painted the huntsman in the picture of still life and game by which
Frans Snijders is represented here. Fuller knowledge of Snijders,
however, is to be gained in the Rijks.
=A Picture by Several Artists.=--One of the most curious and interesting
pictures in the entire gallery is The Interior of a Picture Gallery,
painted by a number of Antwerp artists, but which is catalogued under
the name of Gonzales Coques (1618-84). This artist and his family are
represented in the centre of a picture gallery, and are by the hand of
Coques himself. The pictures on the walls were painted by pupils of
Rubens, Van Dijck, Rembrandt, and others, and represent still life,
landscapes, mythological and allegorical scenes. Many of them possess
great charm. On the left are: the Meeting of Christ and a Centurion, by
Pieter Yykens (1648-95); The Earth, an allegory, by Erasmus Quellinus
(1607-78); an Italian Landscape, by Antoni Goubau (1616-98); The
Metamorphosis of Ascalaphus, by Carel Emanuel Biset (1633-after 1691); A
Boar Hunt, by Peter Boel (1622-89); a Moonlight and Landscape, signed J.
v. K.; a Landscape, by Pieter van Bredael (1629-1719), signed P. v. B.;
a Marine (unknown); The Nymphs Spied On, by Jan de Duyts (1629-76); and
a Marine, by Jan Peeters (1624-77). Above the door in the centre are two
pictures: The Judgment of Paris, by Theodoor Boeyermans (1620-78), and
Leda, by the same artist. On the left: The Triumph of Silenus, by Jan
Cossiers (1600-71); Water, an allegory, by Theodoor Boeyermans; the Four
Seasons, by the same artist; a Landscape (unknown); Still Life
(unknown); The Descent from the Cross and View of a City, both by Johan
van den Hecke (1620-84); Landscape (unknown); a Village Festival, by
Peter Spierinckx (1635-1711); a Landscape, by Johan van den Hecke
(1620-84), and Bathers, by the same artist; Still Life, by Peter Gysels
(1621-90); and a Venus and Adonis, by Casper Jacob van Opstal
(1654-1717). The architecture of the room was painted in 1674 by Willem
van Ehrenberg (1637-about 76). The picture is 5-3/4 feet high by 7 feet
broad, and was offered in 1683 by the Brotherhood of Painters in Antwerp
to Jan van Bavegom, Procureur of the Court of Brussels, as a reward for
the services he had rendered to the Brotherhood in the lawsuit against
the armies of the Six Guilds. It finally became the property of William
V.
="The Little Van Dijck."=--Gonzales Coques was a pupil of Pieter
Brueghel III. and David Ryckaert, whose daughter he married. He was fond
of painting portraits of his family walking in a park or engaged in
various occupations and pleasures indoors; and very frequently he was
assisted by other artists, as in the case of the picture just described.
Coques was a man of letters, and presided over the Chamber of Rhetoric
in his native city, Antwerp. His elegance, taste, and delicacy have
procured for him the name of "The Little Van Dijck." In his own day he
enjoyed great renown, and was honored with orders for pictures and
presents from many sovereigns, including Charles I. of England, the
Prince of Orange, and the Archdukes of Austria.
=Francken, Painter of Allegories and Festive Scenes.=--A historical
picture of interest is that of A Ball at the Court of Albert and
Isabella in 1611, by Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642). He was
famous for his scenes from the Bible, allegories, landscapes,
mythological pictures, and particularly for his balls, masquerades, and
other scenes of festivity in which he introduced figures of small size.
Frequently, too, he painted figures in the pictures of the elder Neeffs,
the younger De Momper, and Bartelmees van Bassen.
=Description of the Picture of a Historical Ball.=--This ball scene,
which belonged to William V. at Het Loo, was painted between 1611 and
1616. The couple who are dancing in the centre are Philip William of
Nassau, Prince of Orange, and his wife, Eleonore de Bourbon, Princess of
Conde. Albert and his wife, Isabelle Claire Eugenie, and five other
portraits are by the hand of Frans Pourbus the Younger.
=Pictures by Vinck Boons and Droochsloot.=--Pictures of peasants
enjoying the _kermesse_, by David Vinck Boons (1578-1629), (1622), a
landscape and genre painter, whose figures are often of repulsive
ugliness, and by J. C. Droochsloot (1586-1666), also represented by a
Dutch Village (1652), bring us to a more brilliant painter of such
scenes.
