elegance of high life, with its marbles and richly carved furniture,
upholstery and tapestry, jewels and laces, silks and satins, velvets and
furs, he also sometimes chose models of humble estate. The Rehearsal is
a masterpiece in this class. Here a man is playing a violin while a boy
is singing and a woman preparing dinner. The other example of his art is
quite in contrast with the above. It is called The Rich Man, and on it
Slingelandt has lavished all the resources of his brush. Blanc says:
"He painted the merchant at his counter and the lacemaker at her
distaff, the housekeeper purchasing partridges or getting dinner
ready, and the woman of the people occupied in sewing beside the
cradle in which her infant is sleeping. From the richly furnished
salon Slingelandt descended to the scullery and took pleasure in
looking at the rows of shining pots and pans, and other kitchen
utensils. He observed the correct tone of the servant's apron as well
as that of the silken skirt he had painted in her mistress's portrait.
He devoted as much attention to imitating the polish of a brass vase
or the rough varnish of an earthenware pot, as to expressing the
transparency of a Bohemian glass. Cats and mice were also honored with
his precious painting, as well as parrots and spaniels. But what he
rendered with most love and with unequalled truth was the musical
instrument. His violins are light, and sonorous; his violoncellos
provoke the virtuoso and enchant the ear almost as much as the eye.
One would say that nothing escaped his observation, nothing of what
constituted private and family life, that which he himself lived in
obscurity, the simplicity and joys of which he painted with so much
application, finish, and patience."
=Adriaen de Vois.=--Arie (or Adriaen) de Vois (about 1630-80) studied
first under Nicholas Knupfer in Utrecht, next with Abraham van den
Tempel, and lastly with Pieter van Slingelandt, whose highly finished
style he followed with great success. He painted charming scenes of
familiar life, lovely portraits, interiors, and even landscapes, in
which he introduced, in the style of Poelenburg, tiny nude figures. The
Dutch collectors have always prized them for the delicacy of their color
and touch and vivacity.
[Illustration: A. DE VOIS
Lady and Parrot]
=Description of The Lady with a Parrot.=--In his Lady with a Parrot, the
lady is rather French in type, and dressed in the most fashionable style
of the period. Her earrings are wonderfully painted and perhaps even
more realistic are the fruits in the basket which she holds on her knee,
and from which she offers her parrot a tempting treat. Every detail of
this picture is perfect in treatment--the dress, the hair, the face, the
jewels, the still life, and the brilliant feathers of the bird.
=His Other Pictures in the Rijks.=--In addition to this beautiful
picture the Rijks also owns The Fisherman Smoking, a little oval panel;
A Violin Player, who holds a wineglass; and The Fish-Vender, a jolly
old fisherman with a glass of beer in his hand.
=Seven Pictures by Brekelenkam.=--Quieringh Gerritsz van Brekelenkam
(?-1668) was a pupil of Gerrit Dou; and his own manner was a mixture of
Dou and Rembrandt. He settled in Leyden in 1648. His works,
representing, as a rule, interiors, with figures noted for the natural
expression of their heads, are highly esteemed. His touch is light and
spirited, and he understands the art of chiaroscuro. The Rijks owns
seven pictures: Two Interiors, The Fireside (1664), The Mouse Trap
(1660), Confidences (1661), Reading, and A Mother and Child. The latter
is a little oval panel, in which a woman in a red skirt and black jacket
is giving some porridge to her child.
One of the Interiors, representing A Tailor's Shop, is one of his best
works. The tailor, with long hair and fur cap, is seated at a work-table
on the right; he is talking to a woman who is carrying a tin bucket. On
the right, near the window, you see the back of a young workman. In the
background hangs a picture, and there are some clothes on a board. The
work is somewhat in the style of Pieter de Hooch.
=His Poverty of Imagination.=--Brekelenkam has been accused of poverty
of imagination because of the paucity of figures in his compositions;
and yet some of the most beautiful and famous pictures of the Little
Masters consist of single figures, such as a woman sitting spinning. One
critic complains:
"Notwithstanding his ability (his method is preferable to Dou's; his
painting is more unctuous, warmer, and freer, being finely accented
with lifelike touches on the various utensils or accessories of his
interiors), it seems that this painter was not endowed with a very
fertile imagination. He has a very slight taste for difficult
subjects, and carefully avoids complicated compositions; most often,
indeed, a single personage suffices him for a picture. A smoker
lighting his pipe, an old woman sitting in the chimney corner, a
philosopher turning over the leaves of a folio volume, the interior of
a farm, or a kitchen,--these are Brekelenkam's ordinary motives. But
feeling and intellect give relief to these vulgar themes, and render
the delicate works of this too-little-known painter precious to
art-lovers."
