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

The scene is in the Tower, February 12, 1554. Lady Jane Grey, condemned for treason, has been blindfolded, and is being led to the block by the Lieutenant of the Tower.

1914. A ROYAL CHÂTEAU IN HOLLAND

1915. A DUTCH CHURCH AND MARKET PLACE

Jan van der Heyden (Dutch: 1637-1712). See 866.

The château in the former picture is "The House in the Wood" (Huis ten Bosch), built in 1647, in which the first Peace Conference was held at The Hague.

1917. AN ITALIAN LANDSCAPE

Jan Both (Dutch: 1610-1662). See 71.

A fine example of the "soft golden tones" noted in our account of Both as characteristic of his best works.

1918. MARKET PLACE AT THE HAGUE

Paul Constantin La Fargue (Dutch: died 1782).

The work of an artist (best known by his drawings and etchings) who painted many small pictures of his native city, The Hague.

A scene in the Groén Market; the tower of the Groote Kerk in the background.

1925. PORTRAIT OF A MAN

Lucas Cranach (German: 1472-1553). See 291.

Upon the shield to the left is the painter's crest, as in No. 291; with the date 1524. The head is fine and full of character; the hands are less successful.

1930. PORTRAIT OF A LADY AS ST. MARGARET

Francisco Zurbaran (Spanish: 1598-1662). See 230.

Zurbaran, it has been said, was "a great though not a professed, portrait painter." The lady is St. Margaret only in virtue of the dragon, the emblem of the saint; otherwise this is a portrait of a young lady in a fanciful country costume.

1937. PORTRAIT OF A LADY

Bartholomeus van der Helst (Dutch: 1611-1670). See 140.

This picture, said to be a portrait of a lady of the house of Braganza, was formerly in the collection of Mr. Beckford at Fonthill. It is signed, and dated 1645. The "careful finish," which Sir Joshua Reynolds commended in the work of Van der Helst, may be well studied here in the rich and beautiful costume and jewellery.

1938. PORTRAIT OF HIS FATHER

Albrecht Dürer (German: 1471-1528).

The acquisition of this picture adds to the Gallery a fine example of the great artist, who in all the characteristics of his art is the central representative of the German spirit, – "its combination of the wild and rugged with the homely and the tender, its meditative depth, its enigmatic gloom, its sincerity and energy, its iron diligence and discipline." The range of his powers is shown not only in his works that survive, but in the estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries. When he went to Venice they "praised his beautiful colouring," Bellini honoured him with his friendship, "and he was everywhere treated," so he wrote, "as a gentleman." Raphael sent him some drawings, on one of which this note in Dürer's handwriting may still be seen: "Raphael of Urbino, who has been so highly esteemed by the Pope, drew these naked figures, and sent them to Albrecht Dürer in Nuremberg to show him his hand." He was a writer as well as an artist. "Painting," said Melanchthon, "was the least of his accomplishments"; whilst of his personal qualities Luther bore testimony when he wrote: "As for Dürer, assuredly affection bids us mourn for one who was the best of men… May he rest in peace with his fathers: Amen!"

He was born at Nuremberg – the son of a goldsmith and the third of eighteen children – and Albert of Nuremberg he remained to the end – the painter of a city distinguished for its "self-restrained, contented, quaint domesticity." His first training was from his father in the goldsmith's trade; next, when fifteen, he was apprenticed for three and a half years to Wohlgemuth, the chief painter of the town; and lastly came his Wanderjahre, a long course of travel and study in foreign lands. In 1494 he settled down at Nuremberg, and there, with the exception of a visit to Venice in 1505-1506 (see p. 190 n.), and to the Netherlands in 1520-1521, he passed the remainder of his life in the busy and honoured exercise of the various branches of his art. He had married, at the age of twenty-three, a well-to-do merchant's daughter. The stories which have long passed current with regard to her being imperious, avaricious, and fretful, have been entirely discredited on closer knowledge of the facts. The marriage was childless, but husband and wife lived throughout on terms both of affection and companionship. As for examples of Dürer's work, the widely-spread prints of the "Knight and Death" and the "Melancholia" give the best idea of his powers of imagination; while in actual specimens of his handiwork in drawing, the British Museum is the second richest collection in the world.

