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

2106. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Benedetto Gennari (Bolognese: 1633-1715).

The artist was the nephew and scholar of Guercino. He came to England in 1674, and was for some time in the service of Charles II. and James II. "I once saw," says Lanzi, "a Bathsheba of Guercino, along with a copy by one of the Gennari. The former appeared as if newly painted at the time, and the latter as if many years previously, such was its inferiority in strength of hand… Benedetto subsequently formed for himself a style in England, more polished and careful, and exemplified it more particularly in his portraits."

2107. HAGAR IN THE DESERT

Salvator Rosa (Neapolitan: 1615-1673). See 84.

2118. MADONNA AND CHILD

Giovanni Francesco da Rimini (Umbrian: dated 1406).

2127. PORTRAIT OF THE MARCHESE GIOVANNI BATTISTA CATTANEO

Van Dyck (Flemish: 1599-1641). See 49.

It has been said in our notice of Van Dyck that many of his best works are to be seen in Genoa. Two of the portraits made during his "Genoese period" are now in our Gallery; having found their way to Paris and thence to England from the palace of the Marchese Cattaneo in Genoa, and having been bought by the Trustees from Messrs. Colnaghi. The price paid for the picture before us was £13,500. The portrait has not the pathetic charm of the "Gevartius" (52), to which it now forms a pendant; but in strength and vitality it is one of the painter's masterpieces. The Marchese lives before us, instinct with nervous energy; seeming, as has been well said, "at once to interrogate the spectator, and haughtily to repel interrogation."

2129. UNE PARADE

Gabriel Jacques de Saint Aubin (French: 1724-1780).

A pupil of Boucher; painter, first of heroic and then of domestic subjects; also an etcher.

Spectators watching a turn with the foils by two mountebanks.

2130. THE WATER LANE

Jan Siberechts (Flemish: 1627-1703).

It is very fitting that this painter, whose works in Continental galleries are rare, should be represented in ours; for it was the Duke of Buckingham, who brought him into vogue. Passing through Antwerp, the Duke was attracted by his work, and took him in his train to England, where, according to Walpole, he was much employed by the aristocracy. "Among the landscapes of the Flemish school," says an enthusiastic critic (A. J. Wauters), "there is not one of whom we think more highly. If his colouring lacks the brilliancy and the soft transparency of the tones of Rubens, it offers others both rare and unexpected at a time when the Flemish landscape was yet enslaved by conventional laws. Sieberechts boldly met the difficulties offered by open-air scenes and foreshadowed the daring colouring attempted by modern realism. His landscapes are true pastorals. He understood the art of giving his farm-girls and hinds real attitudes, taken from life; and how to make the various hues of vermilion and silver, blue and yellow of their costumes harmonise boldly together, which makes his works so charming, and gives them such a free and entirely personal character."

2133, 2134. "ROSES" AND "APPLES."

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

2135. THE MARSH OF ARLEUX-DU-NORD

J. B. C. Corot (French: 1796-1875).

Corot is one of those original painters who bring new aspects of nature and modes of beauty into ken. He is usually classed with the Barbizon School (see p. 691), but he stands alone with a peculiarly subtle and individual note of his own. "Rousseau," he once said, "is an eagle; I am only a lark." His mood, though often tinged with melancholy, is tender, and delicate; what he loved was not the grandiose in form or colour, but rather all that was glimmering, uncertain, evanescent – such as the "shade by the light quivering aspen made," or delicate effects, at early dawn, or in moonlight. To read his letter on "the day of a landscapist"259 is the best introduction to his art. "One rises early, at three o'clock in the morning before the sun is up, one goes and sits down at the foot of a tree, one looks and waits; he does not see much at first. Nature resembles a white tablecloth, where he can hardly distinguish the profiles of some of the masses. Everything is scented, everything trembles with the fresh breeze of the dawn." And then, again, when the sun has set: "Bien! bien! twilight commences. There is now in the sky only that soft vaporous colour of pale citron. One is losing sight of everything, but one still feels that everything is there. The birds, those voices of the flowers, say their evening prayer, the dew scatters pearls upon the grass, the nymphs fly … everything is again darkened; the pond alone glitters. Good, there is my picture completed." It was only gradually that Corot reached the style upon which his fame rests. He was born in Paris of humble parents, and served for some years in a draper's shop. He was twenty-two before he was able to follow his artistic bent. He made the usual classical tour to Italy, and it was not till 1843 that he began to reveal the characteristic charm which he had found in French landscape. He painted what few eyes are wont to see and had to create the taste by which he was to be admired. But affluence came to him, and he gave as readily as he received. Many stories are told of his benevolence, and the love which he inspired is recorded in the title, "le père Corot," by which he was called. As a mark of their esteem his fellow-artists presented him with a gold medal shortly before his death. His last words were characteristic of his art and his life. It was his practice to sketch early and late in the open air, dreaming his pictures as he studied, and to "paint his dreams" in the studio. "Last night," he said as he lay on his death-bed, "I saw in a dream a landscape with a rosy sky; it will be marvellous to paint." He was seen to draw in the air with his fingers. "Mon Dieu" he said, "how beautiful that is; the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen." His old housekeeper offered to bring him his breakfast. He smiled and said, "To-day Père Corot will breakfast above."

