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

Adrian Brouwer (Dutch-Flemish: 1605-1638).

Brouwer, Flemish by birth, Dutch by adoption, rivalled his contemporary, the younger Teniers, as a genre painter. His realism is as humorous as it is vigorous. His pictures, says M. Havard, "are marvels of arrangement and colouring. They are sober in conception, and exhibit exquisite modelling, remarkable softness, and light and shade full of transparency and truthfulness; qualities which, during his lifetime, obtained for Brouwer the admiration of his brother-artists and the enthusiasm of Rubens," who, as is known from extant documents, possessed several of his pictures. His portrait was painted by Van Dyck to be placed in a collection of the most celebrated portrait-painters.

Brouwer led an exciting life, and has been the subject of several biographies, which have alternately covered him with scandal and whitewashed him. Documents unearthed during recent years support the earlier accounts, which represent this painter of topers as a jovial, reckless, dissipated Bohemian; though his epitaph may yet have partly told truth in describing him as "a man of great mind, who rejected every splendour of the world, and who despised gain and riches." The documents are set out by Wurzbach (Niederländisches Künstler-Lexicon, 1906). Taking all the evidence together, we may picture Brouwer as a genial fellow, fond of adventure, slow in setting to work, quick in spending, inclined to libertinism and drink, constantly running into debt, a sworn foe of shams and parade, fond of his joke, a lover of poetry, and popular among all who knew him. One of the stories told of him well illustrates his mocking contempt of fashionable vanities. At Amsterdam he had bought himself some coarse linen, which he had made up into a fashionable suit and then painted with a flowered pattern. Brouwer's costume became the talk of the town, and shops were ransacked to furnish copies of it; till one night at the theatre, the artist jumped on to the stage, wiped off his pattern with a wet cloth, and laughed at his audience. He was born at Oudenarde, ran away from home, had exciting adventures on the way, and turned up in Amsterdam and Haarlem. He is said to have entered the studio of Frans Hals, and to have been very badly treated there. He is known to have been an artist of repute, moving also in literary circles, in Amsterdam and Haarlem, 1625-27. He is next heard of at Antwerp, where in 1631-32 he was admitted into the Painters' Guild. Three years later he became a member of the section of the Guild for exercising rhetoric. He was cast into the state prison, probably on suspicion of espionage; and during the seven months of his incarceration, succeeded in running up new debts to the extent of £400 – a feat which may be explained by the fact that the prison amenities included an excellent wine-tavern. He died – of his dissipations, according to some, but quite as probably of the plague – and was buried in the cemetery, and afterwards in the Convent Church of the Carmelites. His pictures are rare. The Wallace Collection, the Victoria and Albert Museum (Ionides Collection), and the Dulwich Gallery have each one good example. It has been suggested that the Landscape, No. 72 in our Gallery, hitherto attributed to Rembrandt, is by Brouwer.

2570, 2571. WOODY LANDSCAPES

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

2572. THE LITTLE FARM

Adrian van de Velde (Dutch: 1636-1672). See 867.

No. 57 in the Exhibition of Dutch Masters at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1900, when it was thus described: "In the centre, among sparse trees in leaf, stands a small farm; to left a man accompanied by a woman on horseback, driving a flock of sheep to pasture; in the left foreground a pool of water, with a cow drinking; in the centre, two herdsmen, with cows, sheep, and goats lying down and feeding. Cool daylight with light clouds spreading over blue sky." Signed in the centre "A. v. Velde 1663."

2573. SEA-SCAPE: WINDY DAY

2574. CALM: SHIPPING

Willem van de Velde (Dutch: 1633-1707). See 149.

2575. A MUSICAL PARTY

Anthonie Palamedes (Dutch: 1601-1673).

Palamedes was the son of a gem-engraver at Delft. He became Dean of the Painters' Guild. He painted portraits and small "conversation pieces," and sometimes supplied figures for the architectural pictures of his friend Dirk van Delen (see 1010). "The light and spirited pose of his figures, his bold touch, and the skill with which he makes the outline of his little groups stand out, please the eye" (Havard).

2576. A FAMILY GROUP

Pieter Codde (Dutch: 1599-1678).

