Italy) (1600-55) was a pupil and imitator of Claude Lorraine in Rome,
whither he went in 1624, and where his excessive application to study
gained for him the name of "the Hermit" from the band of Dutch and
German artists established in that city. Unlike Claude, with whom he
used to walk in the environs of Rome, and who never sketched from
nature, Swanevelt always had his pencil in his hand, taking note of all
that he saw, studying the oaks and large plants, and copying the
buildings, campaniles, and vine-wreathed arcades and ruins. He left
nothing to his imagination. While Claude's landscapes speak of the
Golden Age, Swanevelt's are actual reproductions of the country as he
saw it. His buildings are not imaginary villas, temples, and palaces,
but are the Roman ruins and the facades and cloisters that he knew. In
his arrangement and composition he resembled Claude; and, like him,
often placed in the corner of his picture wooded mountains or large
trees, and sometimes even placed them in the very centre to make a
striking contrast to the very light background.
Naturally rude and savage, Swanevelt contributed some of his character
to his work. He liked bold mountains clothed with dark forests, deep
ravines, solitary places, and torrents bounding from the rocks; and he
understood how to mingle the heroic style with rural beauty.
Two Italian landscapes, one dated 1650, the other formerly attributed to
Claude Lorraine, hang in the Mauritshuis.
=J. van Swanenburch.=--Rembrandt spent three years in the studio of J.
van Swanenburch (d. 1638), who had finished his studies at Rome, and
worked in Naples for a long time, returning to Holland in 1617.
=Bloemaert, Founder of the School of Utrecht.=--Abraham Bloemaert
(1564-1651) constitutes in many respects the link of transition with the
succeeding epoch; for however his frequent mannerisms and gaudy coloring
betray the tasteless period in which he was born, his later pictures
show a power, taste, and broader touch. He painted a great number of
religious and mythological subjects, portraits, landscapes, and animals.
By reason of his talent and his long life (ninety-two years), he
exercised great influence over the School of Utrecht, and may be
regarded as its founder.
=Some of his Pupils.=--Among his principal pupils may be mentioned: J.
and A. Both, the Honthorsts, J. B. Weenix, Knupfer, Cornelis van
Poelemburg, and the father of Albert Cuijp. Two pictures painted in the
prime of his life are in The Hague Gallery; they deserve attention if
only for their size and the number of figures they contain. The subjects
are: Hippomenes receiving the Prize (signed and dated 1626), and the
Marriage of Peleus (signed and dated 1628). The latter was carried off
by the French, but returned after 1815.
=Description of the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis.=--"It is composed
of fourteen large figures, half nude, representing the gods of Olympus
celebrating the marriage of Thetis. Seated at table and distinguished
by their divine attributes, the gods appear to be troubled at the
sight of Discord, who descends from above, borne on a cloud, and
throws down among them the golden apple destined for the most
beautiful. In the foreground, with her back turned to the spectator,
is shown the figure of Venus, who displays unveiled her divine
shoulders, her voluptuous neck, and her incomparably beautiful body,
which will carry off the prize, and which has no need of the girdle of
beauty to render the goddess beloved. Elsewhere than in The Hague
Gallery this mythological painting would perhaps not excite more
remark than any other picture, but there, in the midst of a family,
_bourgeoise_, and Protestant school, which avoids the nude and ignores
academic conventions and style, a picture of this kind cannot fail
strongly to attract attention. Abraham Bloemaert, like the famous
Cornelis of Haarlem, has the air of an Italian who has gone astray in
these northern regions. These noble contours and learned lines, this
modelling of the flesh pursued with a certain pedanticism by the
former, and with grace and facility by the latter, and finally these
more or less violent foreshortenings,--those, for instance, offered by
this picture in the figures of Discord and the Loves who scatter
flowers or suspend from trees the curtain that decorates the place of
banqueting,--all this is at variance with the jollity and naturalism
of the Dutch; all this betrays the influence of a foreign style, an
influence that reigned in Holland in the sixteenth century,
disappeared at the arrival of Rembrandt, and did not return till the
appearance of Gerard de Lairesse, more than a century later."[3]
=Others who painted in the Italian Style.=--Nicholas (or Claes) Berchem
(1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), and Jan (or Johannes) Both
(1610-52), painted in the Italian style. Berchem was a pupil of his
father, Pieter Claes, and of J. B. Weenix, Moeyaert, Pieter de Grebber,
and probably Jan van Goyen. Karel Dujardin was a pupil of Berchem. All
three travelled in Italy; and all three are represented in The Hague
Gallery. Berchem has an Italian Landscape and Figures; an Italian
Landscape or Pastoral (dated 1648), with life-sized figures.
