By the Cradle]
=A Characteristic Picture by Christoffel Bisschop.=--Christoffel
Bisschop (1828-1904) may be studied by The Lord Gave and the Lord hath
Taken Away, Sunday in Hindeloopen, Sister of the Bride, and Winter in
Friesland, also called Repairing Skates. This is a very characteristic
and typical picture. Friesland is not only the home of a peculiar style
of brightly painted furniture, but also the home of a school of skating
of which there are two schools,--the Dutch and the Frisian. The latter,
which is the older, aims at speed; and the skater wears a peculiar kind
of skate, well shown on the foot of the young girl seated on the right,
who is having the other skate repaired. The carved and colored sledges
are also typical of Friesland. An escort waits at the door. The painter
was himself a native of Friesland, and therefore depicts the costumes,
furniture, houses, and people of this most picturesque corner of Holland
with accuracy, charm, and sympathy.
[Illustration: BISSCHOP
Winter in Friesland]
=Christoffel Bisschop.=--Christoffel Bisschop is the Dutch colorist _par
excellence_. He entered the studio of Schmidt in Delft, and worked at
The Hague under Huib van Hove. He also studied in Paris with Le Comte
and Gleyre, and in 1855 established himself in The Hague. A visit to the
quaint town of Hindeloopen charmed his artistic eye, and henceforth the
peasants, with their gay costumes, and the brightly painted furniture
and quaint houses, have furnished themes and settings for his pictures.
=H. W. Mesdag.=--Born in Groningen in 1831, Hendrick Willem Mesdag was
destined to follow the family business of banking. Art, however, claimed
him; and after painting for several years as an amateur he started work
in Brussels in 1866. Except for the criticisms of Roelofs, Alma-Tadema,
and other artists, Mesdag may be said to be self-taught. In 1869 he
removed to The Hague, so that he could be near Scheveningen, for he had
found his special talent. "I must go and live near the sea," he said,
"gaze upon it daily, not only for weeks, but for months and years; watch
and study its every movement, this ever-changing element, this amazing,
stupendous work of the Almighty!" In 1870 he exhibited at the Paris
Salon, and his Breakers in the North Sea received the gold medal. His
fame was now established. France has decorated Mesdag more than once,
and one of his sea pictures hangs in the Luxembourg.
=His Style.=--Mesdag is a realist, and with broad, bold strokes of the
brush he portrays what he sees and feels. He depicts the ever-changing
ocean in all its moods, at all times of day and in all seasons; and the
life of the fisherfolk on the shore and in the fishing-boats is also
treated with sympathy. His Calm Sea by Sunset, painted in 1878, and
Fishing-boats at Sea and Beach, the two latter painted in 1895, belong
to this gallery.
"High up in the scale, and standing somewhat apart, is Henry William
Mesdag, the marine painter. Into a branch of art which had been
treated in so masterly a fashion in former centuries by Willem van de
Velde and Van Capelle, not to speak of Lodewijk Backhuysen and
Bonaventure Peeters, he introduced a thorough reform. In the beginning
of the century he was preceded by men of note, such as Schotel,
Waldorp, Meyer, Greive, Van Heemskerck, Van Beest, Van Deventer; but
their chief aim was to remain true to the tradition of the great
period. They painted pretty little ships sailing on calm seas, their
white sails catching a gentle breeze and reflecting the rays of the
sun; or again they would paint large vessels, driven before a gale
over mountainous waves. But the one was as artificial as the other;
their water was like glass, their ships as if made of tin, their skies
seemed cut out of oilcloth, and not one showed that he felt any love
for the sea.