A painter of Amsterdam much influenced by Frans Hals.

2577. A STIFF BREEZE

2578. A WINDMILL BY A RIVER

2579. SCENE ON THE ICE

2580. RIVER SCENE

Jan van Goyen (Dutch: 1596-1656). See 137.

2681. A. VAN LEEUWENHOEK, F.R.S

Nicolas Maes (Dutch: 1632-1693). See 153.

A portrait of the eminent Dutch savant (1632-1723) who has been called "the father of scientific microscopy." He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1680.

2582. FRUIT AND FLOWERS

David de Heem (Dutch: 1570-1632).

David de Heem, the elder, born at Utrecht, was the father of the more celebrated still-life painter of the same name. He and his son were the founders of the "still-life" school in their country.

Except for the snail, this brightly-coloured arrangement of oysters, a lemon, a plum, cherries and nuts, with a glass of wine, is not unlike the kind of arrangement of actual eatables and drinkables which one may see to-day in the shop-windows of Italian restaurants in London. Nor, in all probability, was the motive of the picture different. "The painting of still-life in Holland," says M. Havard, "was originally sign-painting. Inn-keepers and game-dealers had real pictures as signs, painted upon their shop-fronts, and we know of several of these simple masterpieces which have found their way into important collections" (The Dutch School, p. 260).

2583. CATTLE IN A STORMY LANDSCAPE

Paul Potter (Dutch: 1625-1654). See 849.

Signed, and dated 1647; formerly in the collection of Mr. Hope, of Deepdene.

2584. A LADY HOLDING A MIRROR

Pieter Codde (Dutch: 1579-1678). See 2576.

2585. ST. MARY MAGDALEN

Adrian Ysenbrandt (Flemish: died 1551).

Ysenbrandt was an assistant of Gerard David (see 1045). He came to Bruges, and was admitted into the Painters' Guild in 1510; he worked there till his death. He acquired a reputation for skill in painting the nude and the human countenance; his carefulness of execution and the sweetness of expression which he gave to his faces were much admired. Many of his pictures were sent to Spain (see W. H. Weale in the Burlington Magazine, vol. ii.).

This picture of the Magdalen, before whom an angel holds a crucifix, was in the Exhibition of the Primitives at Bruges in 1902. The artist's careful execution may be noted in the beautifully illuminated MS.

2586. COAST SCENE

2587. A CALM

2588. A DUTCH GALLIOT

Jan van de Cappelle (Dutch: painted 1650-1680). See 865.

2589. THE YOUNG ASTROLOGER

Frans van Mieris (Dutch: 1635-1681). See 840.

2590. A WOMAN AT A WINDOW

2591. THE FORGE

Gabriel Metsu (Dutch: 1630-1667). See 838.

2592. FRUIT PIECE

W. K. Heda (Dutch: 1594-1678). See 1469.

2593. PORTRAIT OF A MAN

Petrus Cristus (Flemish: about 1410-1472).

Cristus was born at Baerle, near Ghent. He purchased the right of citizenship at Bruges in 1444 – that is, four years after the death of Jan van Eyck. He cannot therefore have been a pupil of that master, as has often been surmised; but he belongs to the school of the Van Eycks "by his realistic style, by the extreme care he bestowed on details, by his bold and powerful colouring, and by the tasteful arrangement of his draperies and interiors. But his works can never be mistaken for those of Van Eyck; his outline is often harsh, his types are wanting in character; his figures, designed and executed with very inferior skill, are not painted in the same impressive manner as those of the great master" (Wauters). The portrait of a Venetian consul (No. 696) is ascribed to him.

Acquired by Mr. Salting from the Earl of Northbrook's collection; No. 10 at the Burlington Fine Arts Club, 1892 – remarkable for the preciseness and microscopic minuteness of hand displayed in it. The portrait of a devout and studious young man. He holds an open book; and on the wall of his chamber there is hung a board on which an illuminated sheet of vellum, edged with a narrow red riband, has been nailed. The miniature at the top of it represents the Vernacle (our Lord's head with cruciform nimbus and rays); and below is a rhymed prayer, headed Incipit oratio ad sanctam Veronicam, and continuing "Salve sancta facies Nostri redemptoris," etc.