=Berchem's Picture of a Boar-Hunt.=--A Wild Boar Hunt, of the year 1659,
shows that he could successfully treat an animated scene. Crowe says:
"It is a model of precision combined with elegance of execution;
though at the same time that blue dark tone which, to the eye of a
connoisseur, so much detracts from the value of his later works,
already partially appears. This is more seen in a landscape dated 1661
in the same museum, though otherwise belonging to his more attractive
works. But here also the conventional and monotonous treatment of his
cattle begins to be visible.... But the most striking example of the
master's deterioration is afforded us by one of his latest works, the
Cavalry Engagement, in The Hague Museum, which is a very type of crude
and discordant effect and hardness of detail."
His fourth picture is An Italian Quay, dated 1661.
=Pictures by Dujardin, Jan Both, and Others.=--Karel Dujardin, famous
for his animals, portraits, and landscapes, can be well studied in a
fine Italian landscape, called A Cascade in Italy, rich and warm in tone
and dated 1673.
Johannes Both has two Italian landscapes, one of which glows with
sunshine and is remarkable for breadth and delicacy.
Other pictures showing this Italian influence are The Ambuscade and an
Italian landscape by Moucheron, with figures by J. Lingelbach; the
Terrestrial Paradise by Jan Brueghel the Elder; and The Torrent, by Adam
Pynacker.
=Adam Pynacker and Jan Both compared.=--Pynacker, though inferior to Jan
Both in his Italian landscapes, surpasses him in variety. His tone is
cooler than Both's, and he excels in painting early morning scenes. In
addition to pastoral scenes, he loves rocky heights, mountain ranges,
Italian harbors, bold bridges, and waterfalls.
Pynacker enlivened his landscapes with human figures and cattle, both of
which he was able to draw and paint extremely well.
=Albert Cuijp's Portrait of Sieur de Roovere.=--The famous Albert Cuijp
(1620-91) belongs to this group, being a pupil of his father, Jacob
Gerritsz Cuijp, who was a pupil of Abraham Bloemaert.
There is but one Cuijp in the Mauritshuis, Portrait of Sieur de Roovere
directing the salmon fishery near Dordrecht, which need not detain us
long, for we shall find more interesting examples of this master in the
Rijks. Burger calls this A View in the Environs of Dordrecht, and says
it is "a beautiful painting, but perhaps a little brusque." A gentleman
wearing a black hat with red plumes and mounted on a bay horse, is seen
on the left, to whom a fisherman in heavy boots is offering fish. On the
right lies a spaniel. In the middle distance are some fishermen, a black
horse, the other side of a canal, and a house. The two principal figures
are about a foot high.
=The Beginning of the School of Dutch Landscape.=--Jan Hackaert
(1629-99) forms a connecting link between those painters who represent
Northern and those who represent Southern scenery. He travelled when
young into Germany and Switzerland. The Hague has a good example of an
Italian landscape with figures by Lingelbach; but better examples of his
work are in the Rijks. This brings us to the beginning of the great
school of Dutch landscape, when the painters began to take an interest
in the scenery of their own country. Two great names are Jan van Goyen
(1596-1666) and Jan Wijnants (1600-77), important not only because of
their own productions, but because they were the first painters of Dutch
landscape, and each had followers and pupils who attained great fame.
Jan van Goyen was a pupil of Esais van de Velde and the master of
Salomon Ruisdael, who produced Jacob Ruisdael, who in turn produced
Hobbema. Another famous pupil was Simon de Vlieger, who was also a
follower of Willem van de Velde.
=Jan Wijnants and his Followers.=--Around Wijnants cluster Adriaen van
de Velde, Wouwermans, Lingelbach, Barent Gael, Schellinkx, and Helt
Stockade.
=Characteristics of Van Goyen's Works.=--Jan van Goyen was fortunate in
being the son of an amateur of painting, who encouraged his talent.
After studying with various artists of no special reputation, he
travelled in France and on his return studied with Esais van de Velde.
He is always simple in painting and manner. Ordinarily he selects
tranquil river scenes on which merchant ships or fishing-boats are
quietly sailing. You often see hamlets on piles, and, very frequently,
the steeple of a church, standing out in picturesque contrast to the
horizon line. Sometimes a ruined tower forms the chief motive of his
composition.
