years, we feel also in the portrait of a handsome cavalier. We feel
the lion’s force behind those glowing, piercing eyes, behind the
energetic chin and cheek bones, and the exuberantly flowing, broad
waves of the bushy, dark hair remind us of a lion’s mane.
“We easily recognize in Rembrandt’s work those portraits of which the
sitters were strangers to him. The present one, in which he put so
much of his own self, as he did only with friend’s portraits, does
not belong to these. He has ornated the young cavalier with a costume
which appealed to his imagination, the details of which we know from
portraits of persons in his surroundings and self-portraits: the
breast-plate, the colored scarf around the neck, the golden chain with
medal-lion, the green velvet mantle with gold-embroidered border. On
the companion-piece, on the other hand, the lady wears a costume and
pieces of jewelry which we find also in Saskia’s portraits.
“Strange to say, the female figure itself has so much likeness to
Saskia that we would be tempted to believe it to be a portrait of her,
if there was not the portrait of the cavalier as the companion-picture
preventing us from this supposition. But we know that Saskia had a
sister, Titia, who visited the Rembrandt family frequently within
these years (a portrait-sketch, a pen-drawing made of her in 1639 by
Rembrandt is in the Stockholm Museum). She and her husband François
Copal, were witnesses at the baptism of Saskia’s first children. We
know also a portrait of François Copal’s brother, Antoni, in the
Rothschild Collection, Vienna, which Rembrandt painted in 1635. The
sitter of this portrait undoubtedly has a resemblance to the gentleman
in our picture, almost as much as the companion-piece resembles Saskia.
Is thus the theory too bold that the present portrait represents
François Copal and the companion-piece at Vienna, Titia, his wife?”
The portrait came to the present owner, Mr. Erickson, directly from
the famous Liechtenstein Collection, Vienna, purchased by Prince
Liechtenstein from the Marchesa Incontri, Florence. Previously the
picture had been in the Collections of the Comte Koucheleff Besborodko,
Paris; the Duc de Choiseul Praslin, Paris (1793), and B. da Costa, The
Hague (1752).
AN OLD LADY SEATED IN AN ARMCHAIR.
_Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606–1669)._
_Collection of the
Hon. Andrew W. Mellon._
This splendid portrait, oils on canvas (42½ × 35½ inches), takes rank
with Rembrandt’s famous study of _Elizabeth Bas_, widow of Admiral
Swartenhout, in the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. It is three-quarters
length, life-size, and signed on the left “Rembrandt F. 1643.” The
subject is seated in an arm-chair of red leather with her head turned
slightly to the left and she is looking in the same direction. She
wears a black costume with a tightly fitting jacket lined with fur, a
large flat, round, and gauffered ruff, and a flat, dark velvet cap. Her
arms rest easily on the arms of the chair and in the right hand she is
holding her eyeglasses, while the fingers of her left hand are placed
between the leaves of a large book--presumably a Bible, with silver
clasps and gilt edges,--a marvellous piece of still-life painting. The
background is dark of the brownish Rembrandt tone and the light falls
from the left upon the face of the sitter and upon her large ruff. Dr.
Bode, in speaking of the lighting of this remarkable portrait, says:
“A strong light falls on the broad, gauffered ruff and is reflected
on the more softly illuminated face; another ray of light touches the
hands with their small white cuffs. The dull red of the chair-back, the
subdued glint of the gold edges and silver clasps of the book relieve
the blackish tone of the picture almost imperceptibly. It takes a
special place among Rembrandt’s portraits by reason of its peculiarly
distinguished harmony. In arrangement and illumination it stands midway
between the St. Petersburg _Portrait of the Old Woman_ and the
numerous studies of old women painted between 1650 and 1660.”
[Illustration:
_Collection of the Hon. Andrew W. Mellon_
AN OLD LADY SEATED IN AN ARMCHAIR
--_Rembrandt van Rijn_]
The picture was sold in Amsterdam in 1764 and has passed through the
Collections of J. van der March, Amsterdam, 1773; M. Thelluson, Paris,
1777; an anonymous Parisian collection, 1788; M. C. A. de Calonne,
London, 1795; Mr. J. Allmutt, London, 1863; and M. Louis Lebeuf de
Montsgermont, Paris.
SIMEON AND MARY PRESENTING THE INFANT CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE.
_Rembrandt van Rijn
(1606–1669)._
_Collection of
Mr. Nils B. Hersloff._
This picture is interesting for two reasons. One, that it belonged to
Horace Walpole and hung for many years in _Strawberry Hill_; and
the other, that it is a recently discovered Rembrandt.