This little picture is characteristic of one of Corot's tastes. "He loved," we are told, "water in indetermined clearness and in the shining glance of light, leaving it here in shadow and touching it there with brightness. He loved morning before sunrise, when the white mists hover over pools like a light veil of gauze; he had a passion for evening which was almost greater; he loved the softer vapours which gather in the gloom." (Muther.) The picture was painted in 1871, and was purchased by Fantin-Latour at the posthumous sale of Corot's works.

2136. ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF LULLY, THE MUSICIAN. See 2081

2143. LADY STANDING BY A SPINET

Jacob Ochtervelt (Dutch: died before 1710).

Jacob Ochtervelt (sometimes called wrongly Jan, and Achtervelt or Uchtervelt) was born probably at Rotterdam. He formed his style on the model of Terburg, to whom his pictures are sometimes attributed (see, for instance, an example in the Venice Academy formerly given to Terburg).

A beautiful example of a painter, by whom pictures in good condition are rare – a harmony in pink and grey and brown. There is poetical feeling, too, in the lady's attitude and the man who looks up intently at her; as also some humour in the dog turning his attention to an intruder.

2144. LA MARCHESA CATTANEO

Van Dyck (Flemish: 1599-1641). See 49.

A companion picture to No. 2127.

2162. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Joseph Ducreux (French: 1735-1802).

The artist is dressed as a French Abbé, with powdered hair.

2163. THE MAGDALEN

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

2204. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH

Hendrick Steenwyck (Flemish: 1580-1649). See 1132.

Dated 1615. The nave of a Gothic church; in the distance a funeral procession is entering the choir; beggars and dogs in the foreground.

2205. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH

Pieter Neeffs (Flemish: 1577-1661). See 924.

A night scene in a church of Renaissance architecture. On a tomb on the floor is an inscription – "632 Hier legt begraven Henri Steenwick."

2206. VESPERS

2207. AFTER VESPERS

Pieter Neeffs.

The chapel in No. 2207 is the same as that on the left in No. 2206.

2209. ULRICUS SIROSENIUS, DUKE OF EAST FRIESLAND

Cornelissen (Dutch: about 1475-1555). See 657.

The title is written on the back of the oak panel. The Duke's sword is inscribed – "Victor est qui nomen Domini pugnavit." Among other versions of this portrait is one in the Oldenburg Gallery, attributed to Lucas van Leyden. Another (in the Duke of Rutland's collection) has Dürer's monogram.

2211. JACQUELINE DE BOURGOGNE

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

The beautiful costume and jewellery should be noticed; the girl holds an orrery. This picture was shown in the Golden Fleece Exhibition at Bruges in 1907.

2216. "LA MAIN CHAUDE."

Jean François de Troy (French: 1679-1752).

This painter (pupil of his father, François de Troy) was employed by Louis XIV. to execute designs for tapestry in the grand style, and he carved out much decorative work. Sets of some of the tapestries from his designs are in the State Apartments in Windsor Castle. Subsequently, he adopted the style of Watteau, and painted "conversations galantes," such as in the example before us. Other specimens of his work may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in the Wallace collection.