=His Marines and Watery Landscapes.=--One of the principal
characteristics of Van Goyen's marines and landscapes is their
peacefulness, calmness, and slight touch of sadness. It is not the
sadness inspired by Ruisdael's groves, but a gentle melancholy feeling
that touches the imagination and induces dreams. The sun never appears
in Van Goyen's pictures. Humid clouds veil his skies, which in their
light portions have the silvery tones of Teniers. His beach or shore is
generally enveloped in a grayish mist, and in the moving clouds you feel
the breath of wind and fancy you hear it sigh. His long flat surface, so
dull and solitary, is animated only by a fishing-boat or a shallop.
Holland, because of its water-ways, is a silent country and the
impression of silence and peace is marvellously reproduced in Van
Goyen's pictures. He never allows a brilliant tone to disturb the
uniformity and harmony of his watery landscapes; but behind the clouds
that float across the sky you divine the far-away sun, like a light
behind a curtain. The famous View of the City of Dordrecht, by the
latter, signed and dated 1634, is a splendid example of his qualities
and style.
=His Illustrious Pupils.=--After his marriage, Van Goyen established
himself in Leyden, his native town, where he opened a school, to which
flocked painters who afterward became illustrious. Among them was Jan
Steen, who married Van Goyen's daughter Marguerite.
Only one of Esais van de Velde's (1590-1630) pictures--A Dinner in the
Open Air, painted in 1614, hangs in this gallery, so that one cannot
learn here how much Jan van Goyen owed to his master.
Hermann Saftleven (1606-81), a pupil of Jan van Goyen, painted, as a
rule, views of the Rhine and Moselle with small boats and figures. He
was a good portrait-painter and was successful with animals. His
Landscape with Cattle is a charming example of his work.
To Salomon Ruisdael, who so greatly resembles Jan van Goyen with his
pictures of canals, bordered with houses and trees, river banks, etc.,
we shall return when visiting the Rijks; for the Mauritshuis possesses
no picture of this artist. He taught his more famous brother.
=The Greatest of the Dutch Landscape-Painters.=--"Jacob Ruisdael
(1628-82) is beyond all dispute the greatest of the Dutch
landscape-painters. In the works of no other do we find that feeling
for the poetry of Northern nature and perfection united in the same
degree. With admirable drawing he combined a knowledge of chiaroscuro
in its most multifarious aspects, a coloring powerful and warm, and a
mastery of the brush, which, while never too smooth in surface, ranges
from the tenderest and most minute touch to the broadest, freest, and
most marrowy execution. The prevailing tone of his coloring is a full,
decided green. Unfortunately, however, many of his pictures have, in
the course of years, acquired a heavy brown tone, and thus forfeited
their highest charm. Many also were originally painted in a grayish
but clear tone."
=His Favorite Subjects.=--"He generally presents us with the flat and
homely scenery of his native country under the conditions of repose;
while the usually heavy clouded sky, which tells either of a shower
just past or one impending, and dark sheets of water overshadowed by
trees, impart a melancholy character to his pictures. Especially does
he delight in representing a wide expanse of land or water. If the
former, the scene is frequently taken from some elevation in the
surrounding country, commanding a view of his native city, Haarlem,
which is seen breaking the line of the horizon with its spires.
"Taken altogether, his wide expanses of sky, earth, or sea, with
their tender gradations of aerial perspective, diversified here and
there by alternations of sunshine and shadow, may be said to attract
us as much by the deep pathos as well as picturesqueness of their
character. On the other hand, we often find the great master taking
pleasure in the representation of hilly and even mountainous
districts, with foaming waterfalls, in which he has won some of his
greatest triumphs; or he gives us a bare pile of rock, with a dark
lake at its base; but these latter subjects, which embody the feeling
of the most elevated melancholy, occur very rarely. In his drawing of
men and animals he was weak, and occasionally obtained the assistance
of other masters, especially of A. van de Velde and Berchem."
=Difference between his Earlier and Later Works.=--"As he seldom dated
his pictures, and early attained his full development, we find a
difficulty in determining the order in which they were painted. His
earlier works, however, may be identified by the extraordinary
minuteness with which all objects--trees, plants, and every diversity
in the soil--are represented; by a decision of form bordering on
hardness, and by less freedom of handling and delicacy of aerial
perspective."[4]
=Reynolds's Estimate of him as a Landscape-Painter.=--Four very fine
examples of Jacob van Ruisdael are owned by the Mauritshuis: a Cascade,
a Strand, View of Haarlem, and View of the Vijver at The Hague.
