while in works of pure landscape he especially excels in giving to blue mountains, reedy banks, and olive-grown shores a poetical charm. (See an interesting account of Professor Costa, largely autobiographical, in the Magazine of Art, vol. vi. His personal reminiscences of Mason and Leighton have been published in the Cornhill Magazine, March 1897.)

The scenery of the Carrara Mountains is a favourite subject of the painter. In his pictures of these mountains, "seen across a broad expanse of plain through a misty atmosphere, he invests forms undeniably grand in themselves with a more solemn splendour and a deepened poetry."

1495. CHRIST DISPUTING WITH THE DOCTORS

Ludovico Mazzolino (Ferrarese: 1480-1528). See 169.

This brilliant and characteristic little picture, containing twenty-eight delicately and elaborately finished figures, is enriched with one of Mazzolino's usual backgrounds of marble bas-reliefs. The lower of them represents Moses showing the Tables of the Law to the Israelites. The upper, the battle between the Israelites and the Philistines, with David beheading Goliath.

1653. PORTRAIT OF HERSELF

Madame Vigée Le Brun (French: 1755-1842).

All visitors to Paris know this charming artist. Her two portraits of herself with her little girl in her arms are in the Louvre, and engravings or photographs of them are in every printseller's window. They are characteristic of her refined drawing, her limpid and transparent colour, her graceful sentiment. She excelled in rendering the candour of innocence, the charm of childhood, and maternal tenderness. She aimed rather at a certain ideal of soft and smiling beauty than at realism of portraiture. Some of her personages, even those in the highest ranks of life, seem, it has been well said, to have traversed the sentimental scenes of the tender Greuze, and she was fond of enveloping her sitters in semi-allegorical surroundings. If she cannot be reckoned among the great portrait-painters, she yet shows a power which is rare among artists of her sex, and a charming style of her own which will always make her works attractive. Madame le Brun was herself one of the most beautiful and accomplished women of her time. Elizabeth Louise Vigée was born in Paris, and her early years were spent in the studio of her father, who was a painter, and among other artistic surroundings. Her own talents rapidly developed; by the time she was 15 she had many commissions, and at 20 she was already celebrated. Her beauty and social charm soon gained for her the friendship of the greatest men and women of the day, including La Harpe, D'Alembert, and Marie Antoinette. With the Queen she was a great favourite. She painted her portrait in 1779, and afterwards no less than thirty times. She was made a member of the Royal Academy of Painting in 1780, but when the Revolution broke out she left Paris in haste. She went from capital to capital; in each in turn the charm of her person and manner made her many friends, and she was always full of commissions. In 1795 she settled for some years at St. Petersburg, where she enjoyed the favour of the Imperial Court. In 1802 she came for three years to England, where she painted portraits of the Prince of Wales and Lord Byron, among others. She was a favourite wherever she went, but in spite of all the adulation she received she remained simple and natural to the end. When she returned to Paris, her salon became the rendezvous of the most distinguished writers, painters, and politicians of that brilliant period, and her Souvenirs, published in 1837, are crowded with interesting sketches of her friends. In this frank and engaging autobiography she gives us particulars of the worthless husband – M. Le Brun, a picture-dealer whom she had married when she was 20. He squandered her fortune, but she found unfailing consolation in the daughter whom she presses to her in those portraits in the Louvre. She outlived both her daughter and her husband by many years and died at the age of 87.

This portrait was painted by the artist in her 27th year. Its acquisition for the National Gallery is specially interesting, for it was painted in emulation of the celebrated "Chapeau de Paille" of Rubens (No. 852). She had seen and admired that work at Antwerp in 1782, and determined to represent herself in a similar effect of shadow and reflected light. The portrait had so great a success that it gained her admission to the Académie, where she was received in the following year, 1783.

1660. PORTRAIT OF HIMSELF

Adrian van der Werff (Dutch: 1659-1722).