The student will be able to judge from the pictures in the Rijks whether
or no the artist deserves more or less than this half-hearted praise.
=Ter Borch's Famous Paternal Advice.=--Ter Borch, as we have seen by The
Message or Despatch in the Mauritshuis, was fond of painting pictures
with some slight dramatic connection. Here we find the very famous
Paternal Advice, also called The Paternal Reproof, but better known as
The Satin Dress (_Robe de Satin_).
A young lady is standing with her back to the spectator. She wears a
black cape and a white satin dress, and her hair is blond. The
table-cloth, bed curtains, and other hangings are red. On the table at
the left are a silver candlestick, two combs, and a pink string, and a
mirror or perhaps a picture in a frame. On the right is seated a rather
young man with long hair, and richly and somewhat extravagantly dressed
in lilac and gray. In one hand he holds a large hat trimmed with three
immense blue and lemon-colored plumes. His sword is by his side, and
behind him in the shadows stands his greyhound. His left hand is raised
with some gesture, probably of admiration, as his face is smiling. The
old woman at his side is interested solely in her glass, through which
half of her face is seen as she is drinking.
It was Goethe who bestowed the name Paternal Advice upon this picture,
the story of which is not yet known; but although critics have accepted
fatherly admonition as the theme, the relative ages of the characters do
not justify the theory.
=Blanc's Critique of the Picture.=--Blanc is one who does not question
this. He exclaims:
"Truly this dress is perfect: it is so close to the eye and within
reach of the hand that it engrosses the entire attention of the
spectator. One would say that the young girl, so gently reprimanded by
her father, has come there merely for the sake of showing her dress;
and, indeed, the painter has dwelt on this detail with the greatest
affection, and, moreover, has hidden the face of the young girl, and
shown us only the back of her head with its blond coil and the
escaping tresses, in which are mingled some black velvet, which
relieves the ash-colored tone of the hair. What a singular thing! A
frightful sacrifice of a woman's head to a robe of satin, the
unheard-of triumph of an accessory--a charming infraction against all
the principles of art--we might call it a colossal fault--but a
privilege only allowed to great artists. The painter has by this
aroused our curiosity regarding the face of the young girl, who has
turned away her head, and so we have to imagine her blushing cheeks
and her lowered eyelids. As for the father, he is remonstrating with
her so tenderly, with such a gentle gesture and so paternal a manner
that we are not disturbed by it, and can therefore fix our glance on
the magnificent satin dress, the folds of which are so beautifully
broken by the light, and in which all the interest of the picture is
concentrated. But what an inexplicable attitude is that of the mother,
who is slowly drinking a glass of fine wine, while her husband
lectures their daughter."
=Other Pictures by Ter Borch in the Rijks.=--The Rijks owns a Portrait
of Ter Borch, painted by himself, and one of his wife, Geertruida
Matthyssen; a copy of The Peace of Munster (original in the National
Gallery), and a copy of his Boy and a Dog, also known as The Scholar.
=Description of The Scholar.=--The latter shows a table covered with an
old gray carpet, on which is a copy-book and an inkstand. The scholar,
who instead of writing his exercise is busy catching fleas on the dog,
which he holds between his knees, wears a violet coat and blue
stockings, and his gray hat lies on a little wooden bench before him.
The whole is of a neutral color, but very clear.
=Seven Pictures by Adriaen van Ostade.=--Adriaen van Ostade has seven
pictures on these walls: An Artist's Studio, Travellers' Halt (1671),
The Charlatan (1648), The Baker, The Merry Peasant, The Intimate Company
(1642), Confidences (1642).
=His Artist's Studio.=--An Artist's Studio, of which there is a replica
dated 1666 in the Dresden Gallery, shows a painter sitting at an easel
with his back to the spectator; he wears a violet coat and a red cap.
The other features of the composition are a black dog asleep, an
assistant grinding colors in a corner, and a pupil preparing a palette.
The artist is supposed to be Ostade himself in both instances; but for
some reason his face is half hidden. The play of light and shadow in the
apartment is noticeably Rembrandtesque in character.