After a study of these beautiful works, Sir Joshua Reynolds's estimate
of the painter will not seem excessive: "The landscapes of Ruisdael," he
says, "have not only great force, but have a freshness which is seen in
scarce any other painter."
=His Character seen in his Paintings.=--Ruisdael is considered by many
critics the greatest of the Dutch landscape-painters. His execution is
always masterly, and his works always express a poetic sentiment.
Ruisdael delights in portraying sombre forests, rushing cascades, trees
bent by the wind, gathering storm-clouds, and all the dark mysteries of
the woodlands. His misfortunes probably had much to do with increasing
his natural melancholy, to the great gain of his artistic development.
As a rule, the paintings of his mature period have greatly blackened
because he loved to paint sombre backgrounds, and always used a very
dark green for his foliage and other verdure. His earlier works have
remained brighter in tint; for at the beginning of his career he painted
the dunes and meadows, woods and roads near Haarlem, bathed in light
from sunny skies half veiled with clouds.
[Illustration: RUISDAEL
Distant View of Haarlem]
=His Picture of Haarlem.=--The View of Haarlem, taken from the dunes of
Overveen, shows a bird's-eye view of an immense stretch of country. In
the foreground is shown a level meadow on which strips of white linen
are being bleached; and on the left are the houses of the washerwomen.
Beyond, a vast stretch of country almost destitute of trees or
dwellings, reaches to the horizon line, where the town of Haarlem, with
its bell-tower, is discerned.
"All these miles of country," exclaims Burger, "are represented on a
little canvas only one foot eight inches high!"
This picture is regarded as one of the gems of The Hague Gallery.
The Cascade is noted for its warm lighting and careful execution; and
the beautiful Beach at Scheveningen for its heavy gathering clouds and
dim and broken light upon the water and shipping.
=Ruisdael's Sea Pieces.=--Ruisdael's sea-pieces are few; and, unlike
Willem van de Velde, he never represents the ocean in repose; his sea is
always stormy and sometimes raging, and the sky is full of heavy, angry
clouds. The waves are always fluid and full of motion.
=Some of his Notable Works.=--The Mauritshuis has the rare luck to
possess three pictures by Ruisdael, which are splendidly preserved, and
each of which exemplifies a separate style of the master. A fourth one,
bought more recently, is also exceedingly interesting in its way,
because it gives a view of the Vijverberg in The Hague; but the rest of
this picture is of such dubious art, and the color so sunken, that it
cannot hold its own beside the others in the collection. The Strand and
the View of Haarlem belong to the artist's middle period (between 1660
and 1670) as well as the Cascade. Bredius says:
"The still, heavy impasto and the clearness of the color make me think
it is one of the first waterfalls that Ruisdael painted. We never, or
hardly ever, find pictures of the painter's earliest period (covering
the years 1646 to 1655) in the Dutch galleries.
"A fine, strong, cleverly painted little picture of Ruisdael's,
painted in 1653, was sent to the Amsterdam Gallery with the Dupper
Collection. Another very clear, lovely, and beautifully worked study
of the Dunes, with a Grove, similar to the picture in the Louvre, is
owned by Madame van Vollenhoven in Amsterdam. A somewhat dark but
strong and spirited study, the Hut in the Dunes, also of his early
period, was lately acquired by the Haarlem Gallery, which hitherto had
owned nothing of Ruisdael's. These early pictures, of which, for
instance, the Leipzig Exhibition in the Autumn of 1889 was able to
show very important examples (the figures are often supplied by
Berchem), are very highly esteemed by connoisseurs."
=Love of Nature seen in his Earlier Works.=--"In these works we see
the youthful painter turning exclusively to Nature: a clump of bushes
on a dune; a glimpse of the 'Haarlemer Hout'; a grove of trees on the
shore, he paints exactly as he saw them. But how he saw them! In these
early pictures his color is brighter, his manner of painting thicker
and stronger than in his later works. Instead of the beautiful clouds
for which Ruisdael was so famous, we often see the sky still painted
in a more antique manner, with striped clouds in the style of his
uncle Salomon.
