was famous as a landscape-painter. The landscapes are somewhat
artificial, and really are used as framework for the animal life he
loved to introduce. His execution is sometimes rather heavy but with
strong tones. The landscapes usually consist of grassy swards with
brownish-green trees and shrubs in the foreground, while the background
is bathed in the bluish tints so dear to Brueghel. Animals and birds of
all kinds animate Savery's pictures, as well as human figures, all drawn
with much talent. The Hague has a famous picture, by this artist, of
Orpheus Charming the Animals; and the Rijks owns Elijah Fed by the
Ravens (1634) and A Stag Hunt in a Rocky Landscape (1626).
=Adriaen van Utrecht and his Still Life.=--Adriaen van Utrecht was ten
years ahead of Jan Fyt in painting those pictures of live or dead
animals, game, fruits, and implements of the chase that we still admire
so much. Although his lights are sometimes somewhat heavy and his brush
work is not so fine as Fyt's, yet he equals the latter in certainty of
touch and especially in his feeling for life and nature. His pictures
are very scarce: Amsterdam possesses only one, called Still Life, signed
and dated 1644. On a canvas eight by ten feet the painter has grouped
pies, hams, a lobster, grapes, peaches, and lemons on a table. On the
left, on the floor, are some musical instruments; on a chair some golden
vases; above, a parrot; on the right a great sculptured basin and a
little white spaniel, and in the centre a monkey playing with some fruit
from an overturned basket.
=Ten Pictures by M. Hondecoeter.=--Melchior d' Hondecoeter can be
studied to great advantage in the Rijks, which owns several pictures of
the first order: The Floating Feather, The Philosophical Magpie, Animals
and Plants, The Country House, The Duck Pond, The Frightened Hen, The
Menagerie, Dead Game, and two of birds.
=Hondecoeter's Father and Grandfather.=--The great Hondecoeter was a
pupil of his father, Gijsbert d' Hondecoeter (1604-53), the pupil of his
father Gillis d' Hondecoeter (1583-1638), a painter of portraits and
landscapes in the manner of R. Savery and David Vinck Boons. Gijsbert
followed his father's style of landscapes; but he attained a great
reputation for his birds, and particularly his ducks. Both styles may be
seen in the Rijks: A Landscape with Figures, dated 1652, and Aquatic
Birds, dated 1651. In the duck pond, where ducks and pigeons are
sporting, is also a feather floating on the water, for the artist was
fond of repeating this little touch.
The Philosophical Magpie regards from a tree-trunk a dead heron, a
goose, and ducks; its pendant shows a living peacock near a large vase
and a dead hare and pheasant. Dead Game, a small picture, exhibits a
dead partridge and a string of four little birds, and the others
represent parrots and other exotic birds, flowers, and plants, and some
monkeys. The Frightened Hen is defending her chickens against the attack
of a pea-hen. The most famous of all, however, is The Floating Feather.
[Illustration: M. D'HONDECOETER
The Floating Feather]
=Burger's Criticism of The Floating Feather.=--"To make a pilgrimage
to Amsterdam without admiring The Floating Feather, would be
committing the crime of _lese-peinture_. Hondecoeter has painted this
most carefully and in his happiest vein. In a park luxuriantly
decorated with beautiful trees and springing fountains, he has grouped
strange and rare birds with domestic fowls. On the left in the
foreground may be recognized a pelican, a crane, a flamingo, and a
cassowary; on the right are ducks and geese of various breeds; a
magpie cleaves the air with rapid wings; and, lastly, a light feather
floats on the surface of a quiet pool, and this detail has given the
picture its name."
Dr. Bredius says:
"The pelican on the left is particularly remarkable; but the ducks do
no less credit to this artist, who has expressed with such penetration
the life of the feathered world, the movements of these creatures, I
should indeed say their expression; and he has rendered their
physiognomy and character with such profound truth that no other
artist can approach Hondecoeter in this respect."
The Philosophical Magpie, the Country House, and, better still, the
modest frame in which the artist, putting aside for a moment his usual
style, has brought together lizards, butterflies, and sparrows amid
shrubs and large-leaved plants, are Hondecoeters of the most admirable
quality, whether in frankness of detail, or for the mastery of execution
and accent of color.
=Asselijn's Allegorical Bird Picture.=--The curious Allegory of the
Vigilance of the Grand Pensionary John de Witt by Jan Asselijn is a bird
picture. Here a great white swan is defending her nest against the
attack of a black dog swimming rapidly toward it. Beneath the swan is
the Dutch legend The Grand Pensionary; on the eggs, Holland; and under
the dog, The Enemy of the State (intended for England). The feather lost
by the bird is beautifully painted, and has challenged comparison with
Hondecoeter's Floating Feather.
