Many people consider Dutch art the most interesting in the world. The
artists of Holland did not portray classic gods and prayerful madonnas.
They were too practical and matter-of-fact for that. Their minds were
serious, and scenes of everyday life attracted them more than they did
the artists of Italy or Spain. Portrait painting began very early among
the Dutch. This was because the Dutch spirit was essentially commercial.
The prosperous burghers liked to have great artists paint them, and they
were usually willing to pay pretty well for the privilege. Also the
nobility, due to their love of splendor, gave abundant employment to the
artists.
Some of the earlier Dutch artists who achieved fame are the brothers Van
Eyck, Hugo van der Goes, Roger van der Weyden, and Quentin Massys. But
greater than any of these is Frans Hals, who was born in 1580. He was a
great portrait painter. His marvelous capacity for catching an
impression on the instant brought him many patrons. He loved to paint
people as they were, and jolly topers and rich burghers were his
favorite subjects; but, great artist though he was, he died almost in
poverty.
Rembrandt Harmanzoon van Rijn, who was born in 1607, the son of a miller
of Leyden, has been called the greatest painter of northern Europe.
Today his pictures are beyond price. His influence on the Dutch artists
that followed him was very great. But he died at the age of sixty-two,
alone and neglected.
Paul Potter, called the “Raphael of animal painters,” was born in 1625,
and died from overwork at the age of twenty-nine. It is said that he
painted portraits of animals, and tried to know the character of every
beast that he drew.
Jan Steen painted all sorts of subjects,--chemists in their
laboratories, card parties, marriage feasts, religious subjects, and
especially children. Besides being a successful artist, he was a brewer
at Delft. He failed in this business and opened a tavern. Hence he has
often been called “the jolly landlord of Leyden.”
Pieter de Hooch was the most neglected of all Dutch painters; yet in
1876 the Berlin Museum paid $26,000 for one of his paintings. He was
born in Rotterdam about 1630, and became one of the most charming
painters of homely subjects that Holland has produced. He died at
Haarlem about 1681.
Meyndert Hobbema was born in Amsterdam about 1638, and was buried there
in a pauper’s grave in 1709. Although today he is considered one of the
great landscape painters of Holland, his work was not appreciated during
his lifetime. Hobbema liked to paint only landscapes. It is said that
when it was necessary for him to get a figure in a picture he had
another artist do it.
All these men were great artists of Holland. And it is a peculiar thing
that most of them lived in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Since then Holland has done comparatively little in art.
[Illustration: The Mint Tower, Amsterdam]