It would seem from the present documents that the picture is not many
stages away from the painter’s studio. In a case like this, it is best
to tell the story of the identification of this _Strawberry Hill_
picture with the Rembrandt studio picture in the words of those most
concerned in the matter.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Nils B. Hersloff_
SIMEON AND MARY PRESENTING THE INFANT CHRIST IN THE TEMPLE
--_Rembrandt van Rijn_]
But first let us read the interesting analysis written by the
Rembrandt specialist, Dr. Jan Veth, author of the _Life and Art of
Rembrandt_, published on the commemoration of the 300th anniversary
of his birth. This essay is dated Amsterdam, August 2, 1916, when this
picture from the Walpole Collection was discovered and sent to Holland.
Dr. Veth speaking:
“A rather large-sized picture, about 39½ × 31½ inches, has recently
been imported from England, a picture which one recognized without any
difficulty as being a late work by Rembrandt. This unknown work was
at first thought to be in a rather dilapidated condition. Evidently
long ago it had been relined by an unskilled hand, leaving the canvas
badly wrinkled in places. These have been easily removed, the picture
slightly restored and apart from a few local blemishes (nowhere
occurring in the vital parts) the beautifully crackled and original
coat of paint appears unimpaired. Many a museum piece giving the
impression of being in a perfect state of preservation is, in reality,
much less intact than this Rembrandt.
“The figure of Simeon in the picture reminds us to a certain extent
of the figure of _Homer_ in the Collection of Dr. Bredius, but the
handling of the paint is more certain, the head firmer and more
plastic. In his later period, where his old men bear so much of a
resemblance to each other, it was not necessary that Rembrandt should
always use the same models. The character, however, of this Simeon
is akin to that of _St. Matthew_ in the Louvre, to the father in the
_Prodigal Son_ in Petrograd, to the man behind _Pilate_ in the picture
in New York, Altman Collection, and to the _Haman_ in the Collection of
the King of Roumania.
“For the rest, the peculiar expression of Simeon’s rugged and full
bearded countenance can be traced quite easily in that dark, majestic
etching of the _Presentation in the Temple_ with the exception that the
head in the etching leans slightly more backward. Simeon’s expression
depicts in a striking manner the decrepit old man to whom the divine
revelation was made, and who, after walking into the Temple, seeing the
Child and taking Him into his arms, said: ‘Lord, now lettest Thou Thy
servant depart in peace, according to Thy word: For mine eyes have seen
Thy salvation, which Thou hast prepared before the face of all people:
A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy people, Israel.’
Luke II, 29–32.
“The hermit-like old man wears a wide gold-colored leather mantle. Full
of devotion he is holding the Christ Child, without touching Him with
his long and stiffened hands.
“The little face appears foreshortened and recalls to one’s mind the
strange drawing of the uplifted face of the young Jesus where he walks
between his parents in that remarkable etching of the _Return from the
Temple_. Close to Simeon and behind, stands Mary, the inclination of
the head and attitude identical with the Virgin in the etching of the
_Presentation_. Over her head she wears a wide, drooping hood, and the
greater part of her face--a face of no ordinary maternity and with
something of the grandeur so characteristic in Mantegna’s Madonnas--is
deeply enveloped in shadows. In contrast with the bronze-like, warm
color of the ancient man, she appears cool in tone, the neck only
illuminated like enamel against the sombre purple of her frock.
“The group is composed without any additional accessory to distract
or allure the spectator, being placed against a background deep and
sombre, a great and connected whole. Throughout, the handling of the
paint is full and direct without any small or useless accents, a great
design treated like sculpture. The stronger colors of brown and red are
dissolved in a sombre tone of bronze and with that singular mixture of
smothered lights and cave-like half-tones and shadows which give the
true expression of the quiet and pathetic event.
“Out of the whole tonality emerges first the powerful head of the old
Seer, then the suppressed light of the strange Infant, and finally the
beautiful sibyl-like Mary. The picture is full of that inner power
of expression which Millet would have admired and Israels would have
revelled in.
“In Holland we can point to more complete, perhaps more pompous and
more brilliant, Rembrandts, but a picture by the master of such
wonderful simplicity and at once of such great eloquence we hardly know
of in this country.”