=David Teniers the Younger a Conspicuous Painter of Still Life.=--David
Teniers the Younger (1610-90) is one of those Flemish painters who were
known and sought after in Holland during their lifetime. This may have
arisen from the fact that he was closely allied with the Dutch school
and with Brouwer, who lived and worked for a long time in Holland and
was very highly prized there. Teniers painted in particular little
cabinet pictures, soldier scenes, alchemists and cooks, and in them
often showed a conspicuous love of still life, so greatly liked in
Holland. Another circumstance which must be taken into consideration is
that his brothers Hendrik and Julius, both painters, lived for some time
in Holland and occupied themselves--the former in Middelburg and the
latter in Amsterdam--with the sale of the pictures of their famous
brother.
=The Resemblance of his Pictures to those of his Master.=--The younger
Teniers developed himself principally in the school of Adriaen Brouwer.
Some of his early pictures, painted between 1630 and 1640, stand so
closely sometimes beside those of Brouwer that they have been attributed
to the latter. In his first period, Teniers, quite trickily copied
Brouwer's real types, and many of his mannerisms, such as the famous red
cap which he so often put on his figures. The spirited painting, the
clear bright light with the finely expressed chiaroscuro, and the
beautiful harmony of tone he followed in the happiest way. He became
Brouwer's successor; and he is greatest when he is still under the
inspiration of his great prototype. Splendid pictures of this style are
possessed by the Museums of Madrid, the Louvre, Berlin, Dresden, St.
Petersburg, and many of the great private collections.
=A Gradual Change in the Tone of Teniers's Pictures.=--About 1650 the
warm golden tone of the master falls more and more into a cooler silver
tone. Bright and clear in the highest degree are the treasured works of
this period. At the end of his life, however, he grades more and more
into a brown, dull tone far removed from the vigor and transparency of
his youth. Still in his old age he maintained a careful drawing, a great
completeness in the painting, only the very last pictures show that the
hand of the old man at length had begun to tremble.
=Description of The Good Kitchen.=--The Hague possesses two fine
examples of this artist. In The Good Kitchen, a splendid work of his
middle period, painted in 1644, he delights us especially with masterly
representation of assembled details. Magnificently painted are the fish
and fowl, pots and kitchen stuff; only, perhaps, is the background keyed
up a little too high. The figures, as unfortunately so frequently
happens with Teniers, are somewhat uninteresting; only the little boy
who is holding the dish for his mother (evidently the portrait of a
child) looks out at us in a lifelike and endearing manner.
A famous kitchen it is, in fact; and it is evident that a feast of some
consequence is in preparation. Fowl, game, fish, vegetables, fruits, all
are there on the tables and the floor. In the background, before a big
fire, a cook is roasting joints, and a man and woman are very busy close
beside him. In front, in the middle, and in the bright light, is seated
the young mistress of the house, also aiding in the preparations. For
the moment she is peeling a lemon, and the little boy is standing beside
her holding a plate. She wears a blood-colored skirt, and on her
sky-blue bodice expands a broad collar of a whiteness that Metsu would
envy. The whole is very ably and broadly painted with that just and free
touch and those spirited accents which characterize the technique of
Teniers. It is painted at the beginning of his best period when his
silvery period begins: he was then thirty-four years old.
Burger cleverly says: "Like certain of those fishes that he has painted
so well, Teniers is excellent between the head and tail." The Good
Kitchen is painted on copper and is only two feet and a half broad. A
small picture on wood shows an alchemist with a gray beard seated beside
a table holding a book. His assistant is kneeling beside a furnace.
Sir Joshua Reynolds said:
"The works of David Teniers, Jun., are worthy the closest attention of
a painter who desires to excel in the mechanical knowledge of his art.
His manner of touching, or what we call handling, has perhaps never
been equalled: there is in his pictures that exact mixture of softness
and sharpness which is difficult to execute."
=Tilborgh's Picture of A Dinner.=--We must not neglect now to look at
the one picture by Tilborgh, A Dinner, particularly interesting on
account of the personages represented.
Tilborgh (1625-78), supposed to have been a pupil of Teniers, certainly
follows him in choice of subject--interiors of taverns, peasants
merry-making, _kermesses_, village feasts, etc. He was popular in his
day,--even more so, it is said, than Teniers himself. The dinner is
taking place in the home of Adriaen van Ostade, who is seated in the
middle, with his wife on his right, beyond whom are a man and a woman.