"Mesdag was the first to paint the sea as it is, the turbulent,
restless, omnipotent, unlimited sea, that free, majestic, and
mysterious element which cannot be brought within any formula, but can
only be rendered in its tossing and pitching, peopled by its 'children
of the sea' living on its shores or drifting on its billows. He
studied every movement of the waves, every tint of the water, every
change in the ever-changing sky; he bade good-bye to large vessels,
huge castles of the sea, and took to painting small ships and fishing
smacks, the cottages, so to speak, of the ocean. His painting is as
broad and manly as the element wherein he moves and the space it
covers; not as soft and transparent as the works of landscape
painters,--those who give us meadows and downs,--but yet a
revelation."[29]
[Illustration: MESDAG
Sunrise on the Dutch Coast]
=Other Works in the Stedelijk by Modern Artists.=--Other works by modern
artists worthy of attention are: Canal in Amsterdam and Sinking Piles
for the Erection of a House, by G. H. Breitner (1857); Te Deum Laudamus,
Groote Kerk at The Hague, Oude Kerk at Amsterdam, Groote Kerk at Edam,
and Barn-floor in Guelderland, by J. Bosboom (1817-91); Mother and
Child, by B. J. Blommers (1845); Arrival of the Water Gueux at Leyden,
by C. Rochussen (1814-94); Episode from the Siege of Leyden, Battle at
Castricum, and Mellis Stoke Presenting his Rhymed Chronicle to Floris
V., Count of Holland, by K. Klinkenberg (1852); River Scene in Winter,
by L. Apol (1850); Scheveningen in Rainy Weather, by S. L. Verveer
(1850); Queen Fredegonda and St. Praetextatus, by Alma-Tadema (1836);
Mary Magdalen at the Foot of the Cross, by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858); A
Landscape, by H. van de Sande Bakhuijzen (1795-1860); Church at
Zandvoort, View in Enkhuizen, Town Hall in Cologne, and Heeren-Gracht at
Amsterdam, by C. Springer (1818-91); and A Prison of the Spanish Period,
and Norwegian Women Bringing their Children to be Christened, by H. A.
van Trigt (1829).
=A Survey of Modern Dutch Art.=--A brief survey of modern Dutch art,
condensed from the learned pen of Max Rooses, will not be unwelcome,
particularly as we shall meet many more examples of the modern artists.
=The French Neo-Classical School.=--He tells us that the group of Dutch
and Belgian figure-painters of the beginning of the century were
descendants of the French neo-classical school; and until 1850 the
principles of David, Gros, and Girodet were highly respected. The
best-known representatives were John William Pieneman in Holland, and
Bree, Navez, and Paelinck in Belgium.
=The Romantic School.=--Thereupon followed the Romantic school, whose
leaders in France were Eugene Delacroix, Horace Vernet, and Descamps; in
Belgium, Wappers and De Keyser; in Holland, Huib van Hove, Herman Ten
Cate, Charles Rochussen, Stroebel, and Van Trigt. This school departed
from the academic tendency of its predecessors, just as romantic
literature declared war against classicism in poetry.
=The Secret of the Success of the Romanticists.=--Another source helped
to swell the stream of Romanticism in Holland. The artists of the
neo-classical school, with their pompous but severe forms, paid more
attention to line than to color. They took their example from the
Italians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Their successors set
themselves to study the masters of their own country, and learned to
appreciate the rich coloring, the warm lights, and harmonious tones of
the golden period of their own art. We can see that they were filled
with admiration for the effects of light and color in Rembrandt's works
and in those of De Hooch, Gerrit Dou, and Ter Borch.
Not only did they find subjects for rich and warm coloring and pleasing
treatment in the history of former days, but also in that of their own
times. They took, in fact, a great step forward in that they observed
the daily life around them, and kept in touch with their
fellow-creatures, their ways and habits. To this group belongs Hubert
van Hove, who was the first to admire the works of the old masters, and
again to carry on the broken tradition; Charles Rochussen, Stroebel, to
whom the effects of light and color were particularly attractive; and
Herman Ten Cate and Van Trigt, the talented painters of romantic scenes
derived from history.