"The painter who by his astounding success did most after Gerard de Lairesse to lead the art of painting into a perverse path was Adrian van der Werff. He was born at Kralinger-Ambacht, near Rotterdam, and received lessons in drawing from Cornelis Picollet, and then entered the studio of Eglon van der Neer, where he made rapid progress. At first he seemed inclined to follow the bent of his master, but he deserted the study of nature for the pursuit of the ideal, and in doing so he fell into cold sentimentality and tasteless affectation. His groups became pretentious, his heads monotonous, his bodies have no life, and his flesh-colouring assumes the polish and the tint of ivory. These defects, however, did not prevent his misleading a certain number of people who believed themselves to be connoisseurs. The Duke of Wolfenbüttel and other high personages of his time contended for the possession of his pictures at enormous prices, and praised the merits of their favourite artist to the skies. No one more assisted him in his career, and in the making of his reputation, than the Elector-Palatine John William, who, not satisfied with giving him very considerable commissions, also conferred upon him the title of Chevalier, and ennobled his family. (The artist signs himself on occasion 'Chevalier van Werff'). The compositions which he painted for his patron are now to be seen at Munich" (Havard: The Dutch School, p. 280). There is in the Dulwich Gallery a "Judgment of Paris" by Van der Werff – a celebrated work painted in 1718 for the Duke of Orleans and much admired by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The heads are wanting in expression and the flesh is bloodless, but the painting is of the greatest finish. There are also pictures by him in the Wallace Collection. "The cold porcelain-like colour," says Mr. Phillips in his catalogue, "and mechanical finish of this artist in the treatment of the nude are much less appreciated by modern connoisseurs than they were by his contemporaries. Still his general accomplishment and the certainty of his execution, in a vicious and wholly conventional style, are not to be denied."

In our picture "the courtly painter of polished, lascivious nudities faces the spectator in a wig of the period of Louis Quatorze, looking as dignified and impersonal as the painters of that particular age did manage to look in their portraits." The statue of Fame, holding a wreath, is characteristic. The portrait is signed, and dated 1685.

1661, 1662. WINGS OF THE ALTAR-PIECE, No. 1093

Ambrogio de Predis (Milanese: about 1450-1515).

This long-forgotten painter was rediscovered by Morelli in 1880, who claimed for him a considerable place in the Milanese school. This claim has since been historically confirmed by the document, referred to in the notes to No. 1093, showing that Ambrogio de Predis was at work in Milan with Leonardo da Vinci, employed as his assistant to paint the wings of the altar-piece of which the central portion was the "Vierge aux Rochers." By a fortunate purchase these wings by Ambrogio now hang in our Gallery, on either side of Leonardo's picture. Ambrogio's best work was in portraiture, of which an example (one of the two signed and dated by the artist) is also in our Gallery (No. 1665). Ambrogio and his brother Bernardino were sons of a certain Lorenzo Preda of Milan. There is also a Cristoforo de Predis, a miniaturist, one of whose miniatures (representing Galeazzo Maria Sforza) is in the Wallace Collection, and it is probable that from him Ambrogio received his first education in art. In 1482 he was established as Court Painter to Ludovico il Moro. In 1493 he accompanied Bianca Maria Sforza on the occasion of her marriage to the Emperor Maximilian, but was back again at Milan in 1494. In 1502 we find him at Innsbruck, where he seems to have settled. In 1506 he designed some tapestries for the Emperor, after which year nothing more is known of him. In the Vienna Gallery is a signed portrait by him of the Emperor, dated 1502, and to him Morelli ascribes the celebrated profile portrait of Bianca Maria in the Ambrosiana at Milan (there erroneously called Beatrice Sforza), hitherto assigned to Leonardo. Among other portraits now ascribed to Ambrogio are the "Page" in the Morelli Collection at Bergamo, and "Fr. Brivio" in the Poldi Pezzoli Collection at Milan. De Predis is "a conscientious and careful painter, though his drawing and modelling are often defective, particularly in the representation of the hand." He "seems to have been an artist of some individuality, even after coming under Leonardo's influence. He was by nature too much of a miniaturist to concern himself with the larger problems of painting, and was very limited in his range – even his portraits are uniformly treated. He seems, judging by his drawings, to have sought to improve himself by a careful and conscientious study of Leonardo's work, and when he had the advantage of the master's guiding hand he could produce works (like these angels) one of which, though lacking the qualities of profound art, has a certain charm and even dignity of its own" (Catalogue of Milanese Pictures at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1898, p. li.; Morelli's German Galleries, pp. 413-415; Roman Galleries, pp. 180-189).

The angel in 1661 may, as suggested above, have been designed, or begun, by Leonardo himself; that in 1662 must be entirely the work of Ambrogio. These paintings remained in their place, as we have seen under 1093, up to 1787. They were purchased in 1878 from Duke Jean Melzi d'Erie at Milan for £2160.

1664. "LA FONTAINE."

J. B. S. Chardin (French: 1699-1779). See 1258.

The woman is drawing water from a copper "fontaine" into a black jug.

1665. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN

Ambrogio de Predis (Milanese: about 1450-1515). See 1661.

In his right hand he holds a scroll which bears the painter's signature AM. PR., the date 1494, and the words AN. 20. Formerly in the possession of the Archinti family, and supposed to represent Francesco di Bartolommeo Archinto (1474-1551), who was Governor of Chiavenna. A very refined portrait; but Morelli points out that the hand is "coarse and wanting in life."

1674. A BURGOMASTER

Rembrandt (Dutch: 1606-1669). See 45.