On the left is Paul Potter, with long hair and a large hat, dressed in a
pearl-gray doublet and red stockings. His general appearance is very
gay, and quite a contrast to the melancholy portrait by B. van der
Helst, which also hangs in this gallery. Near Potter stands his silly
little wife, dressed in light blue,--a not specially graceful figure.
Two other painters are standing on the left, talking together. Burger
thinks they may be Tilborgh himself and Isaak van Ostade.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] This picture, representing Dr. Johan Deyman's lecture in anatomy,
was partly burned in the eighteenth century, and the fragment now hangs
in the Rijks with the other collection of anatomical pictures from the
Surgeons' Guild of Amsterdam.
[2] The figures in this landscape were painted by Lingelbach.
[3] Blanc.
[4] Crowe.
[5] Bredius.
[6] Crowe.
[7] Crowe.
[8] Crowe.
[9] Blanc.
[10] Crowe.
[11] Crowe.
[12] Reynolds.
[13] Dr. Bredius.
[14] Crowe.
[15] Blanc.
[16] In the Louvre.
[17] Hymans.
[18] Blanc.
[19] Greef (Grif, Grifir, or Gryef), Anton, Flemish painter of
landscapes with dogs and dead game, born at Antwerp in 1670; died in
Brussels in 1715. He is supposed to have been a pupil of Frans Synders.
There seem to have been two painters of the same name.
[20] Victor, Jakob or Giacomo, Dutch painter of the seventeenth century.
Pictures by him are in Dresden, Copenhagen, and Munich; in the latter,
his Barnyard bears the forged signature of Hondecoeter.
[21] Blanc.
[22] Crowe.
THE RIJKS MUSEUM
THE WAY TO THE RIJKS
On taking the tramway at the Dam, the traveller will find the short trip
to the Rijks Museum a very pleasant one. The car glides rapidly through
a busy part of Amsterdam, crossing canal after canal,--the Singel,
Heeren, Keizers, and Prinsen grachts,--bordered with leafy trees and
houses that present a picturesque appearance. Alighting at Willems Park,
on the canal long known as the Buiten Singel, or outer girdle,
separating the old from the new town, we walk a short distance along the
Stadhouders-Kade to the imposing red brick building with granite bands,
arches, tympans, entablatures, etc., in the transition style between the
Gothic and the Dutch Renaissance, which covers nearly three acres of
ground. The principal _facade_, turned toward the Buiten Singel,
presents a somewhat majestic appearance, with its two fine towers and
central gable surmounted by a statue of Victory, by Vermeylen.
=History of this Collection.=--Before entering, we may note that this
splendid Museum was opened in the name of the King of Holland in 1885.
Perhaps we may pause also to recall the history and development of this
great collection, which was formed of the remnant of the pictures and
curiosities left by the last Stadtholder, William V.
In 1798 the Government decreed the formation of a National Museum, and
this was installed in the Huis ten Bosch (House in the Wood), near The
Hague, and opened to the public in 1800. From time to time the
collection was increased by purchases, and in 1805 it received the name
of Cabinet National. When the King of Holland removed his residence,
however, from Utrecht to Amsterdam, in 1808, he ordered that a Royal
Museum for the preservation of pictures, drawings, prints, sculpture,
carvings, engraven gems, antiquities, and curiosities of all kinds
should be formed.
=Opening of the Royal Museum in 1808.=--This Museum was opened in the
Palace on the Dam in December, 1808. Here were gathered ninety-six
pictures from the National Museum of 1798 (one hundred and fifty-four
remaining pictures being sent to The Hague); fifty-seven pictures bought
in 1808 at the sale of G. van der Pot van Groeneveld in Rotterdam; eight
old pictures given by The Hague in 1808; seven old pictures lent by the
city of Amsterdam (among them The Night Watch and Syndics and The
Banquet of the Civil Guard); six pictures and a marble statuette by J.
B. Xavery, given by Baron van Spaen de Biljoen; a few modern pictures
bought at the exposition of 1808; one hundred and thirty-seven pictures
forming the Van Heteren Collection, bought in 1809 for 100,000 florins;
and seven pictures bought in the same year at the Bicker sale; several
casts of antique statues from the Musee Napoleon of Paris; and some
antiquities found chiefly in Drenthe.
=Removal to the Trippenhuis.=--In 1810 the name was changed from the
"Royal Museum" to the "Dutch Museum," and in 1814 the collections were
transferred to the Trippenhuis, where they remained until 1885.