[Illustration: ISRAELS
Old Jewish Peddler]
=Josef Israels, a Brilliant Painter in this Group.=--To this group
belongs Josef Israels in his earliest works. During this period of his
brilliant career he was filled with enthusiasm for all that is sweet,
joyous, and charming in the world, all that is fair in youth and nature;
this is the period of his Children of the Sea, his Fishwomen, and his
Knitting Girls. Later his subjects became more serious, and more
serious, too, the claims of his art. Many followed Israels's example.
The group of admirers of the master, those who saw the world as he
did,--though with their own eyes,--may be called the pith and kernel of
the young Dutch school. Blommers, Valkenburg, Neuhuys, and Artz may be
placed at the head. They did not take life quite so sadly, they did not
wish to obscure light and color but allowed the sun to blaze and triumph
over mystery and darkness.
=A New Party opposed to the Romanticists.=--In opposition to these
"champions of twilight and tenderness" arose those who preferred the
real and substantial: Breitner; Sosselin de Jong, the portrait-painter;
Witkamp; Therese Schwartze, and Van der Waay.
A similar movement took place in landscape-painting. The most important
landscape-artists in the first half of the nineteenth century were
Kobell, Koekkoek, and Schelfhout. Their great ideal was a careful,
almost painful, working out of detail; they selected subjects rich in
material, masses of big trees against water, producing great effects of
light and shade. They sought to captivate the eye by an abundance of
detail, and to depict woods and meadows with a smoothness which was more
artificial than natural.
=Bilders, Roelofs, and their Followers.=--What was called the
picturesque in a landscape became unnecessary to the younger men of the
newer school; they painted Nature in its own beauty and in the
simplicity of its charm, as they saw it in their daily lives. Of this
group Bilders is the most important. He admired in the landscape, not a
favorite spot, or a pretty pool, or a gayly colored cow; he saw rather
land and meadow and wood in the mass, as one whole, beautiful by reason
of its grand lines, its rich tones. William Roelofs went a step further;
his first works differ little from those of his predecessors, but by
degrees he tore himself away from the accepted style and became a true
reformer. It was no longer the color or the beautiful contours of a view
that attracted him, but the country itself, the vegetation, the verdure,
the cattle in the meadows, the sky that seems always holiday-making, the
ever-changing clouds, always full of beauty.
A whole school followed in this new track,--Van de Sande Bakhuijzen,
Mevrouw Bilders van Bosse and Mevrouw Mesdag, Van Borselen,
Storlenbeker, Gabriel, who depicted with extraordinary fidelity both
land and sea; John Vrolijk, whose cows are always grazing in sunny
meadows under a brilliantly blue sky; De Haas, whose cattle are more
heavy and massive; Du Chattel, who prefers the effect of light in Spring
and in Autumn; Apol, who devotes himself almost exclusively to snow
scenes, producing singularly charming effects of the sun shining upon
monotonous whiteness; Mari Ten Kate, De Bock, Wijsmuller, Weissenbruch,
and Tholen.
=Another Step in the Modern Direction.=--Another step in the modern
direction was taken by artists who gave themselves up entirely to the
impression of the landscape, and painted exactly what they saw; Ter
Meulen, for instance, who loves Nature for the mood which she awakes in
him, and who understands so well how to convey light and tone into his
clever and refined pictures; Anton Mauve, and the brothers William and
Jacob Maris, were also accomplished interpreters of nature, and all that
lives and moves therein.