2217. ELISA BONAPARTE, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY

J. L. David (French: 1748-1825).

Jacques Louis David, the founder of the "classical school" in France and for many years the Dictator of French art, was a nephew of Boucher, from whom he received his first instruction. His celebrated "Oath of the Horatii" (1784) and "Brutus" (1789), and other works of the kind, are in the Louvre. They were not without influence on the politics of the time, and David was elected a representative of Paris in the Convention in 1792. He became a follower of Robespierre, and naturally escaped execution. Abandoning politics, he became acquainted with Napoleon, who made him his First Painter. On the restoration of the Bourbons, he sought refuge in Brussels, where he died. Many of his Napoleonic pictures are at Versailles.

A vigorous portrait-sketch of Elisa, sister of Napoleon, whom he made Duchess of Tuscany, with the titles of Duchess of Lucca and Princess of Piombino. She was born in 1777 and died in 1820. We see her here in white empire costume.

2218. MADAME MALIBRAN

J. A. D. Ingres (French: 1780-1867).

A study of the famous singer; attributed to Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, a pupil of David, who imparted a grace of his own to the Classical School.

2251. PORTRAIT OF BONA OF SAVOY

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

This striking full-length figure of a lady, richly attired and wearing jewels, was No. 7 in the exhibition of pictures by Milanese masters at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1894. It was then described as a portrait of Beatrice d'Este.

2256. RIVER SCENE

2257. ILEX TREES, VILLEFRANCHE

Henri Harpignies (French: born 1819).

These two pictures, recently presented to the Gallery, are slight examples of the work, in oil and water-colour, of an artist who travelled with Corot and continued that master's method of interpreting nature.

2258. A WOODLAND SCENE

Georges Michel (French: 1763-1843).

A good example of an artist who has been called "the Ruysdael of Montmartre."

2281. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD

Lorenzo Lotto (Venetian: 1480-1556). See 699.

The Virgin, a pretty woman prettily dressed, is seated between St. Jerome and St. Anthony of Padua, who holds in his hand a "Madonna lily." This bright and dainty picture belongs to the year 1522 (see Berenson's Lorenzo Lotto, 1895, p. 187).

2282. THE BOHEMIANS

Philips Wouwerman (Dutch: 1619-1668). See 878.

2283. DAWN

Aart van der Neer (Dutch: 1603-1677). See 152.

2285. A FAMILY GROUP

Frans Hals (Dutch: 1580-1666). See 1021.

An important accession to the Gallery, as an example of the large portrait-groups in which Hals excelled. The composition whereby the ten figures are all brought into a group is ingenious – the part played by the direction of the elder boy's attention to the other being in this respect important – though in colour the harmony is somewhat disturbed by the emphatic lights of the lace and linen worn by each member of the group. There is individual character in all the portraits; among the figures which most compel admiration are those of the mother, full of quiet dignity, of the eldest daughter, standing on the right with a work-basket in her hand (both beautifully painted), and of the little girl seated in front. The picture unknown to the connoisseurs before its acquisition for the National Gallery – was purchased in 1908 from Lord Talbot de Malahide for £25,000.

2288. PORTRAIT OF DR. FORLENZE

Jacques Antoine Vallin (French: 1770-1838).

Dr. J. N. B. Forlenze (1769-1833) was a physician and man of fashion in Naples. He had visited England and studied under John Hunter; and practised as an oculist in Paris. This portrait was exhibited at the Salon in 1808.

2289. ATTILA: AN ALLEGORY

F. V. E. Delacroix (French: 1798-1863).

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was the chief of the "Romantic" school in painting, which in literature was represented by de Musset, George Sand, and Victor Hugo. The Romanticists revolted against the art of the Classicists as cold, formal, and colourless. Delacroix, whose admiration was for Byron in poetry and for Rubens in painting, sought before all things passion, emotion, and colour. He had, says Silvestre, "the sun in his head and a thunderstorm in his heart, and his grandiose and awe-inspiring brush sounded the entire gamut of human emotion." He loved strong colour, and he was one of many French artists who were influenced by the sight of Constable's pictures in the Salon. His pictures were as fiercely assailed, as they were furiously painted. "It is the massacre of painting," said Baron Gros of Delacroix's "Massacre of Chios." "I became the abomination of painting," said the artist, "I was refused water and salt;" but, he added, "I was enchanted with myself," and he won his way into favour. He was born at Charenton St. Maurice, near Paris. His father, who held high office under the First Empire, had been a partisan of the violent faction during the Revolution, and, like some other revolutionaries, was more consumed with public ardour than concerned with private affairs. The boy was exposed to accidents and neglect in his childhood which make one wonder that he survived. He had poor health throughout life, and there was in him a hectic strain which was reflected in his art. In 1817 he entered the studio of Guérin, where he had Ary Scheffer (see 1169) for a fellow-pupil and antagonist, and afterwards he worked under Baron Gros. He was deeply stirred by the War of Greek Independence; and a visit which he paid to Morocco and Algiers in 1831 had the effect of enriching his sense of colour. He had a strong supporter in Thiers, through whose influence he received many important commissions for public works – in the decoration of the Louvre, the Luxembourg, and the Chamber of Deputies. Our picture was a design for the latter. These and other large works occupied him till 1855; and at last in 1857 he was admitted into the French Academy.