The best commentary on this picture is the description of his father which Dürer wrote in a history of his family: —

"My dear father became a goldsmith, a pure and skilful man. He passed his life in great toil and stern, hard labour, having nothing for his support save what he earned with his hand for himself, his wife, and his children; so that he had little enough. He underwent, moreover, manifold afflictions, trials, and adversities. But he won just praise from all who knew him, for he lived an honourable, Christian life; was a man patient of spirit, mild and peaceable to all, and very thankful towards God. For himself he had little need of company and worldly pleasures: he was also of few words, and was a God-fearing man. This my dear father was very careful with his children to bring them up in the fear of God; for it was his highest wish to train them well that they might be pleasing in the sight both of God and man. Wherefore his daily speech to us was that we should love God and deal truly with our neighbours."

It is just such a man that the painter here sets before us. "The face is pathetic with the deep furrows ploughed in by seventy years of labour and sorrow. Yet as he stands there, so quietly, for his son to paint him, there is just a trace of pleasure and pride lurking in the kind old face" (Conway's Literary Remains of Dürer, p. 35). An inscription on the top of the panel records that it was painted in 1497, when the father was seventy and the son twenty-six. There are three other versions of the picture – at Munich, Frankfort, and Syon House respectively, and the question which is the original has been much disputed. The present picture (exhibited at the Old Masters, 1903) was bought, with No. 1937, for £10,000 from the Marquis of Northampton.

1939. VIRGIN AND CHILD, WITH SAINTS

French School (15th century).

A little picture almost as delicately wrought as an illuminated page in a missal. The donor is kneeling in the door of the Gothic chapel. The Virgin and Child are in "a garden enclosed," where columbines spring up at her feet; at the top of the picture are two small figures of St Michael driving out Satan.

1944. "PORTRAIT OF ARIOSTO."

Titian (Venetian: 1477-1576). See 4.

This superb portrait, though traditionally called "Ariosto," bears no resemblance to the poet. It is the picture of an Italian aristocrat of the Renaissance that the painter sets before us; of a man refined and luxurious, unimpassioned, and somewhat cynical. Immortalised by art, he looks out upon us with a somewhat scornful glance; the handsome head is one of those thoroughly individualised representations which, once studied, fix themselves indelibly in the memory. Sober and yet sumptuous in colour, the picture is enveloped in a luminous haze; and the costume, with the quilted sleeve of steely grey, is a masterpiece of technique.

The picture, which is signed on the parapet Titianus V. (with another V. at the further end of the parapet), belongs to Titian's earlier period, when he was under the influence of Giorgione, to which master indeed it is sometimes attributed.255 There are several versions of the picture, including one in Lord Rosebery's collection at Mentmore.256 The present picture (Old Masters, 1895) was bought by Sir George Donaldson from Cobham Hall (Lord Darnley) for £30,000, and sold by him for the same price to the nation; a portion of the sum (£9000) being contributed by Mr. W. W. Astor, Mr. Alfred Beit, Lord Burton, Lord Iveagh, Mr. Pierpont Morgan, and Lady Wantage.

1951. PORTRAIT OF DR. PERAL

Francisco Goya (Spanish: 1746-1828). See 1471.

"Perhaps as good an example as could be found of the brilliancy and execution and vivid portrayal of character which characterise this artist at his best" (Official Catalogue).

1952. MR. AND MRS. EDWIN EDWARDS

Henri Fantin-Latour (French: 1836-1904). See 1686.

A fine example of this artist's portraiture, representing old friends of the French painter, with whom he stayed when in this country. Mr. Edwards, landscape painter in water-colours and etcher (1823-1879), is examining a print with an expert's eye. His wife, perhaps less happily posed (because seemingly disconnected with the other figure), looks out at the spectator with her arms folded. Mrs. Edwards who presented this picture to the nation in 1904 died in 1907. "Nearly every one of Fantin-Latour's pictures in this country passed through her hands, and have her private marks, by which she was able to identify them after a lapse of many years."

1953. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD

Lazzaro Bastiani (Venetian: about 1425-1512). See 750.

In the background is the festoon of fruit, familiar to us in Crivelli's pictures.

1969. A GREEK CAPTIVE

Henriette Browne (French: 1829-1901).