2594. THE DUKE OF CLEVES

Hans Memlinc (Early Flemish: 1430-1494). See 686.

2595. VIRGIN AND CHILD

Dierick Bouts (Early Flemish: about 1410-1475).

Dirk Bouts, Thieiri Bouts, Dierick of Haarlem, or Thieiri Stuerbout (by all of which names he has been called) was Dutch by birth, being born at Haarlem. At some unknown date he migrated to Flanders, and established himself at Louvain, where he was appointed Painter to the Town. In 1468 he delivered to the Council two beautiful pictures (now in the Museum of Brussels) representing "The Judgment of the Emperor Otho." His colouring, says M. Havard, "is clear and brilliant. Red and green assume under his brush the brilliancy of the ruby and the emerald. His draperies are of unusual softness, and have none of that stiffness of fold which is peculiar to Jan van Eyck and some of his pupils. His flesh tints are of a warm and vivid tone, and his shadows are remarkably transparent. But his merit is manifested especially in his picturesque and original manner of arranging his compositions. He is besides remarkable for the care and distinctness with which he treats the landscapes in the background of his pictures." Little is known of his life, and the ascription of various works to him is conjectural. To him, in the latest revision of labels in our Gallery, are now attributed Nos. 664, 774, and 943.

2596. ST. JEROME

Gerard David (Early Flemish: 1460-1523). See 1045.

2597. THREE VENETIAN GENTLEMEN AND A CHILD

Johannes Stephen Calcar (Venetian: 1499-1546).

"In the year 1545 I became known to," says Vasari, "and contracted much friendship with Giovanni Calcar, a Flemish painter of great merit, who so successfully practised the Italian manner that his works were not always perceived to be those of a Fleming; but he died at Naples while still young, and when the fairest hopes had been conceived respecting his future progress." He worked first at Dordrecht; but in 1536 went to Venice, where he entered Titian's studio. He became a good master, says Vasari elsewhere, "whether for large or small figures, and in portraits was most admirable. By his hand – and they must do him honour to all time – were the designs for anatomical studies which the most admirable Andrea Vessalio caused to be engraved on copper and published with his works" (vol. v. p. 403).

2598. DIANA AND ENDYMION

Rubens (Flemish: 1577-1640). See 38.

A sketch painted about 1636.

2599. A VISIT TO THE DOCTOR

2600. CARD PLAYERS

2601. AN OLD WOMAN READING

David Teniers (Flemish: 1610-1694). See 154.

2602. A MAN WITH A RING

Unknown (Flemish: 16th Century).

2603. VIRGIN AND CHILD

Unknown (School of Cologne: early 16th Century).

By the master of the "Death of the Virgin" (a picture in the Munich Gallery), a painter of Cologne, the teacher, it is said, of Bruyn. The donor of the picture, with spectacles and a large straw hat, stands at a desk, reading. (The curious in such matters may consult Notes and Queries, 1890, for other early instances of spectacles in art.) The picture was No. 48 (Plate 23) in the Burlington Fine Art Club's Exhibition of Early Netherlandish Pictures, 1892.

2604. PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG MAN

Christopher Amberger (German: 1490-1563).

This painter, who worked at Augsburg, probably studied under Hans Burgkmair, and the painting of Hans Holbein the younger had an evident effect on his style, so much so that his works have been sometimes mistaken for those of Holbein. In 1532 he painted the portrait of Charles V.; and Sandrart tells us that this portrait was considered by the Emperor equal to any of the pictures painted of him by Titian. He certainly honoured the artist by giving him a gold chain and medal on the occasion (Bryan's Dictionary of Painters).

2605. DR. FUCHSIUS

Bartolomaus Bruyn (School of Cologne: died 1556).

This artist painted both religious subjects and portraits. His earlier works in the former kind recall the style of "The Master of the 'Death of the Virgin'" (see above, 2603). Bruyn was the last really eminent painter of the Cologne School. He was a municipal councillor of that town in 1550 and 1553.