[Illustration: ASSELIJN
The Swan]
=Eckhout.=--G. van der Eckhout (1621-74) has a Huntsman with Two
Greyhounds, painted about 1670. The huntsman, wearing a red vest, is
seated on the grayish earth. The general tone of the picture is
chocolate or chestnut.
=Jan Vonck.=--Jan Vonck (1630-?), another painter who devoted himself
principally to still life, especially dead birds, sometimes was
responsible for the birds in Ruisdael's pictures. His brush work is that
of a master; his color is strong and agreeable with a transparent touch.
The Rijks owns one example, Dead Birds.
=Jan Weenix.=--Jan Weenix (1640-1719) was the pupil of his celebrated
father during the latter's lifetime; and later he studied still life
under his uncle G. Hondecoeter, Elias Vonck (brother of Jan), and
Matthys Bloem. He surpassed his father in his pictures of dead game, one
of which hangs in this gallery. His animals--swans, hares, and various
birds, arranged with flowers and fruits around sumptuous antique
vases--are not so strong in character as those in Hondecoeter's works;
but they are very true to nature and have the great charm of harmony and
picturesqueness. They richly deserve their original popularity which
their wonderful finish and execution have preserved till the present
day.
=Coninck a Good Animal-painter.=--David de Coninck (1636-87), who had
many affinities with Fyt, also painted landscapes, animals, and birds.
He received the nickname Ramelaer from his fondness for painting rabbits
especially. He was quite at home in hunting scenes, two of which are in
the Rijks,--The Bear Hunt and The Stag Hunt.
Another painter of this period, Pieter Jan Ruijven (1651-1716), has a
fine picture of a cock and hens.
=Bosch, an Early Painter of Flowers.=--One of the early Dutch painters
of flowers was L. J. van den Bosch (?-1517), who painted with a
transparent color and a light touch. He treated fruits, flowers, and
insects with sympathy and truth. He often represented flowers in vases;
his insects are so minute that they have to be examined with a
magnifying glass.
=Delff's Poultry Seller.=--Pictures of this school, however, do not
abound in the Dutch galleries till we come to the artists who lived a
century later. The first of these who appears in the Rijks is Cornelis
Jacobsz Delff (1571-1643), a pupil of Cornelis Cornelisz. Delff was
renowned for his pictures of still life. He is represented in the Rijks
by The Poultry Seller.
=Other Still-life Painters in this Gallery.=--Other still-life painters
born in the sixteenth century, who are represented in this gallery, are
Ambrosius Bosschaert (1570-?), Pieter Noort (1592-1650), Pieter Symonsz
Potter (1597-1652), Adriaen van Utrecht (1599-1652), and Hans Boulengier
(1600-45). Bosschaert has a picture, Flowers, dated 1619. He had a son
of the same name who also painted flowers.
Of Pieter Noort little is known beyond the fact that he painted still
life, and especially Fish, as in the two pictures here signed P. van
Noort.
P. S. Potter painted on glass and was the manager of a gilded leather
establishment at Amsterdam. His model was Hals. Besides portraits and
landscapes, his preference was for still life. The Straw Cutter and
Still Life (signed and dated 1646) are worthy of attention.
=Two Pictures by Heem of Utrecht.=--Jan Davidsz de Heem (1606-84) of
Utrecht was a son of David de Heem, so famous for his _dejeuners_
spread with game, oysters, lobsters, fruits, wine, china, glass, and
silver. Jan inherited his father's tastes, and much of his talent, as is
evidenced by two pictures in the Rijks. One shows flowers and fruits of
natural size; and the other represents a table on which are a cup, a
glass, and a vase of wrought silver loaded with fruits.
=Greville on his Style.=--"At Antwerp, under Seghers, he enriched his
palette and learned the art of composing a delicious harmony by
setting flowers and fruits and glass and silver vases on an Oriental
table-cloth. To the most minute exactitude and almost microscopic
details, he added the most brilliant coloring and an unfailing taste
in the arrangement of his flowers and still life."
=Pieter de Ring.=--A picture of a table covered with blue velvet and
spread with lobsters, oysters, bread, fruit, etc., is typical of the
work of Pieter de Ring (1615-60), one of De Heem's pupils, a Fleming,
who spent his whole life in Holland, and was noted for his picturesque
arrangement and fine execution.