[Illustration: J. MARIS
Two Windmills]
=Modern Dutch Painters pursuing Independent Lines.=--Of other modern
Dutch painters pursuing different lines may be mentioned Bosboom, who
devoted himself chiefly to the interiors of old churches, bringing out
the play of light and shadow among the pillars; Klinkenberg, who paints
Dutch streets and canals and the old buildings upon them in full
sunshine; Jansen, who paints the Amsterdam docks and quays; Alma-Tadema,
painter of classical scenes; Bisschop, the great colorist; David Bles,
"the witty portrayer of morals and manners of years ago"; Henrietta
Ronner-Knip, the famous painter of cats and dogs; Henkes, who depicts in
grayish tones old-fashioned scenes and characters; Bakker Korff, who
paints similar scenes, but in miniature; the brothers Oyens; Elchanon
Verveer, painter of jolly old fishermen; Sadee; Mejuffrouw van de Sande
Bakhuijzen, and Mejuffrouw Roosenboom, painters of flowers and fruit;
Eerelman and Van Essen, the animal painters; Allebe, the colorist,
painter of human figures and animals; and Kaemmerer, who is fond of
painting figures in the costumes of the Directoire.
FOOTNOTES:
[27] H. Smissaert.
[28] G. H. Marius.
[29] H. Smissaert.
THE TOWN HALL, HAARLEM
FROM AMSTERDAM TO HAARLEM
It would be well now to make a day's trip to Haarlem. The steam tram
takes us through an interesting country, and in about an hour we reach
the centre of the town,--the Groote Markt,--in which are several old
buildings, the meat market, the Groote Kerk, and the Town Hall. The
latter is the chief object of our visit to Haarlem, for it contains ten
large pictures by Frans Hals, which no admirer of this great master can
afford to neglect.
The Town Hall, facing the Groote Kerk, was originally a palace of the
counts of Holland. It was begun in the twelfth century, but was
remodelled in 1620 and 1630, when a wing was added. Some of the large
beams in the interior date from the thirteenth century. The walls of the
vestibule are decorated with coats of arms and portraits of the counts
and countesses of Holland.
=The Room containing Hals's Doelen Pictures.=--We pass at once into the
principal room, where the famous Regent (or _Doelen_) pictures by Hals
are arranged in chronological order. These pictures represent nearly all
the artist's working period. The Banquet of the Officers of the Guild of
the Archers of St. George was painted in 1616, when the artist was
thirty-five; the same subject, with different portraits, in 1627; the
Banquet of the Officers of the Arquebusiers of St. Andrew, in 1622, when
the corps departed for the siege of Hasselt and Mons; Reunion of the
Arquebusiers of St. Andrew, in 1633; and Officers and Sub-Officers of
the Arquebusiers of St. George, in 1639.
[Illustration: FRANS HALS
Reunion of the Arquebusiers of St. Andrew]
As the enormous canvases each contain from fourteen to twenty life-size
portraits, we feel as if we were entering a hall full of convivial
officers, laughing, jesting, and making merry over their fine wines and
choice food. They are richly dressed; many of them wear lace cuffs and
ruffs and bright scarfs; flags flutter, spears glitter, spurs and swords
clank and flash in the sunlight; the plumes on the large hats nod; and
loud talk and bursts of laughter seem to issue from the frames. These
convivial men have fought against the hated Spaniards, and are ready to
trail a pike at any moment. The artist was commanded to paint each man
accurately and according to his rank in the company. Every picture is,
therefore, a group of portraits; and Colonel Jan Claasz Loo, in the
picture of 1633, is considered one of Hals's masterpieces of
portraiture. These pictures rank with Rembrandt's and Van der Helst's
works of this class.
In addition to these are Regents of the Hospital of St. Elizabeth
(1641), Regents of the Old Men's Almshouse, and Lady Regents of the Old
Men's Almshouse, both painted in 1664, when Hals was over eighty. Two
fine portraits of Nicholas van der Meer, Burgomaster of Haarlem, and his
wife, are dated 1631. A copy of a portrait of Frans Hals by himself
hangs in an adjoining room.
=Crowe on Hals's Earlier and Later Styles.=--"In every form of his art
we can distinguish his earlier style from that of later years. Two
Boys Playing and Singing, in the Gallery of Cassel, and A Banquet of
Officers, in the Museum of Haarlem, exhibit him as a careful
draughtsman, capable of great finish, yet spirited withal. His flesh,
less clear than it afterwards became, is pastose and burnished.