2057. VENUS WITH THE MIRROR

Velazquez (Spanish: 1599-1660). See 197.

This celebrated picture – commonly called "Venus and Cupid," but known in Spain as the "Venus del Espejo" – is one of the master's rare studies of the nude, and it is characteristic of his genius. The subject is professedly mythological, but Velazquez seeks no adventitious interest from legendary association or idealistic grace. Here, as everywhere, his standpoint is frankly realistic, whilst the work is saved from commonness by purity of colour and sincerity of artistic purpose. It has been truly said that the flesh-painting here makes many another picture in the Gallery look lifeless and unreal. The face of "Venus" in the mirror – with broad features enframed in plainly dressed hair – does not realise the promise of the pretty outline of the head with the brown hair tied in a knot; and it has been suggested (by Dr. Justi) that "perhaps the damsel did not wish to be recognised." However this may be, the very plainness of the face emphasises the artist's intention. The picturesqueness of the outline and modulations of the back in a youthful female figure was the artistic effect which he set himself to render.

The history of the picture is well authenticated.257 It was painted about 1650, and passed into the possession of the Duke of Alba on his marriage in 1688 with Doña Catalina de Haro of Guzmom, Condessa-Duquesa de Olivares, the picture forming part of her dowry. It is mentioned in an inventory of the paintings belonging to her family as "a Venus of life size reclining nude with a child who holds up for her a mirror into which she gazes. This picture is an original work by Don Diego Velazquez." In an account of the Duke of Alba's palace in 1776 it is described as "the very celebrated Venus depicted from the back, in the reclining posture, with her face reflected in a mirror towards which she directs her gaze." Subsequently the picture became the property of the Spanish statesmen, Godoy. In 1808 it was sold and brought to this country; and purchased through Mr. Buchanan for the sum of £500, by Mr. Morritt, the friend of Sir Walter Scott. It became an heirloom in Mr. Morritt's family at Rokeby Hall, Teesdale. "Twice," says Dr. Justi in his life of Velazquez, "in 1879 and 1885 I had the privilege of seeing it there and convincing myself of its faultless preservation and the original brilliancy and freshness of its colour." It was exhibited in 1857 among the "Art Treasures" at Manchester and in 1890 at the "Old Masters." It was ultimately sold under an order of the Court of Chancery, the price obtained being £30,500. It passed into the hands of Messrs. Agnew, and its sale out of this country was believed to be imminent when the National Art Collections Fund came to the rescue and raised by subscription the amount now necessary for its purchase.

The sum paid was £45,000,258 and the picture was presented by the Fund to the nation.

2058. SUNNY DAYS IN THE FOREST

Diaz (French: 1809-1876).

Narciso Virgilio Diaz de la Peña, one of the members of "the Barbizon School" (see p. 698), was born, of Spanish extraction, at Bordeaux. Left an orphan at the age of ten, he was adopted by a Protestant clergyman, living at Bellevue, near Sèvres. He was of a truant disposition, and sleeping once upon the grass in the woods he was bitten by a viper; the accident cost him his left leg, and he had to go through life with a wooden one, which he called his pilon. In after years, when his pictures were rejected at the Salon, he would make a hole in the canvas with his wooden leg, saying with a laugh "what's the use of being rich? I can't have my pilon set in diamonds." His early years were of uncertain fortune, spent in earning a precarious living, sometimes as a painter on china at Sèvres, sometimes as an errand-boy in the streets. But he had confidence in his talent, and gradually found a market for his pictures. These were at first of figures, flowers, or other genre. A meeting in 1830 with Théodore Rousseau sent him to Fontainebleau and nature. For Rousseau, he entertained the most profound admiration, the story of "the toast of Diaz," is well known. Diaz had been preferred to Rousseau in admission to the Legion of Honour. In attending a dinner given in 1851 to the new officiers, Diaz rose and invited the company to drink "À Rousseau, notre maître oublié!" Of his figure-subjects, one of the best "La Fée aux Perles" is in the Louvre, but it is on his landscapes that his fame chiefly rests. "Go into the forest," it has been said, "lose yourself among its trees, and you can only say 'À Diaz'." To him, however, the forest was not, as to some others of the school, or as to Ruysdael, sombre or serious. It was a keyboard on which to play colour-fantasies. "You paint stinging-nettles," he said to Millet, "I prefer roses." "Pearls," said Théophile Gautier of his pictures, "brilliant as precious stones, prismatic gems and rainbow jewels." His pictures have been called not so much landscapes, as "tree-scapes." "Have you seen my last stem?" he used to say himself to his visitors. But it was the play of sunlight on the stems that he chiefly loved. Diaz is the colourist of the Barbizon School.

