1685. Before 1640 his chiaroscuro was already finer, and between 1640
and 1655 (his flowering-time) many of his pictures show no traces of
Rembrandt's influence. The tone of his works was quite different and
approaches a warm brown; the chiaroscuro, as, for instance, in his
well-known Painter's Studio in Amsterdam; and later, very closely
repeated (Dresden, 1663), attains the highest degree of freedom; then
his pictures become somewhat slowly cooler, the tone gets constantly
grayer, but the drawing always remains strikingly correct, the
grouping natural, and the pictures become brighter, smoother, and more
polished. In the meantime Ostade had become a finer, more respectable
gentleman. Well on in years, he could leave this life without worry,
and was buried at Haarlem by his admirers and pupils on May 2, 1685."
=Ter Borch's Freedom from Grossness.=--Ter Borch (1617-81) is excellent
as a portrait-painter, but still greater as a painter of _genre_
subjects. He depicts with admirable truth the life of the wealthy and
cultured classes of his time, and his work is free from any touch of the
grossness which finds so large a place in Dutch art. His figures are
well drawn and expressive in attitude; his coloring is clear and rich,
but his best skill lies in his unequalled rendering of textiles in
draperies.
=The Elegance of his Sitters.=--Ter Borch was not only an excellent
painter of Conversations, he was, indeed, the creator of his _genre_.
With a little less wit and a little less taste, perhaps, than Metsu, he
charms you with his family concerts, his _tete-a-tete_ lovers, his light
afternoon repasts, and in selecting for heroes the most elegant
cavaliers of the world in which he lived. His pretty pages with great
puffed sleeves striped with velvet, and those blond ladies with
transparent complexions, plump hands, and round waists, constitute a
type that no artist has so well represented as Ter Borch. Before
depicting these delightful and familiar scenes, he first learned to
imitate all that could add to the charm of these pictures of private
life,--silken draperies, Turkish rugs, leather, ermine, velvet, and
satin,--more particularly satin, and _white_ satin above all else. The
most striking example we shall see at the Rijks, in the picture called
Paternal Advice, known also as the _Robe de Satin_.
=Resemblance between his Paintings and those of Metsu.=--There is so
much resemblance between Gerard Ter Borch (or Terburg) and Metsu that at
first it is hard to distinguish them. Their subjects are much the same;
for instead of painting scenes of low life--inns with carousing
peasants, etc.--both turn with sympathy to high life; _sujets de mode_
is the name given to their works in which satins, velvets, silks, and
lace, rich robes and mantles, elegant hangings, and table-carpets figure
so largely.
=The Difference between Ter Borch and Metsu.=--The difference between
Ter Borch and Metsu is defined by Blanc, who says it is the difference
between _bonhomie_ and _finesse_; the one is naive and gracious, the
other ingenious and piquant. Both, however, are charming in the way they
introduce us into a house and show us some little comedy that is being
played by the unconscious lovers, family group, or party of friends.
Like Metsu, Ter Borch is particularly fond of making music a motive of
his pictures. A timid love often expresses itself to the notes of a
mandolin or lute; sometimes we surprise a musical party singing and
playing instruments; a lady composing music or trying a new piece for
the first time, while her gallant and richly dressed lover stands by her
side. Sometimes we see a young lady quite alone in jacket of
puce-colored velvet plucking her lute, which rests on her satin skirt.
Sometimes again the conversation takes place in front of a clavecin,
where the lady's hands are painted in correct position, though she
pauses to hear what her lover has to say, while her spaniel sleeps on
the foot-warmer.
=Ter Borch's Conversations characterized.=--"Pretty little dramas,"
Blanc calls these Conversations of Ter Borch, "dramas without action or
noise, which excite the thought only, and whose intrigue consists only
in a clasp of the hand, the lowering of an eyelid, or the exchange of a
glance and a smile." He also calls attention to the type of woman
represented by Ter Borch, Van Mieris, and Metsu, all of whom have high
foreheads on which a few little curls wander, like those made
fashionable at this period by Ninon de Lenclos, and known as "_boucles a
la Ninon_."