Hans Boulengier has a flower piece signed 1625. He painted still life,
_genre_, and sometimes "fantasmagories." Little is known about him.
=Still-life Painters in the Latter Half of the Seventeenth Century.=--A
generation later this school was in full blossom. Pictures of fruits,
flowers, and dead game, by artists who flourished in the second half of
the seventeenth century, are fairly plentiful.
Abraham Hendricksz van Beyeren (1620-74) painted with fine composition
and strong color breakfast pictures in the style of David de Heem, and
delighted in portraying fish as in the Rijks example.
Cornelis Brise (1622-7-) painted portraits; this gallery possesses one
of his pictures of flowers, signed C. Brise, 1665. On the wall beside it
hangs another flower piece by the brush of Elias van Broeck (?-1708).
=De Snuffelaer.=--Otto Marseus van Schrieck (1619-78) was nicknamed De
Snuffelaer (the ferreter), by the Dutch art colony in Rome, because of
his frequent country walks to discover new plants, insects, and reptiles
as models for his compositions. He painted with wonderful finish, good
drawing, and truth to nature, as may be seen in his Insects, Lizards,
etc., here signed O. M. V. S.
Jacob Marrel (1614-81) has a flower piece signed and dated 1634. Among
other masters in Utrecht, Frankfort, Brussels, and Antwerp, he studied
with J. D. de Heem.
=Kalff, a Good Painter and a Brilliant Talker.=--Willem Kalff (1622-93)
was the pupil of Henry Pot, and as soon as he left the master he
abandoned his manner, choosing for his subjects vegetables, fruits,
kitchen utensils, and sometimes handsome vases. Houbraken says he spent
whole days before a lemon, a beautiful orange, and the agate or
mother-of-pearl handle of a dessert-knife; and the vessels of Holland
never brought home a single shell, the strange form and splendid colors
of which he did not copy.
Unlike many of the Dutch painters of his day, who spent most of their
time in the tavern, Kalff was a man of charming and distinguished manner
and a brilliant talker, and he possessed a witty and cultivated mind.
His friends would spend the entire night listening to his conversation,
and when he died from an accidental fall from the bridge at Bantem, the
poet Willem van der Hoeven wrote a eulogy in which he said that Willem
Kalff "knew how to paint golden vases and silver cups and all the
treasures of opulence, but no treasures could outweigh his merit, for he
had no equal in his line."
=His Favorite Subjects.=--The kitchen with Kalff became a heroic
subject, and over it he threw the most subtle effects of chiaroscuro,
throwing a gleam of light upon a well, a scoured saucepan, or a bunch of
vegetables. Who is the hero or heroine of the scene? A fine cauldron or
saucepan or kettle shining with a thousand reflected lights that come
through a window of thick glass or yellow paper. An old cask stands by,
interesting us with all its details of decay,--its swollen staves, its
rusted hoops, and the insects that lodge in the rotten wood. A big
nail, an earthen pot, a skimmer, a few onions with their shining skins,
a broom, a jug of water, and a towel lying on a barrel,--with such
simple things he makes a beautiful picture. Perhaps in the background
the cook and her dog are discerned. Kalff never allows figures to become
too prominent, for he wishes his still life to catch and hold the
spectator's interest.
The picture by this artist in the Rijks has for its subject a silver
vase, of elegant form, and a porcelain dish filled with oranges and
lemons. The objects are tastefully arranged and beautifully painted.
=Some other Painters of Animals and Fruits.=--Anthonie Leemans (1630-8-)
has also a characteristic picture of still life; he was fond of painting
dead birds. Another picture of dead birds is by Willem G. Fergusson
(1632-9-), a Scotchman, who hired a house at The Hague in 1660, and
another in 1668; he was living in Amsterdam in 1681. The picture is
dated 1662. A Garland of Fruits is signed J. Borman, who flourished in
Leyden in 1657 and 1658; but about him little is known. Another notable
canvas belonging to this school is Animals, Insects, and Fruits, by
Anthony van Borssom (1629-77), who was probably a pupil, and certainly
an admirer of Rembrandt; his tones are somewhat sombre, but his drawing
is vigorous and full of interest. R. van der Burgh (fl. 1680) has a
lifelike painting of Sea Fish; and Karel Batist is a little-known
flower-painter, who worked in Amsterdam in 1659; his canvas is unusually
large for this _genre_, though the student will have noticed that most
of the artists of this period liked to paint their flowers and fruits
natural size.