=A Tavern Interior.=--There are two tavern interiors here. In one (dated
1661) five peasants are grouped in the foreground. Before a large
chimney stands a man in a blue vest and gray hat, holding a mug in his
hand; opposite is a man in a blue mantle and a white hat, who is filling
his pipe; in the chimney corner an old man is dreaming; and to his right
an old woman is listening to what a man in a furred cap, with a pipe in
his hand, is saying to the man before the fire. On the extreme right a
little girl, on a wooden stool before a rustic table, is eating her soup
and amusing herself with a little black-and-white dog. In the
background, near the open window, five men are grouped around a table,
smoking, drinking, and talking. The lights on the separate groups from
the back and side windows are ably managed.
=Ostade's Best Period.=--The Charlatan, dated 1648, belongs to the
master's best period, when he painted such gems as The Barn, The Family,
and The Father of the Family.
The Intimate Company, signed 1642, is in the Van der Hoop Collection, as
is also a rustic interior, _Societe de campagnards_, signed 1661. The
latter has passed through the Lormier, Choiseul, Du Barry, Tolozon, and
Duchesse de Berry collections.
=Some of his Pupils.=--Among Adriaen's many pupils may be mentioned
Cornelis Dusart, Cornelis Bega, Michiel van Musscher, R. Brakenburgh,
and Jan de Groot. They all followed his style more or less closely.
When Jan Steen visited Haarlem he also fell under his influence.
=Isaak van Ostade.=--Isaak van Ostade (1621-49) has two rustic inns, one
signed and dated 1643, that are typical of his style. In his early work
he imitated his brother and teacher with some success, both in subject
and treatment, especially wayside hostelries. His pictures, however, are
browner in tone and harder in execution than Adriaen's. In one picture
here we see two travellers with a white horse halting in front of an
inn. The composition is delightful and full of nature and spirit.
=C. Dusart, Better in some Respects than his Master.=--Cornelis Dusart
(1660-1704) adopted his master's (Ostade) style without servile
imitation. He was a minute observer of details and had an astonishing
memory that enabled him to use them to the best advantage in his
interiors. His choice and treatment of scenes were rather more
distinguished and less vulgar than some of his master's. His later
pictures are inferior to his early ones: they lack spontaneity of
conception, and that freshness and simplicity of impression that mark so
many of his works. Five striking pictures worthily represent his
abilities,--Wandering Musicians, The Fish Market (1683), The Village
Kermesse, A Village Inn, and Maternal Happiness.
=Cornelis Bega.=--Cornelis Bega (1620-64), another pupil of Adriaen van
Ostade, copied and improved upon him. A Concert of Peasants is full of
color, light, movement, life, and gayety, with music, singing, and
dancing. It is warmer in color than most of his works.
The Grace before the Meal (1663) shows a young woman with folded hands
seated at the table, and on the other side an old man. On the
window-sill is a flower-pot; in front, on the floor, a foot-warmer. This
is a good picture, but a little too red in tone, as often happens with
Bega.
=M. van Musscher's Lack of Originality.=--Michiel van Musscher
(1645-1705) was completely lacking in individuality: he simply mirrored
his successive masters, Martin Zaagmorlen, Abraham van den Tempel,
Gabriel Metsu, and Adriaen van Ostade. Not only that, but he sometimes
painted also in the style of Jan Steen, and even imitated the marvellous
chiaroscuro of Pieter de Hooch. Sometimes also in subject and treatment
his work resembles that of Netscher and Albert Cuijp. He has five
portraits here, but is not represented by an example of his many
interiors, feasts, or scenes of peasant or genteel life.
=Brakenburgh, a Clever Colorist.=--Richard Brakenburgh (1650-1702), a
pupil of A. van Ostade, Hendrick Mommers, and probably Jan Steen, whom
he imitated, lived in Haarlem. He also studied with B. Schendel, and
became a clever painter and very able in the management of chiaroscuro.
He is fond of merrymakings, drunken assemblies, doctors' visits, and
children's feasts. He sometimes painted the figures in the landscapes of
P. de Koninck and others. In his best works, some competent critics
consider him worthy to rank with Ostade in the brilliance of his color,
although it is always inferior in transparency. In form and modelling
his subjects suffer by comparison with those of his master. The Rijks
owns a jovial tavern scene, and The Feast of St. Nicholas, signed and
dated 1665, which the student will be interested in comparing with Jan
Steen's treatment of the same subject.