Further on he becomes more effective, displays more freedom of hand
and a greater command of effect. At this period we note the beautiful
full-length of a young lady of the Berensteyn family in the house of
that name in Haarlem, and a splendid full-length of A Patrician
Leaning on a Sword, in the Lichtenstein Collection at Vienna. Both
these pictures are equalled by the Banquets of Officers of 1627, and a
Meeting of the Company of St. George, of 1633, in the Haarlem Museum.
A picture of the same kind in the Town Hall of Amsterdam, with the
date of 1637, suggests some study of the masterpieces of Rembrandt,
and a similar influence is apparent in a picture of 1641 at Haarlem,
representing the Regents of the Company of St. Elizabeth....
Rembrandt's example did not create a lasting impression on Hals. He
gradually dropped more and more into gray and silvery harmonies of
tone; and two of his canvases, executed in 1664,--the Regents and
Regentesses of the Oudemannenhuis, at Haarlem,--are masterpieces of
color, though in substance they are but monochromes."
=His Pictures of Various Strata of Society.=--"Hals's pictures
illustrate the various strata of society into which his misfortunes
led him. His banquets or meetings of officers, of sharpshooters and
guildsmen, are the most interesting of his works. But they are not
more characteristic than his low-life pictures of itinerant players
and singers. His portraits of gentlefolk are true and noble, but
hardly so expressive as those of fishwives and tavern heroes. His
first master was Van Mander, the painter and historian, of whom he
possessed some pictures. But he soon left behind him the practice of
the time illustrated by Schoreel and Moro, and, emancipating himself
gradually from tradition, produced pictures remarkable for truth and
dexterity of hand."
=Hals and Rembrandt compared.=--"We prize in Rembrandt the golden glow
of effects based upon artificial contrasts of low light in
immeasurable gloom. Hals was fond of daylight, of silvery sheen. Both
men were painters of touch, but of touch on different keys. Rembrandt
was the bass, Hals the treble. The latter is, perhaps, more expressive
than the former. He seizes with rare intuition a moment in the life of
his sitters. What nature displays in that moment he reproduces
thoroughly in a very delicate scale of color, and with a perfect
mastery over every form of expression. He becomes so clever at last
that exact tone, light and shade, and modelling are all obtained with
a few marked and fluid strokes of the brush."
=The Other Corporation Pictures.=--The other Corporation pictures will
not detain us; but while here we can take a hasty glance at A. Brouwer's
Binnenhuis; Jan Steen's Peasants' _Kermesse_; Philips Wouwermans's Stags
and Goats; Molenaer's Rustic Wedding; F. Hals the Younger's Binnenhuis;
Pieter Aertsen's Children in the Fiery Furnace; A. Backer's Semiramis;
Cornelis Bega's Street Musicians; Gerrit Berckheyde's Groote Markt in
Haarlem and Fish Market in Haarlem; Job Berckheyde's Groote Kerk,
Haarlem, and Joseph and his Brothers in Egypt; Bloemaert's Message to
the Shepherds; Pieter Claez's Still Life; Jacques de Claen, Fruits;
Droochsloot's _Kermesse_; A. van Everdingen's Street in Haarlem; H.
Goltzius's Titus; G. W. Heda's Still Life; G. van Honthorst's Singer;
Hendrik Meyer's Groote Markt, Haarlem; P. de Molyn's Pillaged and
Burning Village; Isaac van Nickele's Groote Kerk, Haarlem; Isaac
Ouwater's Groote Markt, Haarlem; Christoffel Pierson's Hunting
Attributes; Isaac Ruisdael's Holland Dunes and Landscape in the Dunes;
Saenredam's Nieuwe Kerk, Haarlem; P. van Santvoort's Winter Landscape;
J. van Scorel's Adam and Eve, St. Cecilia Playing the Organ, and
Christ's Baptism in the Jordan; Jacob van der Ulft's The Forum of Nerva,
Rome; Esais van de Velde's Landscape; Jan Wijnants's Landscape; Thomas
Wyck's Roman Ruins; and many portraits by Maes, Jan Weenix, Jan Victors,
Verkolje, Ter Borch, Ravesteyn, Pot, Netscher, Mierevelt, T. de Keijser,
and other famous Dutch artists.