Pieter Claes van Haerlem (d. 1660) has a small picture of still life
which bears the false signature, Johan de Heem, 1640; and Jan van Kessel
(1626-79) has a much smaller one of Fruits and Insects. Another picture
by the latter, representing a woman seated at a table with fruits, etc.,
on it, is falsely attributed to Anna Maria van Schurman (1607-78), who
was called "the marvel of her century." Her great reputation probably
prompted some dealer to attempt the fraud. None of the principal
galleries of Europe possesses any examples of her pictures, insects,
etc., so celebrated during her lifetime.
Another picture of Flowers, dated 1667, is by Nicolaes Lachtropius, who
was a famous Dutch painter of coach panels during the second half of the
seventeenth century. A contemporary German painter, Ottomar Elliger
(1633-79), also has a flower piece, dated 1674.
=Mignon, a First-class Flower-painter.=--Abraham Mignon (1640-79) was a
pupil of J. D. de Heem. He had as pupils in the same style, two
daughters and M. S. Merian. He belongs to the first rank of
flower-painters. Peries says:
"The qualities which distinguish the works of Mignon are freshness,
delicacy of tone, finish, the splendor of the reflections, and the
perfect imitation of nature. His flowers are selected with taste and
he perfectly well understands the art of giving them their full value.
He equally excels in painting insects, flies, and butterflies, and the
dewdrops trembling on the leaves; the velvety skin of his fruits
invites the touch of the fingers. His only fault is perhaps a dryness
in his draughtsmanship."
=Some of his Pictures.=--His masterpiece, _Mignon au Chat_, showing a
Persian cat upsetting a vase of flowers on a marble table, is in the
Rijks. Another picture here is Fruits, representing a dish with grapes
and pomegranates, besides oysters and white bread. In composition,
warmth, harmony, and truth to nature this belongs to his best work.
Inferior to this is Flowers, where flowers appear in a vase, and a cat
and a mouse-trap are also represented. Still Life and Fruits shows a
marble table, on which are fruits and flowers, a boiled lobster and an
antique vase, a picture that approaches his master Jan de Heem in
harmony and softness of touch.
=How Jan van Huysum became a Great Fruit and Flower painter.=--Jan van
Huysum was the son of a flower-painter who had turned his house into a
sort of factory where everything contributing to the decoration of
rooms and gardens could be found. Jan, who was placed at the head of the
enterprise, grew tired of the business side and devoted himself to art,
especially the works of Mignon, Verelst, and David de Heem. He also
closely studied nature, and seeing a whole world unfold itself in the
study of flowers alone, he explored the furthest recesses of his domain;
birds, butterflies, beetles, wasps, bees,--he forgot none of the
satellites of the flowers. Being also surrounded with examples of all
the exterior and interior art decorations of the day, he was able to
copy the marble consoles that served as supports for his baskets, the
earthenware bowls and vases in which he kept his bouquets fresh, and the
bas-reliefs that set off the flowers in those vases, and the mascarons
and chimaeras that formed the handles. It may be said of him as a French
critic said of Baptiste: "His beautiful flowers lacked only the perfume
that they seemed to exhale." Reynolds must also have been thinking of
Huysum's effects when he said that Rubens's pictures were "bouquets of
colors." Huysum's fruits have received some criticism: some critics hold
that he has given them the look of wax and the polish of ivory. In this
branch of his art, he perhaps falls short of David de Heem. His peaches
are too firm, his plums not provocative of thirst, and his grapes leave
a little more ripeness, gold, and sun to be desired. He succeeded better
with red gooseberries and the cleft pomegranates with their pulp and
seeds sparkling like rubies and delightful to the eye. The Rijks Museum
has five pictures by this master in which his qualities as a fruit and
flower painter are fully displayed.
=His Landscapes.=--A small landscape is also here. Formerly Huysum's
landscapes were as highly prized and as costly as his flower pieces.
However, his works in this field are echoes merely of Guaspre, Glauber,
Poussin, and Claude; he lived in an age when the Dutch again bowed down
before foreign idols. The familiar Dutch pastures were now peopled with
nymphs and demigods.
=Conrad Roepel.=--Conrad Roepel (1678-1748) was famous for his flowers,
fruits, festoons, garlands, birds, and insects. He painted with much
truth and good color. He studied under C. Netscher; but later he took
Huysum for his model. The Rijks has a picture of Flowers and another of
Fruits by him, both signed and dated 1721.