=Several Periods in the Career of D. Teniers the Younger.=--David
Teniers the Younger (1610-90) has seven pictures here that illustrate
his various styles. As with most other artists who reached old age,
critics recognize several periods in the career of Teniers. At first,
his figures, from twelve to eighteen inches high, are broadly painted in
brownish and somewhat heavy tones. Toward 1640 his color becomes clearer
and more luminous and golden. From 1640 to 1660 it assumes silvery tones
of admirable lightness and limpidity; and, at the same time, his
execution grows more careful and precise. The pictures of this last
period are held in highest esteem. After that Teniers returned to a
gamut of golden tones, in which he sometimes displayed great power. At
the close of his life he became heavy and brownish in tone, and his
touch lost some of its clearness. Not many of his pictures are dated.
The earliest known date is 1641, on Our Corps de Garde, a medium-sized
picture of no special interest, in which we note numerous military
attributes. This is far inferior to a similar picture, now in St.
Petersburg, painted two years later.
=His Relish for Pictures of the Supernatural.=--The Temptation of St.
Anthony is one of many pictures he painted in his relish for the class
of subjects painted two centuries earlier by Jerome Bosch--Dives in
Hell, incantations, witches, phantasmagoria, etc.--for the simple
purpose of assembling the most hideous and grotesque apparitions
imaginable.
=His Pictures of other Kinds.=--The other pictures here are devoted to
his villagers, drinking, playing bowls, dancing, singing, and fighting.
A Landscape, with a rustic house, shows a gardener standing, spade in
hand, talking to a woman with a child on her lap. On the left, on the
ground, are some vegetables, also pots and other household utensils.
=Peter Balten.=--Peter Balten (fl. 1540-71) is represented by a large
picture, St. Martin's Fair. His figures are full of spirit, and his
touch is sure. Little is known of him except that he was one of the
greatest wits of his day. He studied under Pierre Brueghel, whom he
resembles in style.
=B. van Bassen.=--A contemporary of his was Bartholomeus van Bassen (d.
1652), who has a fine Interior with figures supplied by Esais van de
Velde. His specialty was portraits, with studies of perspective, and
church and other interiors.
=Three Pictures by Hendrick Bloemaert.=--Hendrick Bloemaert (1601-72)
was probably the son of Abraham. The Rijks has three of his pictures,
signed and dated: Winter (1631), Portrait of Johannes Puttkamer (1671),
and The Eggseller (1632). The latter is in the Van der Hoop Room.
=Three Popular Artists.=--Jan van der Meer the Younger (1656-1705) is
represented by a charming picture, The Sleeping Shepherd, dated 1678.
Frans van Mieris the Elder is represented by The Letter, The Lute
Player, Jacob's Dream, The Lost Bird, and Fragility. His son, Willem van
Mieris, is represented by The Poulterer (1733), A Landscape with
Shepherds and Shepherdesses (1722), and a Lady and a Gentleman.
[Illustration: F. VAN MIERIS
Grocer's Shop]
=The Grocer's Shop by F. van Mieris the Younger.=--Willem's son and
pupil, Frans van Mieris the Younger (1689-1763), who carried on the
family traditions in Leyden, although somewhat inferior to his father
and grandfather, is represented by A Hermit (1721), A Chemist's Shop
(1714), and The Grocer's Shop (1715). This latter picture presents an
interesting scene of the day. Note the beautiful painting of the
sculptured bas-relief of the counter, at which stand the purchasers--an
old woman and a child. The shopkeeper holds scales and two baskets,
about the contents of which there seems to be some contention. In the
shop there is a larder, on the shelves of which various articles are
seen; baskets hang on the wall; and tubs, barrels, and casks are also
visible. Over the shop has grown a grape-vine, and its graceful festoons
of leaves make a beautiful effect.
=Several of Karel Dujardin's Pictures.=--Karel Dujardin may also be
studied by his Portrait of a Man; Portrait of Gerard Reinst, a
celebrated art collector of Amsterdam and also a patron of the painter;
The Muleteers; The Laborer on his Farm (1655), in which a peasant is
seen winnowing corn; A Trumpeter on Horseback; a Portrait of Himself
(1660); an Italian Landscape with Animals; and a Landscape, which was
purchased at the Duchesse de Berry's sale in 1837 for 4,000 florins.
=Burger on A Woman Reading.=--"Again the sphinx! Here we have an
interior with a woman standing in profile to the left. She is reading
a letter; she wears a light blue jacket and a grayish-blue skirt.