=The Women of Ter Borch's Pictures.=--The women of Ter Borch's pictures
are like Rousseau's pen-portrait of Madame de Warens, who
"had an air caressing and tender, a very gentle glance, ash-colored
hair of uncommon beauty, which she arranged in a very _neglige_ style
that produced a piquant effect. She was small and a little thick in
the waist; but it would be impossible to find a more beautiful head or
a lovelier bust, hands, and arms."
Dr. Bredius, who calls attention to Ter Borch's position in the hall of
fame as singular in the fact that he has never been assailed by critics,
nor, on the other hand, sufficiently appreciated, says:
"Without striking originality, without any commanding dramatic
quality, without humor, and without any startling light effects, Ter
Borch is yet entitled to the name of the first _genre_ painter of
Holland,--indeed, of all schools,--merely by his perfect talent and
fulfilment as an artist. Rightly is Ter Borch called the most eminent
painter of the Dutch school. Not only does he paint high society
almost exclusively, but he does it in a distinguished style. The pose
of his figures, the composition of his picture, the fine color, the
admirable drawing, all breathe an elegance which is not met with
elsewhere in the Dutch school. Thereby, he is the one and only master
of his subject. What he paints is always completed to the highest
degree. We never find in him a trace of effort. What he does must be
so and not otherwise. We look for humor in him in vain; but nobility
we always find, and not least in his likenesses, which,
notwithstanding their small dimensions, are 'the last word of a
portrait.'"
[Illustration: TER BORCH
The Despatch]
=Description of The Despatch.=--The Despatch, dated 1655, belongs to his
second period. On a low chair beside a table on which stand a decanter
and beaker, an officer is sitting with his wife or sweetheart. She is
sitting on the floor reclining against his knee. Both are young. He
holds the despatch in his hand and she looks somewhat distressed. In
front of them stands the trumpeter, who, it appears, has brought the
message. The officer is fully dressed, and on the table beside him lie
his weapons.
=His own Likeness, painted by Himself.=--The other picture of Ter
Borch's in this gallery is his own likeness, painted by himself about
1660. He is dressed entirely in black and stands out strongly against a
gray background. He wears a large wig, the curls of which shade his
rather melancholy face, distinguished by a long nose and grayish
moustache. It was probably painted while Ter Borch was a burgomaster of
Deventer.
=Caspar Netscher's Family Group.=--Much in the same style as Ter Borch's
Conversations is Netscher's Family Group. Caspar Netscher (1639-84) was
a pupil of Ter Borch, and this is one of the best works of his best
period. The painter, in a red slashed jacket, is accompanying on his
lute his daughter, who is singing, and whose timidity is well expressed.
She wears a dress of white satin and has feathers in her hair. On the
other side of the table covered with a Persian carpet, and in the half
light, sits Netscher's wife. On the back of the arm-chair in which
Netscher is sitting is his signature and the date 1665. Netscher is also
represented by two portraits--Mr. and Mrs. Van Waalwijk.
=Few Examples of Metsu.=--Metsu, like many other Dutch masters, is
poorly represented in the great public galleries of his own country.
While The Hague Gallery has but three and the Rijks only four, the
Louvre, for example, has eight and Dresden six.
Those who have seen pictures by Metsu (1630-67), Ter Borch, or Caspar
Netscher, will have a better knowledge of the customs and costumes of
the upper classes at the period of the Stadtholders, their faces, their
polished manners, their interiors, and even their thoughts, than if they
had read many books of travel, whole volumes of geography, description,
and history.
=The Rich Dutchman as painted by Metsu.=--As he appears in the pictures
of Gabriel Metsu, the rich Dutchman is domesticated, methodical, and
well regulated in his life. His house is the universe for him. In this
cherished and well-arranged abode, he concentrates as many joys as the
ancient kings of Asia assembled in the palaces of Susa or Ecbatana. His
country's and his own ships have "ploughed the sea from end to end,
penetrating to Japan for porcelain and amber, and bringing back from Goa
pepper and ginger." From the ends of the earth have come to him all
things that could charm his family life and distract the melancholy that
the sad nature of the North and its long winters inspire. Asia has sent
to him her muslins, spices, and diamonds; the polar ice has furnished
him with the furs that edge the velvet robes which his wife and his
eldest daughter wear indoors. The birds, insects, shells, and mineral
specimens of the most distant climes fill his cabinet, carefully
arranged under glass. In his gardens flourish rare plants, the choicest
flowers and bulbs cultivated by himself or under his own eyes. His
furniture, of exquisite taste and workmanship, carefully looked after
and incessantly cleaned, does not suffer by the changes of fashion; it
is transmitted from father to son, and lasts for generations. His alcove
bed is supported by ebony columns and closed in with green damask
curtains. Hanging from the ceiling, a candelabrum of gilt bronze spreads
its branches twisted into elegant volutes. The floors are waxed till
they are a pleasure to the eye, the windows are polished, the door-knob
is shining, the furniture gleams like a mirror, and yet the daylight
falling through lightly tinted taffeta curtains sheds over all these
objects only a soft, moderate, and harmonious radiance.