In this characteristic design the spirit of Ruthless Conquest is personified in the figure of Attila, the leader of the Huns, called "The Scourge of God." He drives before him, beneath a blood-red sky and amid the ghosts of the slain, figures emblematic of Beauty, Art, and Pleasure.

2290. PARC DE SANSAC, INDRE-ET-LOIRE

Armand Charnay (French: born 1844).

Jean Marie Armand Charnay, born at Charlieu (Loire); in 1864 entered the École des Beaux-Arts; genre and landscape painter.

This picture of autumn in the walks of a French château was presented by the artist.

2291. PORTRAIT OF CARDINAL DE RETZ

Philippe de Champaigne (French: 1602-1674). See 798.

A portrait, in Cardinal's cape and skull-cap, of Jean François Paul de Gondi (1614-1679), Archbishop of Paris, and afterwards Cardinal de Retz. As Archbishop, he aided the rising of the Fronde against Mazarin. In 1652 he was arrested and imprisoned; he escaped, and for some years wandered abroad. In 1662 he was received into favour by Louis XIV., and in his later years was often employed as an envoy to Rome. He is described as having been in his youth short, near-sighted, ugly, and exceedingly awkward.

2292. PORTRAIT OF A LADY

Michiel Jansz van Mirevelt (Dutch: 1567-1641).

Mirevelt (or Miereveld) was the son of an engraver on precious metals at Delft, and was trained as an engraver. He afterwards entered the studio of Blocklandt at Utrecht, and devoted himself to historical painting, still-life, and other subjects. Presently he painted the portraits of some of the princes of the House of Nassau, and these were so much admired that he came into continuous request in that branch of art. Sandrart relates that Mirevelt claimed to have painted nearly 10,000 portraits; doubtless an exaggeration, but "it may be said that it was he who made the custom of having portraits painted general in the United Provinces. His painting, thin, clean finished, and rather cold, was intended to please his elegant clients" (Havard).

This lady's stomacher embroidered with rows of pearls and pleated lace ruff are finely painted.

2293. HOLY FAMILY

Ascribed to Luca Penni (Roman: born about 1500).

One of the scholars and assistants of Raphael; after whose death Penni is said to have attached himself to Perino del Vaga. Subsequently he became an engraver.

2294. PORTRAIT OF GALILEO

Passignano (Florentine: 1558-1638).

Domenico Cresti, called Il Passignano from his native place, a village near Florence, was a pupil of Zuccaro. Moving to Venice, he studied for a while under Paolo Veronese, whose works he greatly admired and whose manner he followed. His facility and rapidity caused a play upon his surname, and he was called "Passa ognuno."

The great astronomer (1564-1642) is represented with astrolabe, books, diagram, and compasses.

2295. PORTRAIT OF A MILITARY COMMANDER

Frans Pourbus, the younger (Flemish: 1569-1622).

Pourbus, son of Frans Pourbus the elder, was born at Antwerp, and by 1591 was a master in the Guild of St. Luke. He was employed by the Archduke Albert at Antwerp, at whose court he attracted the notice of the Duke of Mantua. The Duke took him into his service (1600-1609), and he shared with Rubens the title of Painter to the Ducal Court. At Mantua he worked at "a collection of the most beautiful women in the world, whether princesses or private ladies." Like Rubens, Pourbus was occasionally employed as Ambassador, and a mission to Paris caused him to forsake Italy for France. Eleanor of Mantua was a sister of Marie de' Medici, and Pourbus finally settled in Paris as Painter to the Queen. There is a portrait of the queen by him at Hampton Court.