"The costume and rapid execution of this magnificent picture point rather," says Sir Edward Poynter, "to its being a study than a portrait painted on commission." Probably also the title by which the picture has long been known is a mistake: a Burgomaster would not be painted in such dingy and fantastic garb. The old man was no doubt a model dressed up by Rembrandt in studio "properties." The knotted stick which he holds in his hands may be recognised in the painter's portrait of himself in Lord Ilchester's possession (No. 61 in the Academy Exhibition of 1899). That portrait is dated 1658, and this picture probably belongs to the same period. The picturesque but nondescript headgear worn by the "burgomaster" may have belonged to the master himself in those latter days when all relics of the former splendours had vanished. Whoever he may have been, the "Burgomaster," as he lives for ever on Rembrandt's canvas, is a striking personage; the refined, intellectual face recalls to some spectators one of the late ornaments of the Episcopal Bench in our own day. The portrait is a masterpiece alike of character-reading and of modelling.

1675. PORTRAIT OF AN OLD LADY

Rembrandt (Dutch: 1606-1669). See 45.

A noble portrait. Rembrandt was a painter who reverenced old age, and gave its dignity and beauty to faces the least promising. We may notice especially the pathetic eyes, – with an expression at once so living and so sorrowful, and the character in the hands which Rembrandt never failed to give his sitters. The old lady wears a large white ruff, "evidently clinging to the costume of her earlier years, for ruffs had long been out of fashion at the time when the picture was painted." The picture has been known as the Burgomaster's Wife, but this description is without authority or probability. There is another portrait of the same old lady in Lord Wantage's possession (No. 15 in the Academy Exhibition, 1899). Lord Wantage's picture is dated 1661.

The two magnificent pictures just described, which hold their own triumphantly even on a wall of masterpieces,250 were formerly in possession of Sir William Middleton, Bart., great-uncle to Lady de Saumarez, and were exhibited at the British Institution in 1858. Since that date they had been lost to sight until they were purchased for the National Gallery in 1899.251 They are believed to have been in possession of the Lee family, Lady de Saumarez's ancestors, from the time that they were painted, but they may have come into the family with a certain John van Enkoren, a Dutch gentleman, who married a second cousin of Sir William Middleton.

1676. CHRIST DISPUTING WITH THE DOCTORS

Francesco de Herrera, the elder (Spanish: 1576-1656).

Francesco de Herrera, the elder – so called to distinguish him from a son of the same name who was also a painter – was the first to throw off the timid conventional style hitherto in vogue, and to adopt the bold and vigorous manner which became characteristic of the school of Seville. He drew, we are told, with charred reeds, and painted with a housepainter's brush. It is said that on occasions he would employ a servant to smear the paints on his canvas with a coarse brush, and then himself shape the rough masses into figures and draperies. In the Louvre there is an important picture by Herrera, "St. Basil dictating his Doctrine," of which Théophile Gautier said that it was "dashed off with an unimaginable fury of the brush, and blazed with the flashing of some auto-da-fè." In the Earl of Clarendon's Collection are three powerful pictures (shown at the New Gallery, 1895-96) representing scenes in the life of St. Bonaventura. But most of Herrera's extant works, in oil and fresco, remain at Seville. The vigour of his style was equalled by the impetuosity of his temper. Pupils flocked round him, but the violence of his outbursts drove them away. Among this number was Velazquez. He perverted his talent as an engraver of medals to the work of coining, and when suspected of this offence fled for sanctuary to the Jesuits' College. There he painted a picture which was shown to Philip IV. "What need," said the King, "has a man gifted with abilities like yours of silver and gold? Go, you are free; and take care that you do not get into this scrape again." He could not, however, change his violent habits, and his children, we are told, robbed him and fled from his house. In 1650 Herrera removed to Madrid, where he had the pleasure, or mortification, of seeing his former pupil, Velazquez, at the height of his fame.

A work in the painter's less impetuous style, but marked by the vigour characteristic of the Spanish and Italian "naturalists."

1680. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN

Dutch School (17th Century).

An admirable portrait of a young man with long golden hair, looking out at the spectator. The picture is signed J. Karel du Jardin. It has sometimes been attributed to the well-known painter of that name (see 826), and been said to be a portrait of the artist by himself. But the initial J. does not confirm this theory.

1682. VIRGIN AND CHILD

Francesco di Giorgio (Sienese: 1439-1502).

Francesco di Giorgio Martini was one of the most distinguished architects and engineers of his time. He wrote a treatise on "Civil and Military Architecture," and was a great authority, says Vasari, on "all instruments required for the purposes of war." There are two altar-pieces by him in the Siena Academy, and he also occasionally produced works in sculpture: "this he could do very conveniently, being a man of fair possessions as well as of remarkable ability, wherefore he did not work for the sake of gain, but for his own pleasure, and when he felt inclined, to the end that he might leave honourable memorials of his existence behind him."