=How Metsu depicts the Manners of the Dutch.=--"The manners of
Holland, as well as its material physiognomy in civil life, its
interiors, its furniture, the decoration and luxury of its apartments,
are all written down in Metsu's pictures with charming clearness,
which is all the more pleasing since this merit seems to be
involuntary in the painter. After two hundred years, his work may
serve for the complete reconstitution of a well-to-do interior as it
was composed in the seventeenth century by the climate of the country,
the character of its inhabitants, and the historic circumstances in
the midst of which the Dutch merchants, the masters of the commerce of
the world, then lived.
"By Metsu's favor we are able to penetrate into those interiors which
are so jealously closed to strangers. Most often it is by a window
that serves as a frame for his picture that Metsu gives us access to
the boudoirs of fashionable ladies, and makes us take them by
surprise, sometimes in velvet _deshabille_ writing their secrets;
sometimes finishing their toilette in view of a hoped-for visit; and
sometimes breathing over the keys of their clavecin the sighs of their
hearts and the thoughts they do not express."
=His Carefulness in selecting Details.=--"Metsu rarely paints an
interior without introducing the pet spaniel of the period, which
often contributes much to our comprehension of the scene by the
character of its attitude.
"There are some Dutch masters who unintelligently accumulate
innumerable details everywhere. They make a picture of manners the
pretext for a ridiculous display of furniture, crystal, lustres,
_chinoisarie_ and curiosities of every kind; their interiors resemble
bazaars. Metsu puts beside his subjects only those details necessary
to make the intrigue clear, and to explain the conversation.
=His Treatment of Still Life.=--"However great may have been his
talent for painting still life, he never allowed himself to be carried
away, like so many others, by that vulgar pleasure; but, on the other
hand, what finish! what a precious touch! And then how he loves to
give full value to the beauties of local color, or to shade a Turkey
carpet, or to grade down the lights on gold and silver vases. What
pleasure he takes in the Bohemian glasses and the transparent liquors
that half fill them! The glasses in his pictures have great
importance, for the life of a retired Dutchman is spent in continual
smoking and drinking; but in Metsu we no longer see the
Pantagruelesque glasses of several stages that Van Ostade's peasants
always have in their hands; these are fine and more discrete glasses,
of elegant form, tall and oblong glasses in which the Haarlem beer
froths; glasses cut and fashioned in twenty different ways, octagon
glasses each facet of which ends with a curve and which cut the light
with their sharp edges, or glasses the calyx of which forms a reversed
cone on a heron's claw, or elongates into a swan's neck, and finishes
like a trumpet; lastly, the glasses of the grandparents, sometimes of
an imperishable thickness and solidity, sometimes as delicate, light,
and thin as an onion skin."[15]
=Favorite Subjects.=--Metsu is fond of representing the patricians of
his day and their womankind either in pleasant entertainment, or, more
frequently, in individual figures engaged in quiet work. A picture of
this class is The Amateur Musicians. The lady on the left is very
quietly playing her instrument with the same sense of repose that is
expressed by the lady who seems to be writing down the notes. Only on
the face of the elegant gentleman standing behind her chair is painted a
merry, almost roguish, smile.
[Illustration: METSU
The Amateur Musicians]
=The Elegance of Metsu's Figures.=--The figures are drawn with
certainty; the artistic handling of the subject is remarkable; and a
fine feeling for color is shown in the selection of the tones. In
Metsu's figures we notice an elegance and a nobility which are not found
elsewhere except in Ter Borch.
