_Aart van der Neer_ (Dutch: 1603-1677).
This painter was a native of Amsterdam, and lived and worked
there. His pictures are now much appreciated; but he died
destitute, and the pictures he left behind him were valued at
only three florins apiece.
Aart (Arthur) van der Neer is the Dutch painter of "the hues and
harmonies of evening." Before the door of the country house are a lady
and gentleman, who have come out as if to gaze on one of such effects.
This is one of the largest of his pictures--which is the more valuable
as the figures are by Cuyp, whose name is inscribed on the pail; but
239 is perhaps more attractive.