"This quaint little picture represents the Virgin in the attitude of walking, leading the Infant Saviour by the hand. She wears a white dress, shaded blue, with a small gold pattern delicately painted upon it, and a rose-coloured mantle lined with dark green, and holds in her right hand a branch of roses. The drapery falls with much grace, and she looks down with a sweet expression to the Child" (National Gallery Report, 1899).

1683. STUDY OF A HORSE

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

The glossy texture of the horse is well rendered.

1686. STUDY OF FLOWERS

Henri Fantin-Latour (French: 1836-1904).

Ignace Henri Jean Théodore Fantin-Latour was born at Grenoble, the son of a famous pastellist. He first exhibited at the Salon in 1861. In 1864 his "Hommage à Delacroix" created a sensation. In this country, where he was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy, he is best known for his exquisite studies of roses and other flowers. But he was also a painter of portraits (see No. 1952) and of romantic subjects inspired by his musical tastes. In portraiture, a thorough, though a sympathetic, realist (witness his "Monet's studio at the Batignolles" in the Luxembourg), – he becomes fanciful when he enters the domain of romance. A favourite medium was lithography, in which he excelled; the British Museum has a fine set of proofs. His subjects are taken from the motives used in the musical dramas of Wagner and Berlioz.

Late summer flowers, chiefly roses, in a vase on a wooden table. The background, as usual with this painter, is of a flat tone of warm gray.

1689. A MAN AND WIFE

Mabuse (Flemish: about 1470-1541). See 656.

Portraits, uncompromising in thoroughness, of a severe and uncompromising couple. "This masterpiece," says Sir Edward Poynter, "combines with a high perfection of finish and modelling, every detail being finished with the utmost care, even to the stubble of the man's beard, great breadth of effect and a beautiful quality of light and shade" (National Gallery Report, 1900). The portraits, formerly in the collection of Captain A. F. Dawson, used to be attributed to Quentin Matsys. Some authorities ascribe them to his brother, Jan. Others believe that the work belongs to the German school. The attribution to Mabuse is made in the Director's Report for 1900.

1694. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ST. JOHN

Fra Bartolommeo (Florentine: 1475-1517).

Bartolommeo di Pagholo del Fattorino, one of the greatest of the Florentine masters, is commonly known as Baccio della Porta, or Fra Bartolommeo. He was born at the village of Savignano, near Prato, and was sent while still a lad to the studio of Cosimo Rosselli at Florence, where he lived with some kinsfolk in a house near the gate of San Piero Gattolini (now the Porta Romana). The neighbours, seeing him come and go to his work, and ignoring surnames with the custom of the time, distinguished him from all the other Bartholemews as Baccio della Porta. "He was loved in Florence," says Vasari, "for his virtue, for he was very diligent at his work, quiet and good-natured, fearing God, living a tranquil life, flying all vicious practices, and taking great pleasure in preaching, and the society of worthy and sober persons." In the studio of Rosselli he made the acquaintance of Mariotto Albertinelli, as erratic, gay, and idle as his companion was pure, gentle, and austere. Between the two young men a warm friendship sprang up, which continued unbroken till the death of Albertinelli in 1515. When Fra Bartolommeo temporarily relinquished the practice of art in 1500, Albertinelli took up his abandoned canvases, and from 1509 onwards the two men worked in formal partnership. The religious spirit of Bartolommeo had been profoundly impressed by Savonarola's preaching. To the famous bonfire, into which the people cast their pomps and vanities, our painter brought all the studies and drawings which he had made from the nude. He was among the band of faithful followers who shut themselves up with Savonarola in San Marco. "Having very little courage," says Vasari, "being indeed of a timid and even cowardly disposition, he lost heart on hearing the clamours of an attack, which was made upon the convent shortly after, and seeing some wounded and others killed, he began to have grievous doubts respecting his position. Thereupon he made a vow, that if he might be permitted to escape from the rage of that strife, he would instantly assume the religious habit of the Dominicans." This he did in the year 1500, and for some time afterwards his brush was idle. When he resumed work, it was on condition that the convent received all the produce of his labours. In 1506, when Raphael visited Florence, he formed a friendship with Fra Bartolommeo, in whose work he doubtless found something to assimilate. Some years afterwards, Fra Bartolommeo went to Rome, where he painted a figure of St. Paul, and part of one of St. Peter (now in the Quirinal), leaving Raphael to finish the work. Fra Bartolommeo suffered from ill-health, and died at the early age of 42.