=Numerous Additions from 1825 to 1885.=--In 1825 some pictures were
exchanged with the Royal Museum at The Hague (Mauritshuis); and in 1828
some duplicates were sold for 23,701 florins, with which sum other
pictures were purchased. In 1828 William I. made a present of some
pictures he had acquired at the Brentano and Muller sales to the State
Museum, as it was now called.
In 1838 many of the modern pictures were transferred to the Paviljoen
Welgelegen, which became, therefore, a gallery of the works of living
painters of the Netherlands; and this collection was gradually enriched
by gifts and purchases. In 1885 the one hundred and eighty-four pictures
of this collection were sent to the Rijks.
=Bequests.=--The principal bequests have been as follows: Madame la Ve
Balguerie Van Rijswijck, twenty-two family portraits (1823); M. L.
Dupper, Wz., sixty-four superb pictures (1870); Mlle. J. E. Liotard, an
enamel of great value, and fifteen pastels by the Genevese painter, J.
E. Liotard, to which Mme. Liotard sent six other pastels by the same
artist in 1885 (1873); Jhr. Me. J. de Witte van Citters some objects of
art, curios, prints, and thirty-five family portraits (1875); Mme. J. J.
van Winter Bicker, forty-four portraits of the Bicker family (1879);
Jhr. J. S. H. van de Poll, fifty-two pictures of great value (1880); and
a gift of Jhr. J. S. R. van de Poll, comprising thirty-five family
portraits.
=Two Important Collections added.=--Two important collections have yet
to be mentioned: the famous Van der Hoop Collection and The Collection
of Contemporary Art. The former was gathered by M. Adriaan van der Hoop,
head of the house of Hope & Co., and knight of several orders, who made
a magnificent collection of about two hundred and twenty-four ancient
and modern pictures. These he left to the city of Amsterdam in 1854. It
was lodged in the Academie des Beaux Arts until removed to the Rijks in
1885. In 1880 Mme. Van der Hoop left twenty-four more pictures, which
had adorned her house, to complete the gift. The Collection of
Contemporary Art is the work of an association of Amsterdam art-lovers
founded in 1875.
=The Staircase and the Rembrandt Room.=--Before ascending the stairs
guarded by two lions couchant, we may stop to notice a picture by Pieter
Cornelisz van Rijck (1568-16--), representing an old Dutch kitchen with
all sorts of eatables, and in the background a feast representing the
parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. This staircase leads to the
Entrance Hall, from which we go to the Grand Gallery, which leads
directly into the famous Rembrandt Room, in which The Night Watch holds
the place of honor. The Grand Gallery is bordered on each side by four
compartments, or cabinets, hung with pictures of the seventeenth
century.
=A Tour through the Rooms.=--To the left of the Rembrandt Room is the
Carlovingian Room; and from this we pass into International Hall, where
pictures of foreign masters are gathered. In the next room are assembled
the oldest pictures of the Dutch School. The next room contains masters
of the sixteenth century, and next to it comes Dupper Hall, devoted to
the glorious period of Dutch art, the seventeenth century. Here are
sixty-four paintings, many of which are masterpieces. Next comes Van der
Poll Hall with fifty-two pictures, then the Hall of Anatomy Pictures,
and next Portrait Hall. From this we visit the five cabinets, containing
such pictures of the Old Dutch School as from their small dimensions and
minute finish are best seen in small rooms. On the opposite side of the
vestibule are five similar cabinets with similar pictures. Beyond these
is Pavilion Hall, containing portraits, many of which are painters'
portraits of themselves. Then come the Van der Hoop Museum and two
galleries of modern pictures, one of which is called Waterloo Hall,
because of The Battle of Waterloo, by J. W. Pieneman, hanging there.
From this we enter the Old Dutch Governors' Room, representing a typical
room of the seventeenth century with allegorical ceiling, tapestries,
and old furniture. From this we pass into the adjoining Gold Leather
Room, where there is a picture representing a marriage party, and a
collection of drinking vessels of the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries in one of the cupboards. The Dutch Governors' Room leads into
the Rembrandt Room, which again leads us into the Grand Gallery, our
starting point.
=Rembrandt's Work in his Middle and Last Periods.=--We have seen in The
Hague the great works of Rembrandt's early period; in the Rijks we find
the full flowering of his genius in his middle and last periods. The
Night Watch was painted in 1642; the Portrait of Elizabeth Bas, about
1645; the fragment of the Anatomy picture, representing Dr. Deyman, in
1656; The Syndics, in 1661; and The Jewish Bride, or Ruth and Boaz,
about 1663. The Rijks owns two other pictures: a mythological
composition and the head of his father, painted in Leyden in 1630.