=His Growth toward Composition.=--"Gradually his subjects become more
'composed,' but in the best sense of the word. Only occasionally does
he wander away, as, for instance, in the Dresden Jewish Cemetery,
which lay in the neighborhood of Amsterdam, but which he set in a
fanciful landscape unknown to himself. He had quite another intention
in the picture before us: the View of Haarlem from Overveen, with its
bleaching-green in the foreground. Above it a beautifully clouded sky
with the floating clouds casting their shadows here and there over the
broad landscape. Amsterdam owns a similar picture; the Berlin Gallery
another; the Ritter de Steurs in Maestricht, a fourth; and there are
still others in private collections in England and Paris. Each of
these pictures has a new excellence,--Nature glorified through an
artistic eye and immortalized with the practised hand of an artist.
What mastery there is in the representation of the broad, broad
space!"
=His Carefulness of Detail.=--"Nevertheless Ruisdael does not neglect
the detail of his landscapes. We need only notice in him the
tree-characteristics--how carefully he handles every kind of foliage
in accordance with the forms of its leaves and branches; but with him
the whole is never subordinated to the details. When he paints the
sea--he does not paint it often--he does it better and more
artistically than any other painter. What a mighty effect his great
marine in Berlin produces! The real air from the sea seems to blow
upon us. Views of the seashore by him are even rarer. The Hague
picture shows us a beautiful view of a sea and sky happily illuminated
without the dark, melancholy tone which so often dwells in his works,
and which we would consider as a reflection of his own sad moods. Who
can it be that painted the fine figures in this picture? Perhaps it
was Eglon van der Neer."
=Vermeer's View of Delft.=--Vermeer of Delft (1632-75) was a pupil of
Karel Fabricius (whom we shall meet in the Rijks), who was a pupil of
Rembrandt. One of the most important and beautiful pictures in The Hague
Gallery is Vermeer's View of Delft. On an appreciative eye and receptive
mood it leaves a tenacious impression which will never be forgotten.
Until about thirty years ago, Vermeer of Delft was hardly thought of,
although in his own day his pictures were highly prized and sought
after, and later his work received great praise from Sir Joshua
Reynolds. It was the French critic Burger (Thore), who rehabilitated
this great artist.
Bredius exclaims:
"How this picture shines out from the others around it like a stream
of light out of dark clouds!
"All the light which the artist saw fall upon his town, he has
succeeded in concentrating at once in this picture, the broad,
masterful, sure painting, the luminous colors, the clear sky which
arches over the town, all excite our highest admiration."
A drawing said to be a sketch for this picture is in the Stadel
Institute of Frankfort. The picture which brought 200 florins in 1698
was sold for 2,900 gulden at the Stinstra sale in 1822. (See
Frontispiece.)
=A Painter of Light and Sun.=--The beautiful picture of Diana and her
Nymphs, which was bought as a Maes in Paris in 1876 for 4,725 gulden, is
now attributed by some people to this master, and by others to Vermeer
of Utrecht.
Lemke says:
"Vermeer was a painter of the light and sun school; and this was his
chief study--to catch and hold fast the moment. What Frans Hals did
for physiognomy, grasping the flying moment in an incomparable manner
with winks, smiles, leers, gesticulations, etc., and fixing it in
paint, that Vermeer, as a landscape-painter, delighted to do for the
sunshine. He shows its rays streaming into a room or the play of light
and shadow when the light with the moving air falls through heavy
foliage against a bright house and paints it with rays of light and
shade. Unlike the moment of Rembrandt and Ruisdael, which is fixed for
all eternity, with Vermeer the moment vibrates in the light. The
shadows lose their sharp outlines, and the fine brush-work suggests
the living change and play of the light. Rembrandt paints light in
darkness and lets it glow in the dark, or streaming into it, or in a
broad flood of brilliance; but Vermeer prefers to set darkness or
twilight against the light. For interiors, Vermeer has another palette
and mode of painting than for the outdoor pictures. When he selects
the moment for this, where the scene consists of trees, houses, water,
etc., it would seem that the artist wanted to make us blink, as if we
were looking at the sun."
=Vermeer's Portrait of a Girl.=--Vermeer did not confine himself to
landscape. In 1903, The Hague Gallery acquired by bequest a remarkable
portrait by this master, the portrait of a girl wearing a buff coat, a
blue and cream turban, and magnificent pearl earrings, on which are
"concentrated," says the enthusiastic Frank Rinder,
"those dreams of gray, which are Vermeer's. Although in this portrait,
with its liquid spots of light, we at once apprehend the presence of
Vermeer, with his nostalgia for the interpretation of a beauty
visioned inwardly rather than seen with the eye, the picture passed
through the auction rooms at The Hague in 1878, fetching only 230
florins. It was bequeathed in 1903 to the Mauritshuis by M. des
Tombes."