A portrait of the celebrated German physician, Leonhard Fuchs (1501-1566), one of the fathers of scientific botany. He has obtained, says Hallam, a verdant immortality in the familiar flower which bears his name, the fuchsia. He espoused the doctrines of the Reformation; in our portrait he holds a paper inscribed (in German) "The word of the Lord endureth for ever."

2606. THE MADONNA ENTHRONED

Unknown (Flemish: 16th Century).

In the centre of the triptych, the Virgin sits on a throne of Flemish renaissance design. On the right, St. Ambrose; on the left, St. Louis of Toulouse. The royal rank of the latter Saint (nephew of St. Louis, King of France, and son of Charles of Anjou, King of Naples), who renounced his succession and became Bishop of Toulouse, is commonly indicated as here, by fleur-de-lys upon a blue ground.

2607. A MAN WITH A MEDALLION

Unknown (Flemish: 15-16th Century).

2608. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS

Robert Campin (Early Flemish: died 1444).

Campin, a native of Hainault, settled at Tournai in about the year 1406, and quickly made a reputation, becoming painter-in-ordinary to the town. Between 1423 and 1428 there are records showing that he filled several offices in the Painters' Guild and amassed a considerable fortune. He had several apprentices; among them, Roger Van der Weyden (see 711), who was with him from 1426 to 1432. He made many designs for tapestry and seems to have been charged with the designing of all municipal art work in whatever kind (W. H. Weale, in the Burlington Magazine, vol. xi.).

2609. VIRGIN AND CHILD IN AN APARTMENT

Campin (Early Flemish: died 1444).

The Virgin is of the same unlovely type as in the picture ascribed to Bouts, No. 2595. Behind her head is a screen of plaited straw.

2610. ANTOINE DE BOURBON

Corneille de Lyons (French: 16th Century).

Two painters are catalogued under this name, father and son, who are sometimes distinguished as "Corneille le Grand" and "Corneille le Petit." The elder was a Flemish painter, who became naturalised in France in 1547. In 1540 he was appointed Painter to the Dauphin; in 1551, Painter to the King. He is mentioned in a poem of 1544, and in a deed of 1564. Several portraits in the Museum of Versailles and at Chantilly are ascribed to him. (See Henri Bouchot's Les Clouet et Corneille de Lyon.)

2611. A MAN IN BLACK

Corneille de Lyons (French: 16th Century).

2612. LOUIS XI., KING OF FRANCE, 1423-1483

2613. PHILIP AND MARGARET OF BURGUNDY

Unknown (French: 15th Century).

These pictures are of the early Burgundian School.

2614. A LADY AS MARY MAGDALEN

Unknown (French School: 15th Century).

Notice the pearl embroidery.

2615. MARY, QUEEN OF FRANCE

Unknown (French School: 15th Century).

Formerly supposed to represent Mary Tudor, sister of Henry VIII., born in 1498.

2616. PORTRAIT OF A LADY

2617. THE DUCHESS D'ANGOULÊME

Unknown (French School: 15th Century).

2618. VIRGIN AND CHILD WITH ANGELS

Unknown (French School: 15th Century).

Possibly by an artist of the Catalonian school.

2619. LANDSCAPE

Nicolas Poussin (French: 1593-1665). See 39.

2620. THE HAPPY MOTHER

Jean Honoré Fragonard (French: 1732-1806).