=The Influence of other Artists on Metsu.=--It is strange that the
earliest works of Metsu, which are the most broadly painted ones, show
little of Dou's influence, which is always so unmistakable in his
pupils, so that Bode believes he finds in them the working of Hals's
influence; and, in fact, the large pictures of Metsu's early period are
painted with a broad brush in Hals's gray tones. When Metsu removed to
Amsterdam, he fell more under Rembrandt's influence, and the beautiful
chiaroscuro of his later works incontestably proves this.
=His Miscellaneous Works.=--Metsu's Biblical and allegorial pictures are
the least important of his works. Besides The Amateur Musicians, signed
by Metsu, the Mauritshuis possesses a fine Portrait of a Huntsman dated
1661, and a great academical, constrained allegory of Justice Protecting
the Widow and Orphan, a picture that was found in the vestibule of a
house in Leyden in 1667. It was painted in 1655.
Crowe, who does not believe that this "rough and frosty composition" is
the work of Metsu, says:
"What Metsu undertook and carried out from the first with surprising
success was the low life of the market and tavern, contrasted with
wonderful versatility by incidents of high life and the drawing-room.
In each of these spheres he combined humor with expression, a keen
appreciation of nature, with feeling and breadth, with delicacy of
touch, unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. In no single instance
do the artistic lessons of Rembrandt appear to have been lost on him.
The same principles of light and shade which had marked his school
work in The Woman Taken in Adultery[16] were applied to subjects of
quite a different kind. A group in a drawing-room, a series of groups
in the market-place, a single figure in the gloom of a tavern or
parlor, was treated with the utmost felicity by fit concentration and
gradation of light; a warm flush of tone pervaded every part, and,
with that, the study of texture in stuffs was carried as far as it had
been by Terburg, or Dou, if not with the finish or the _brio_ of De
Hooch. Metsu's pictures are all in such admirable keeping and so warm
and harmonious in his middle, or so cool and harmonious in his closing
time, that they always make a pleasing impression. They are more
subtle in modulation than Dou's, more spirited and forcible in touch
than Terburg's; and, if Terburg may of right claim to have first
painted the true satin robe, he never painted it more softly or with
more judgment as to color than Metsu."
One of the best pictures of Metsu's middle period is The Market Place of
Amsterdam, in the Louvre.
=Two Fine Portraits by F. van Mieris.=--Frans van Mieris (1635-81)
reached the highest rung of art in his portraits, of which The Hague
Gallery possesses two fine examples. One is of Florentius Schuyl,
Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Leyden, painted in
1666, and a still more important picture of the painter himself and his
wife. He has made a charming _genre_ picture of it, which Sir Joshua
Reynolds admired, not knowing who the characters were. The artist shows
himself standing and pulling the ear of the beautiful little dog which
his wife holds in her lap, while, to protect her pet, she gently wards
off her smiling husband with her right hand. The little dog's mother is
trying to spring into the lady's lap in order to take care of her
offspring. Both the drawing and modelling here are masterly, and endow
the scene with such charm that this work must be pronounced one of the
best by his brush. The tablecloth and the lute lying upon it are
beautifully painted.
=Description of Soap Bubbles.=--Sir Joshua also noticed the picture of
Soap Bubbles dated 1663, representing a boy at an open and vine-framed
window, blowing bubbles that are exquisitely painted and show beautiful
reflections and prismatic colors. His red hat with white plumes is lying
on the window-sill, near a bottle containing a sprig of heliotrope, and
above hangs a cage. Behind the child in the half-light stands a young
woman with a dog in her arms. On the window-frame is written the date in
Roman numerals. Willem van Mieris often imitated this composition of his
father's, who frequently repeated it himself.
=Pictures by Van Mieris Full of Refinement.=--Van Mieris takes us into
an elegant world, although he himself was fond of low life, a heavy
drinker and the companion of Jan Steen. He was the son of a goldsmith
and diamond-setter of Leyden, who wanted him to follow his business. He
was naturally influenced by his earliest surroundings, and in his
father's shop became familiar with the dress and manners of people of
distinction. His eye was also fascinated by the sheen of jewelry and
stained glass. Houbraken writes:
"Seeing his talent for painting his father placed him with Abraham
Torenvliet, a famous glass painter and a good draughtsman. From him he
passed to the school of Gerrit Dou, where in a short time he eclipsed
every one and gained the affection of the master, who loved to call
him 'the prince of his pupils.' At the end of a few years, his father
sent him to the historical painter Abraham van Tempel; but he did not
remain long with him, for his natural taste would allow him to follow
no other manner than that of Gerrit Dou,--a manner extremely finished,
demanding attention and excessive care."