2423. LITHOGRAPHS OF HORSES

J. L. A. T. Géricault (French: 1791-1824).

Jean Louis André Théodore Géricault, animal and historical painter, was a precursor of the revolt of the Romanticists against the Classicists, which was carried further by Delacroix (see 2289). His most famous picture, "The Raft of the Medusa" (Louvre), was exhibited at the Salon in 1819 and excited much controversy. He was the son of a prosperous advocate; and as a young man became a member of the Jockey Club, and lived the life of the jeunesse dorée. He had some instruction in art from Charles Vernet and Guérin, but his real master was Rubens in the Louvre. In 1816 he went to Italy. After 1819 he visited England, where he practised the then new art of lithography. His picture of "The Derby at Epsom" (1821) is in the Louvre.

2439. A RIVER SCENE

P. E. Théodore Rousseau (French: 1812-1867).

Rousseau, one of the founders of the modern school of landscape in France, had to fight his way to fame through many difficulties and much neglect. The toast of Diaz, "à notre maître oublié," has been already recorded (p. 691). For thirteen years (1835-1848) his pictures were rejected from the Salon; and official honours came to him tardily. He had his revenge in the Exhibition of 1855, when his rejected pictures "came back as victorious exiles," and again in that of 1867, when he was chosen president of the jury. But he was of a sensitive and jealous disposition; he was estranged from his best friend, Dupré, and chagrin at being passed over for promotion in the Legion of Honour in 1867 is said to have hastened his death. A pleasanter episode in his life is his generous and timely help to Millet. The heads of the two artists are carved together on his tombstone in the cemetery of Chailly, near Barbizon. He was born in Paris, the son of a merchant-tailor. He studied painting under Rémond and Guillon Lethière, and first exhibited at the Salon in 1831. His pictures in successive years were loudly trumpeted by Thoré as those of an innovator, and for that reason perhaps excited the more hostility among the old school. His favourite ground was the forest of Fontainebleau, and he made his home at Barbizon, studying every aspect of nature with intense application. "It is a good composition," he wrote, "when the objects represented are not there solely as they are, but when they contain under a natural appearance the sentiments which they have stirred in our souls. If we contest that the trees have power of thought, at any rate we may allow that they can make us think; and in return for all the modesty of which they make use to elevate our thoughts, we owe them, as recompense, not arrogant freedom or pedantic and classic style, but the sincerity of a grateful attention in the reproduction of their being." There is a good example of his forest-pictures in the Wallace Collection.

Rousseau was the most various of the landscape painters of his time. In the present picture we see him in a peaceful mood; another picture (2635) is of a stormy sky.

2475. CHRISTINA, DUCHESS OF MILAN

Hans Holbein (German: 1497-1543). See 1314.

Amongst Holbein's duties as painter to Henry VIII. was that of taking portraits of the ladies whom he proposed in turn to wed. After the death of Jane Seymour, the first favourite was the lady before us, "the demure half-smile not yet faded from her eyes" – Christina, daughter of Christian II. of Denmark, niece of the Emperor Charles V., and widow of the Duke of Milan. Reasons of state suggested her marriage to Henry VIII., and Holbein was sent to Brussels, where the Duchess was residing. Our portrait was painted a few years later than "The Ambassadors," from a sketch made at Brussels on March 12, 1538. The circumstances are entertainingly told in the letters of the English envoy, John Hutton, to Thomas Cromwell. On the 10th August Hutton had sent off a portrait by another artist to Henry VIII., that he might judge of the appearance of the young Duchess before making her a proposal of marriage. The next evening "Mr. Haunce" (i. e. Hans Holbein) arrived in company of a servant of the king, whereupon Hutton sent off an express-courier to fetch back the picture he had already despatched, "for that in my opinion," he said, "it was not so perfect as the case required, neither as the said Mr. Haunce could make it." "The next day following at one of the clock in the afternoon, the said Lord Benedick came for Mr. Haunce, who, having but three hours' space, both showed himself to be master of that science, for it is very perfect; the other is but slobbered in comparison to it, as, by the sight of both, your Lordships shall well perceive."