The only poets who seized the spirit of the France of the eighteenth century were, said the brothers Goncourt, two painters: Watteau and Fragonard. It was Fragonard, says Sir Claude Phillips, "whose frank passion, whose irresistible élan lighted up the decline of the century much as the imaginativeness of Watteau, his reticence and wistful charm even in the midst of voluptuousness, lighted up its first years. He is the Ovid of French painting." He was born at Grasse near Cannes; and the pupil, in Paris, first of Chardin and then of Boucher (see 1258, 1090). Having won the Prix de Rome in 1752, he travelled in Italy, drawing all the sights and monuments, and studying the old masters. The works of Tiepolo (see 1192) especially attracted him, and something of their brilliant, flashing bravura was to be characteristic of Fragonard himself. Soon after his return to Paris, a picture of "Coresus and Callirhoë" made a sensation in the Salon, and inspired what Lord Morley calls "an elaborate but not very felicitous criticism" by Diderot. Fragonard did not return, however, to compositions in the classical style; he found his métier, and a highly lucrative practice, in pictures of sentimental genre, audaciously amorous in subject, and of masterly grace and lightness in execution. Some of his most famous works in this sort are to be seen in the Wallace Collection. The beautifully decorative canvases, the "Roman d'Amour de la Jeunesse," which were exhibited in London in 1898 and are now in Mr. Pierpont Morgan's collection, were a commission from Madame du Barry, who, however, for reasons which have not been clearly explained, declined them. From Mademoiselle Guimard, the dancer, and queen of the monde galant, Fragonard had received a like commission; and the story is well known of the revenge taken by the painter when he threw up the task, and transformed his portrait of the lady as Terpsichore into Tisiphone. In 1794 Fragonard retired for security from the Terror to Grasse, and on his return to Paris he found his vogue gone. The Revolution had killed the taste for his amorous trifles. The reign of the Classical School of David had begun; and Fragonard died in comparative oblivion and poverty.

In 1769 Fragonard had married Marie Anne Gérard, the miniature painter; and to the succeeding years belong, says his biographer (the Baron de Portalis), many pictures of which the theme is the cradle. Our picture is of that kind.

2621. WILLOWS

Charles François Daubigny (French: 1817-1878).

Daubigny was the youngest member of the "Barbizon" group; and, though he has artistic affinity with them, and regarded Corot as his master, he painted not in their chosen district, but on the banks of the Oise. His landscapes have not the poetry of Corot's, nor the force of Rousseau's; but they are more comfortable, as it were, and human. Corot's world might be inhabited by dryads; in Rousseau's landscapes man is subordinate or overpowered; Daubigny paints nature as the pleasant abode of human beings fond of the country – commons not too remote from a garden wall, the banks of pleasant streams where men may boat or fish. The country with him is full of fresh air. "There is a story told of a poor young man, afflicted with consumption, who coming suddenly before a work of Daubigny, exclaimed, 'Ah, I can breathe better now'" (Thomson's Barbizon School, p. 283).

Daubigny's life is in accord with what have been suggested above as characteristic notes of his art. He had no privations, storms, or struggles. He was born at Paris, in an artistic family; and as a youth assisted his father in painting boxes, clock-cases and the like. He was a delicate child, and had lived much with his nurse Bazot at Valmondois on the Oise, where too he afterwards spent many holidays and where in later years he made his home. At the age of 18 he went to Italy, where the pictures of Claude especially attracted him. On his return he was engaged for a time as a picture-restorer. He studied with Paul Delaroche, but struck out a line for himself in landscape pictures and etchings, and his works gradually found favour. He had a boat made for voyaging on the Oise and Seine, and this served as a floating studio. He built himself a house at Auvers on the Oise, which was decorated with paintings by Corot and other artist-friends. In 1866 he was invited by Leighton and others to visit England, and he exhibited at the Academy. In 1859 he had been made a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour, and in 1874 he was promoted to the grade of Officer. On his death-bed he said to those about him "Adieu; I am going to see above if friend Corot has found me any motifs for landscapes."

Sunset effect on a lake; with brilliant colours piercing through the trees to the water. Signed, and dated 1874.

2622. THE BANKS OF A RIVER

Daubigny (French: 1817-1878). See 2621.

An earlier picture (signed, and dated 1859). The small house-boat or barge in the foreground may be the painter's floating studio, mentioned above.

2623. ALDERS

2624. THE GARDEN WALL

Daubigny (French: 1817-1878). See 2621.

2625. THE BENT TREE

J. B. C. Corot (French: 1796-1875). See 2135.

This beautiful picture was formerly in the collection of the late Mr. Alexander Young, one of the earliest purchasers of Corots in England, and was generally considered the gem of his collection of works by that master. The writer of an account of the Young Collection calls attention, in describing this picture, to "the wonderful gradation of tones in the trees and foreground, the subtle beauty of the distant view, the massing and treatment of the trees against the luminous sky, the dignified restraint of the colour scheme" (Studio, vol. 39).

2626. THE WOOD GATHERER

Corot (French: 1796-1875). See 2135.

Also from the Young Collection.