=His Love of Elegant Accessories.=--Houbraken calls Metsu a painter of
_sujets de mode_. This term applies also to Frans van Mieris; for
certainly with him costumes, materials, and accessories play an
important part. If his people were less attractive one might imagine
that they were only a pretext for showing off the velvet jackets, satin
skirts, and rich furs. Very often Van Mieris shows us a spacious and
magnificently decorated hall, in the background of which a richly
dressed lady and her lover are walking; again he allows us to peep into
a charmingly furnished room where a lady in white satin is playing the
lute to entertain her guest, a handsome cavalier in black velvet; or we
surprise a lady as she is about to drink a glass of wine which a page
offers her on a silver salver. At other times we find a group of ladies
and gentlemen about to enjoy a light repast; or see a table invitingly
spread with luscious fruit in rich silver dishes; or watch a lady feed
her parrot. Sometimes the pet monkey is discerned behind the looped-back
curtains of taffetas. Frans van Mieris seldom chose panels above 12 by
15 inches in size. He never ventured to design life-sized figures.
=The Kind of Subjects he treated Best.=--"Characteristic of his art in
its minute proportions is a shiny brightness and metallic polish. The
subjects which he treated best are those in which he illustrated the
habits or actions of the wealthier classes; but he sometimes succeeded
in homely incidents and in portraits, and not unfrequently he ventured
on allegory. He repeatedly painted the satin skirt which Terburg
brought into fashion, and he often rivalled him in the faithful
rendering of rich and highly colored woven tissues. But he remained
below Terburg and Metsu, because he had not their delicate perception
of harmony, or their charming mellowness of touch and tint; and he
fell below Gerard Dou, because he was hard and had not his feeling for
effect by concentrated light and shade. In the form of his
composition, which sometimes represents the framework of a window
enlivened with greenery, and adorned with bas-reliefs, within which
figures are seen to the waist, his model is certainly Gerard Dou."
=His Lack of Humor.=--"It has been said that he possessed some of the
humor of Jan Steen, who was his friend, but the only approach to humor
in any of his works is the quaint attitude and look of a tinker in a
picture at Dresden, who glances knowingly at a worn copper kettle
which a maid asks him to mend.... If there be a difference between his
earlier and later work, it is that the former was clearer and more
delicate in flesh, whilst the latter was often darker and more livid
in the shadows."[17]
Blanc says:
"Among so many Dutch painters who copy nature it is very pleasant to
find one who deigns to select his models, and who, preferring grace to
ugliness, would rather paint beautifully women elegantly dressed than
_magots_. Strange, indeed! He loved distinction, yet lived in a
tavern; he loved luxury, and was soon ruined; and, in spite of a life
devoid of dignity, Van Mieris always kept a love of beauty and
elegance, as is shown in his delicate faces, fine complexions,
beautiful hands, grace of attitude, taste in costume and furniture,
and choice of splendid materials."
=Willem van Mieris.=--The Grocer's Shop, by his son and pupil, Willem
van Mieris (1662-1747), signed and dated 1717, also hangs in The Hague
Gallery. In extreme finish and minuteness of painting, this picture
would not disgrace Mieris the Elder or Gerrit Dou.
=Its Wealth of Still Life.=--You see only two figures, a young boy who
is buying and a young woman who is selling; but these figures are of no
more importance than the foods of all kinds exposed in the shop, on the
sill of the window, and outside. The lower part of the window is
decorated with a bas-relief, representing Cupids playing with a bird.
This bas-relief is half hidden by a superb piece of tapestry, on which
the painter has placed a basket of dried fruits. Great bags of grain,
peas, and beans, and everything that is sold by the bushel are exposed
on the pavement of the street, with a bucket and some tubs filled with
olives, sardines, and anchovies. On the wall hang a basket and a
bird-cage, and a magnificent damask curtain with large flowers falls in
graceful folds from an outside ring. Among the innumerable details of
the shop you note a little rat gnawing at the grains which have fallen
through a hole in one of the sacks.
The pendant to this picture hangs in the Louvre, where it is called
_Marchande de Volailles_.