The acquisition of this sparkling little picture of a glade in the forest of Fontainebleau, lit by the afternoon sun, marked somewhat of an era in the history of the National Gallery. It was the first illustration on its walls of the modern French school of landscape.

2062. CHRIST TEACHING FROM ST. PETER'S SHIP

Herman Saftleven (Dutch: 1609-1685).

This painter, whose landscapes were praised by connoisseurs of the time as "distinguished by great care and accuracy," was born at Rotterdam, was a pupil of Jan van Goyen, and worked chiefly at Rotterdam and Utrecht. He painted many views on the Rhine and Maas; and one of the former, in the Dulwich Gallery, dated 1656, is among his best works.

The scene is the Lake of Gennesaret; the people are assembled on the shore to hear the words of Christ who is seated in St. Peter's ship (Luke v. 1-3).

2069. THE "MADONNA OF THE TOWER."

Raphael (Urbino: 1483-1520). See 1171.

This picture is attributed to the earlier portion of Raphael's "Roman period" (see p. 569); to about the same time, that is, as that of the "Garvagh Madonna" (No. 744). It takes its commonly accepted name from the small tower which may be seen in the distance of the landscape background; it is sometimes referred to as "The Madonna with the Standing Child," or "The Virgin with the Downcast Eyes," or "The Rogers Madonna." It is painted on canvas, and has suffered much from accident and repainting; but the feeling of the picture is thoroughly Raphaelesque in purity of colour and charm of expression. The mother's face is full of affection, sweet and yet serious; while the Child looks out of the canvas, "as if unconscious of all but the joy of the moment."

The picture was formerly in the Orleans collection, whence it was purchased by Mr. Willett in 1792 for £150. It next passed into the collection of Mr. Henry Hope, at whose sale in 1816 it was bought for 59 guineas by Samuel Rogers, the poet. "In the atmosphere of St. James's Place," says a chronicler of the works from the Orleans Collection which passed into the possession of Rogers, "they may safely be said to have been worshipped with a purer incense than they ever received before. We may be pardoned for recalling a few of them. Foremost was a Raphael, one of the master's sweetest compositions, the Child standing with one foot on his mother's hand. It had been reduced by ruthless rubbings to a mere shadow, but the beauty was ineffaceable: hanging – how well remembered! – in the best light on the left-hand wall in the drawing-room. Then two glorious Titians – one of them, Christ appearing to the Magdalene" (Quarterly Review, Oct. 1888). The picture last mentioned is also now in the National Gallery (No. 270) which possesses further from his collection, Nos. 269, 271, 276, 279. At his sale in 1856 the Raphael was bought for 480 guineas by Mr. R. J. Mackintosh, son of the historian, who exhibited it at Manchester in the Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857; it was also shown at the Old Masters in 1902. From him it passed to Miss Eva Mackintosh who has now (1906) presented it to the nation. In the British Museum there is a cartoon of the picture.

2078. THE HARBOUR OF TROUVILLE

Louis Eugène Boudin (French: 1825-1898).

A view from within the harbour looking out to the open sea "between the piers." Signed and dated "E. Boudin, '88," with the title on the back in the artist's handwriting, "Entre les jetées, Trouville." This picture by a fine sea-painter was presented by the National Art Collections Fund.

2081. LULLI AND HIS FELLOW MUSICIANS AT THE FRENCH COURT

Hyacinthe Rigaud (French, 1659-1743). See 903.

Jean Baptiste de Lulli (or Lully) was the celebrated composer (1633-1687) for whose music Louis XIV. had a great predilection. For him the King created a new company of musicians called Les Petits Violons or La Bande des Seize. Lulli composed also the incidental music for Molière's plays. The portraits of Lulli, says a contemporary, are fairly like him, but he was smaller and stouter than they show.