=The Teyler Museum.=--We can afford to neglect the Teyler Museum, unless
we are particularly interested in the study of modern Dutch art. In that
case, we can view there some excellent examples of Israels, Mauve,
Mesdag, Ten Cate, J. Koster, Bosboom, Verveer, Eeckhout, Koekkoek, and
others. The Teyler Museum also contains a valuable collection of
engravings and drawings by old masters, including Rembrandt,
Michelangelo, Goltzius, and A. van Ostade.
=The Paviljoen Welgelegen.=--Taking the tram to Frederiks-Park, we may
glance at the Paviljoen Welgelegen, a _chateau_ built in 1788 by Mr.
Hope, an Amsterdam banker, and which was purchased by Louis Napoleon
when he became King of Holland. It was to this building that the modern
pictures were removed from the Trippenhuis in 1838. This now shelters a
Colonial Museum and a Museum of Industrial Art, both of great interest.
THE BOIJMANS MUSEUM, ROTTERDAM
THE MUSEUM'S ORIGIN AND GROWTH
The Boijmans (or Boymans) Museum, on the Schiedamsche Dyk, was founded
by a bequest of Mr. F. J. O. Boijmans, who died in 1847. His fine
collection of 360 paintings suffered by fire in 1864, and only 163 of
them were left. These were housed in a new building, completed in 1867.
By means of various bequests and purchases, the collection has been
increased to more than four hundred paintings and two thousand drawings
and engravings. The ground-floor contains the drawings and engravings,
the Library of Rotterdam (30,000 volumes), and the Portrait-room. The
upper floor consists of six galleries, two of which are devoted to
modern pictures.
=Two Classes of Landscapes in this Museum.=--The Boijmans Museum is rich
in landscapes. These naturally fall into two classes: first, the works
of those men who studied in Italy or at least owed their inspiration to
others who did; and secondly, pictures of purely Dutch scenery with the
peasants, flocks, and herds familiar to the native. The classical
landscapes are framed with mountains, and usually have cascades and
ruins, and often are peopled with nymphs, shepherds, and other figures
classically draped. Many examples of this school have already been noted
in The Hague and Amsterdam museums.
=Painters of Italian Landscapes.=--Jan Miel (1599-1664) went to Rome and
studied under Andreas Sacchi. His Italian Landscape, alive with
travellers, is similar in feeling and treatment to many others in this
gallery by Jan van de Meer, Jr., Adam Pynacker, J. Lingelbach, Jacob van
Huchtenburgh, Willem de Heusch, Jan Hackaert, J. van Bronckhorst, Pieter
Bout, Jan Both, Adriaen Bloemaert, and Johannes van der Bent. In many of
these classical landscapes the figures are supplied by A. van de Velde
and Lingelbach.
=Poelenburg's Figure-painting.=--Poelenburg painted the figures in the
pictures of some of his contemporaries,--in the Rocky Landscape by
Willem de Heusch, for instance. In this panel we find the usual road
with women, children, cattle, sheep, goats, trees, cascade, rocks
covered with vegetation, shepherd with flock, travellers with a
pack-mule, and mountainous background.
=A. Bloemaert's Italian Landscape.=--Adriaen Bloemaert (d. 1668) painted
historical subjects and landscape. His Italian Landscape exhibits goats
on rocks covered with vegetation in the foreground, from which a road
rises to a castle on a mountain. A man and a child are coming down the
road. The background is mountainous.