=Description of The Night Watch.=--Let us look carefully at The Night
Watch, Rembrandt's most famous picture and also his largest (11 feet by
14). It was painted in 1642, ten years after the Lesson in Anatomy, for
the Kloveniers Doele (Arquebusiers Shooting Company).
The great Sortie of the Banning Cock Company, which is the more correct
name for The Night Watch, represents twenty-nine life-sized civic guards
issuing from their guardhouse in a great state of bustle and confusion,
while the drums beat and the dog barks. The dominant color is the
citron-yellow uniform of the lieutenant, wearing a blue sash, while a
Titian-like red dress of a musketeer, the black velvet dress of the
captain, and the varied green of the girl and the drummer, all produce a
rich and harmonious effect. The background has become dark and heavy by
accident or neglect, and the scutcheon on which the names are painted is
scarcely to be seen.[23]
In the middle, in front, marches the captain in a dark brown, almost
black, costume, at his side Lieutenant Willem van Ruitenberg, in a
yellow buffalo jerkin, both figures in the full sunlight, so that the
shadow of the captain's hand is distinctly traceable on the jerkin. On
the right hand of the captain are an arquebusier loading his weapon, and
two children, of whom the one in front, a girl, has a dead cock hanging
from her girdle (perhaps one of the prizes). On a step behind them is
the flag-bearer, Jan Visser Cornelissen. The other side of the picture
is pervaded with similar life and spirit, from the lieutenant to the
drummer, Jan van Kamboort, at the extreme corner, who energetically
beats his drum. In an oval frame on a column in the background are
inscribed the names of the members of the guild.
=The Night Watch a Misnomer.=--The remarkable chiaroscuro of the whole
picture (seen to greatest advantage in the afternoon) has led to the
belief that Rembrandt intended to depict a nocturnal scene; but the
event represented really takes place in daylight, the lofty vaulted hall
of the guild being lighted only by windows above, to the left, not
visible to the spectator, and being therefore properly obscured in
partial twilight. The peculiar light and the spirited action of the
picture elevate this group of portraits into a most effective dramatic
scene, which ever since its creation has been enthusiastically admired
by all connoisseurs of art. Each guild member represented paid 100
florins for his portrait, so that, as there were originally sixteen in
the group, the painter received 1,600 florins for his work. The painting
was successfully cleaned by Hopman in 1889.
The picture is so deeply enveloped in shadow that it is some time before
the spectator can see figures emerge, although they always retain
something of a supernatural quality, derived partly from the
phosphorescent gleams that here and there illuminate faces, figures,
drum, halberds, flag-pole, and lances.
=The Mutilation of the Picture.=--When The Night Watch was removed from
the Kloveniers Doele to the small military council chamber of the Town
Hall on the Dam, in 1715, portions of it were cut off on the right and
left and at the bottom, which has greatly interfered with its
appearance. A photograph of an old drawing hangs near the picture, which
shows the (supposed) original form of the composition.
=The Syndics.=--Some critics consider The Syndics Rembrandt's greatest
achievement; and all are agreed that it is one of the finest groups of
portraits ever painted. This work, finished in 1662--twenty years after
The Night Watch--was ordered by the Guild of Clothmakers, who wished to
have a portrait group of their Syndics to hang in their chamber at the
Staalhof (sample hall) in the Staalstraat in Amsterdam.
=Rembrandt's Special Traits exhibited in this Picture.=--Here
Rembrandt's special traits are exhibited: his wonderful treatment of
light, his grouping of figures, and his study of character. The five
Syndics, all dressed alike in black with flat white collars and
broad-brimmed-high-crowned hats, are grouped around a table verifying
their accounts. The yellow oak wainscot behind them and the scarlet
table-cloth contribute the only color to the sombre group.
Six canvases of portraits of Syndics formerly hung in the Staalhof, the
oldest of which was painted in 1559. Only two now remain: the one by
Rembrandt, and another, also in the Rijks, by Aert Pietersen, painted in
1599. Upon the frame of the latter is a Dutch inscription, which,
translated, reads:
"Consider your oath
In what you know.
Live uprightly.
Through favor or hatred
Or self-interest
Don't give an opinion."
Rembrandt's five Dutch gentlemen look as if they had closely followed
this excellent moral advice.