Before her are a table and a chair with a blue back. Behind her is
another blue chair. Decidedly Van der Meer has an affection for the
blue sky. The wall of the background is a pale moonlight blue, and the
woman's figure stands out against a geographical map a little tinted
with _bistre_, which hangs on the wall.
"The execution of this picture is very delicate, indeed almost
trivial: the paint is laid on very lightly, the color is weak and even
a little dry. It is true that this picture is a little rubbed. On the
contrary, Van de Meer's touch was frank and the _pate grasse_
abundant, even somewhat exaggerated in the View of Delft at The Hague;
there is an incomparable firmness of design and modelling in The
Milkmaid in the Six Gallery; and in the Facade of a Dutch House in the
same gallery, the color is extremely warm and harmonious. These
differences of practice make us hesitate for a time regarding the
parentage of The Woman Reading in the Van der Hoop Collection.
However, the physiognomy of this woman is of an exquisite delicacy;
her bare arms and the hand that holds the paper are marvellously
drawn.... This pale light and these delicate blues betray Van der
_Meer_. This artist probably had several styles.
"This picture is signed: an open book on the table bears the word
Meer."
=Van der Meer's Later Style.=--In later pieces his style is reminiscent
of De Hooch and Metsu, but it is brighter and the tone more enamelled.
In most instances the scene is in a small room lighted by a casement
window. Sometimes the painter himself is seated in a studio; sometimes a
girl and her lover are together; sometimes a woman is seated at the
clavecin. The Milkmaid in the Six Collection is noted for its brilliancy
of tone, harmonious distribution of tints, delicacy of gradations, and
solidity of touch.
=His Portrait-painting.=--Van der Meer was also a splendid
portrait-painter and excelled in landscapes, in which he sacrificed
figures to trees, cottages, and lanes. There is a charming little
picture of this class in the Six Collection, representing a row of brick
houses with people, in the style of Pieter de Hooch. It is said that he
was killed by the fall of his house at the time when Simon Decker, a
vestryman of the Delft Church, was sitting to him for his portrait.
=Pieter de Hooch (1635-78).=--This master who was so long neglected and
is now regarded as at least the equal of Ter Borch, Metsu, and Van
Mieris, is well represented in the Rijks, though absent from The Hague
Gallery. His talent is exhibited chiefly in his Conversations. Burger
says he has never seen a single picture by De Hooch that is not of the
first rank.
=Burger on De Hooch's Choice of Subjects.=--"Sometimes he paints
interiors--people are playing at cards, or having a family concert, or
reading, or drinking, or conversing. Sometimes he paints exteriors;
then the painter introduces us to domestic occupations, and the
innocent recreations of private life, as, for instance, a servant
washing linen in a back yard, or cleaning fish, or plucking a fowl; or
perhaps there are ladies and their cavaliers playing at bowls in a
garden with trim gravelled walks."
=His Excellent Painting of Interiors.=--"When he paints interiors,
this artist rarely neglects to show, on the right or left, doors
opening on a staircase or revealing a leafy alley, or the trees along
a quay, so that his pictures almost always seem to be the antechamber
of another picture. In this characteristic style of De Hooch, when the
interior of the apartment is moderately lighted, the sun shines
outside, and we feel its heat and brilliance in the vistas gradually
lost to view in the background, so inimitably managed in the artist's
manner.... Pieter de Hooch seems to have been in Rembrandt's secrets,
and knew how to adapt the genius of that great master to familiar
scenes, just as Gonzales Coques had adapted the genius of Rubens."
[Illustration: P. DE HOOCH
The Country House]
=Seven Fine Examples of his Work in the Rijks.=--The Rijks Museum owns
seven fine examples of this master's work. The Portrait of a Man is said
to be that of the painter at the age of nineteen; but this is doubtful.
One of the most celebrated interiors shows a woman about to let a child
drink from a jug of beer at the entrance to a cellar. This picture is
very attractive for the simple attitudes, and for the depth of the
equally sustained warm harmony. "The execution," says Crowe, "is a model
of softness and juiciness." The most glowing example, however, of this
warm lighting is a woman cleaning the hair of a child, in the Van der
Hoop Room. The woman wears a skirt of deep blue and a bodice of red,
bordered with white fur, while the child has a skirt of green and a gray
bodice. Behind them is an alcove bed with green curtains, and to the
right, in the foreground, a little chair. An open door on the left
allows you to see into another room with a passage and courtyard beyond.
A little black dog seen from behind lies on the reddish tiles. The
picture is beautiful in its treatment of three successive planes of
light.