2082. A FLORENTINE LADY; on the reverse, A SYMBOLIC ANGEL

School of Botticelli (Florentine: 1447-1510). See 1034.

The portrait is supposed to represent the unknown artist's wife; the angel holds an armillary sphere.

2083. PORTRAIT OF DR. BATTISTA FIERA

Lorenzo Costa (Ferrarese: 1460-1535). See 629.

The portrait, "warts and all," of a theologian, physician, and poet of Mantua. So he is described under the engraving of this picture, which is the frontispiece to a book published at Padua in 1649 and entitled Baptistae Fierae Mantuani Medici sua aetate clarissimi Coena notis illustrata a Carolo Avantio Rhodigino. The portrait, a chef d'œuvre of a painter whose portraits are rare, was shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1894.

2084. A YOUNG MAN IN BLACK

Florentine School.

"This picture has been attributed to Piero Pollajuolo and to the painter known as 'Amico di Sandro'" (National Gallery Report, 1906).

2085. BIANCA CAPELLO

School of Bronzino (Florentine: 1502-1572). See 649.

2086. THE GATE WITH A ROUND TOWER

2087. A PASTORAL LANDSCAPE

Francesco Zuccarelli (Florentine: 1702-1788).

This painter of decorative landscape was much employed in England, and during a sojourn here from 1752 to 1773 he became one of the foundation members of our Royal Academy.

2088. CHRIST TEACHING

Bernardino Luini (Lombard: about 1475-1533). See 18.

The face, attitude, and design are the same as in the Christ of No. 18; but the beautiful expression is absent.

2089. MADONNA AND CHILD

Lombard School: 16th century.

Fresco on plaster; not unlike the work of Beltraffio.

2090, 2091. ANGELS

Moretto (Brescian: 1498-1555). See 299.

Companion figures, with wreaths of roses, inscribed (on the first) Ave Regina, (on the second) Coelorum.

2092, 2093. ST. JOSEPH AND ST. JEROME

Moretto (Brescian: 1498-1555). See 299.

2094. IL CAVALIERE

Moroni (Bergamese: 1525-1578). See 697.

2095. A MAN IN BLACK

Alvise Vivarini (Venetian: painted 1461-1503). See 1872.

A fine portrait, hitherto attributed to Antonello da Messina, but now assigned to Vivarini, on the analogy of similar busts attributed by Mr. Berenson to that painter.

2096. THE MAN WITH A BEARD

Romanino (Brescian: about 1485-1566). See 297.

2097. THE LADY WITH THE CARNATIONS

Paris Bordone (Venetian: 1500-1570). See 637.

2098. S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE, VENICE

2099. THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE

Francesco Guardi (Venetian: 1712-1793). See 210.

Excellent examples of the best manner of this painter.

2100. THE MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK I

Tiepolo (Venetian: 1692-1769). See 1192, 1193.

It is mentioned in the account of Tiepolo (under Nos. 1192, 1193) that he executed wall-decorations in the Royal Palace, formerly the episcopal residence, at Wurzburg. The present picture is almost the same in composition as one of those. The subject – the marriage of Frederick Barbarossa in 1156, to Beatrix, daughter of the Count of Burgundy – lends itself well to Tiepolo's "feeling for splendour," and swift mastery of decorative effect. The Imperial banner, emblazoned with the black eagle, is borne by a warrior. The bishops of Wurzburg were princes of the Empire.

2101. ESTHER AT THE THRONE OF AHASUERUS

Sebastiano Ricci (Venetian: 1659-1734). See 857.

An illustration of the Book of Esther (xv. 7-16); "Then lifting up his countenance that shone with majesty, he looked very fiercely upon her, and the queen fell down and was pale and fainted," etc.

2102, 2103. TOWN AND RIVER SCENES

Jacopo Marieschi (Venetian: 1711-1794).

By this painter, an imitator of Canaletto, two views of Venice were bought by the National Gallery from the Beauconsin Collection, but they were consigned to the National Gallery of Dublin.

2104. A MAN WITH A WIDE COLLAR

Enrico Fiammingo.

This painter of whom little is known, was a follower of Spagnoletto and Guido.

2105. A MAN WITH A POINTED BEARD

Annibale Carracci (Bolognese: 1560-1609). See 9.