=The Van Os Family.=--Jan van Os (1744-1808) was greatly admired in his
day as a painter of marines, landscapes, and more particularly flowers
and fruits. There is one of the latter here. His son and pupil, Georgius
Jacobus Johannes (1782-1861), was equally famous as a painter of flowers
and game. He is represented here by four pictures, one of which is a
landscape, the animals of which are painted by his brother Peter
Gerhardus (1776-1839). The latter painted chiefly military and hunting
scenes, landscapes, and animals. Nine canvases exhibit his qualities in
this gallery. His sister Marie Margrita van Os (1780-1862) was, like her
brothers, a pupil of Jan van Os; she has a Still Life in the Rijks.
=Eight of Gerrit Dou's Pictures.=--Gerrit Dou is represented by eight
works including the famous Evening School which in 1808 was sold for
17,500 florins. The others are his own Portrait; the Portrait of a Man,
dated 1646; Portraits of a Gentleman and his Wife, in a landscape
painted by Nicholas Berchem; _La Curieuse_, a small oval picture of a
girl with a lamp in her hand; a Hermit in Prayer in a Grotto; a Hermit,
dated 1664; and A Fisherwoman.
=Description of The Evening School.=--The Evening School is the most
important of all Dou's candle-light pictures. The composition is very
simple. A looped curtain is lifted to reveal a room poorly furnished
with benches and tables. The schoolmaster, who sits at a table with his
arm on a small desk, is hearing a girl spell, and shaking his finger at
a boy who is walking away. This group is lighted by a candle that stands
on the table near an hour-glass. In the background a small group is seen
at a table also lighted by a candle. On the left of the teacher a boy is
making calculations on a slate, while a girl by his side looks on,
holding a lighted candle in her hand. A fourth light--from a large
lantern on the floor--adds another artificial light for the painter to
treat. This great work is painted on a panel 1 foot 8 inches high by 1
foot 3 inches long.
=The Fisherman's Wife.=--The Fisherman's Wife, painted in 1653, shows an
old woman in a black gown with yellow sleeves and a man's round hat. She
is holding a reel.
=Description of The Hermit.=--The Hermit is one of the most marvellously
finished works of the master in his most minute style. You can count the
wrinkles and hairs of the old white-bearded man who holds a crucifix in
his hands. An open book, an hour-glass, a can, and a basket (for bread
and wine or water) and other accessories are painted in miniature; on
the right is seen the trunk of a tree, and in the far distance are some
arcades, probably cloisters. The tiny panel is only ten by eight inches.
=Schalcken, Imitator of Dou and Rembrandt.=--Godfried Schalcken was the
pupil of Hoogstraten, and of Dou, whom he skilfully imitated. The sight
of some of Rembrandt's pictures next led him to devote himself to the
effects of light, artificial light especially: the majority of his
pictures therefore are illuminated by lamp or candle light. His most
remarkable work is at Amsterdam. It is called Young Girl Lighting a
Lantern. At the Revolution, he accompanied William III. to England, and
painted portraits of that king, one of which, signed with the artist's
name and dated 1699, is in The Hague Gallery. Among his best pictures is
the Boy Eating an Egg, in the Rijks Museum.
=His Portrait of William III.=--The half-length portrait of William III.
in the same gallery, in which there is a remarkable play of light, shows
that this master who delighted in the composition of small subjects
borrowed from common life, was equally capable of painting pictures of
natural size.
Schalcken's chief merit consists in the neatness of his finishing and
the perfect intelligence of his chiaroscuro. His touch is mellow, but
too fused, and his color warm and golden.
=His Other Pictures.=--The other pictures here are A Young Man Smoking;
Difference in Taste, in which two men are talking, while another lights
his pipe; and two Female Portraits, one of an ambassador's daughter, and
the other her companion.
=Slingelandt, Another Imitator of Dou.=--Pieter Cornelisz van
Slingelandt (1640-91) is another pupil and a close imitator of Dou; and
almost surpasses him in laborious execution. He reached the limits of
what can be done by a painter in oils. All his work seems to have been
done under the impression that imitation is the sole end of art.
=His Skill in Delicately Minute Painting.=--Naturally he excelled in
still-life painting, in which nothing was too minute for him to endeavor
to reproduce on his canvas. His brush indicates the weft of the most
delicate tissues; the coloring matter, almost microscopically divided,
gives a tone to every stitch in a linen hood or cap, or a knitted
stocking. On a panel of the smallest size you can sometimes distinguish
the shadow, half tone, and high light of each of the pearls in a
necklace; sometimes also a cat's whiskers, and even the hairs on the
skin of a mouse. Sometimes a piece of lace is rendered with such labor
that it took more time to paint than to make. The consequence is that
his pictures are very scarce: not fifty are known.