Turning to the Dutch records we learn the following:
“The desire to obtain the minutest detail of information about
Rembrandt’s life and works, and perhaps with a wish to discover some
allusion to his pictures, has led such men as Dr. Bredius to search
among the old Dutch archives for records of ancient deeds in the
registries of Amsterdam and near-by towns and villages. This has been
no light task, for besides the numberless documents to be examined,
the difficulties of deciphering the curious legal language used in
the Seventeenth Century had to be combatted. Dr. Bredius’s efforts,
however, were rewarded, when, about ten years ago he discovered an
ancient deed relating directly to a painting by Rembrandt, and dated
May 12, 1671 (two years after his death), signed before a notary named
J. De Winter of Amsterdam. The document so unearthed threw light upon
a picture entitled _Simeon_, of which no record had up to the time of
Dr. Bredius’s discovery, been known. Dr. Bredius deemed the subject so
interesting that he wrote an article dealing with _The Last Year of
Rembrandt’s Life_, which appeared in _Oud-Holland_ in 1909.”
Now we go to the number of _Oud-Holland_ and take this extract.
Dr. Bredius speaking:
“Although we have learned much of the last years of Rembrandt’s life,
of the very last and perhaps the saddest year of that rich life, we
have learned little up to the present time. Only one work, that of
his own portrait in the collection of Sir Audley Neeld in Griffleton
House, seems to bear the date of 1669. We have no other picture and no
etching, and in this portrait the master appears so feeble that we had
begun to believe that Rembrandt worked but little in the last year of
his life.
“That he was, however, still working and planned to do some etchings
and also that there was a picture on his easel shortly before he died,
is proven by an old deed I have recently discovered. Short as this may
be, it nevertheless gives us much important information. Among other
things it is new to us _that Rembrandt was working up to the time of
his death_, and that Dirck van Cattenburch, a gentleman dealer with
his brother, Otto, as far back as 1654, had business connections with
Rembrandt. And here we see the aged master, as often happened and still
happens with artists, more or less in the hands of the Art-dealer, who
pays for the work before it is finished.
“Perhaps Rembrandt really considered his _Simeon_ a finished picture,
but the buyers probably did not, and looked upon his broadly painted
canvases of his latest period as not being ‘entirely finished.’ We are
not acquainted with any _Simeon_ of his last period.[23] It is also
interesting to note from the deed that the artist planned to make a
series of etchings of the _Passion_, a subject which always attracted
him and of which he made some of his most wonderful plates. Deed: May
12, 1671, Appeared before me, Allart van Everdingen, age about fifty
years and Cornelius van Everdingen, age twenty-five years, both artists
living in this town, and on request of Dirck van Cattenburch, do hereby
declare that Allart van Everdingen, a few months before the death of
Rembrandt van Rijn, artist, had a conversation as to the settling of a
painting representing Simeon, painted by the aforesaid Rembrandt van
Rijn, not yet entirely finished, owned by Dirck van Cattenburch and
being in Rembrandt’s house.
“That he, witness, went to see and examine the aforesaid picture in the
house of van Rijn, who told him at the time that the picture was owned
by said Dirck van Cattenburch. The aforesaid Cornelius van Everdingen
further declares that he went up to Rembrandt’s studio several times,
where, on each occasion, he saw and examined the said picture,
which was discussed by them, Rembrandt declaring that the picture
was owned by Dirck van Cattenburch. Also that Rembrandt had several
polished plates owned by Dirck van Cattenburch in order to engrave the
_Passion_.
Signed Allart van Everdingen
Signed Cornelius van Everdingen.”
“It is interesting to note that Allart van Everdingen was a well-known
painter of the time of Rembrandt and that he was born in 1612. He
excelled in painting rocky landscapes. He also executed sea-pieces and
storms with such surprising effect and spirit that his work entitled
him to the appellation, the ‘Salvator Rosa of the North.’ Allart van
Everdingen was also an etcher of repute and in this work there must
have existed a bond of sympathy between Rembrandt and himself. He
died in 1675, six years after the death of the master. His works are
represented in all the great museums. Cornelius van Everdingen, his
son, was also an artist, but not so universally known as his more
brilliant father.”
Now then we turn to another Dutch authority to continue the story:
“Dr. Bredius, by the remarkable discovery of the ancient deed, had
established the fact that a certain picture of _Simeon_ (always
identified in Art with _The Presentation in the Temple_) was in
Rembrandt’s studio a few months before his death. But what had become
of the picture there was nothing to show, none of the great biographers
of the artist has ever classified a work of this subject dating from
his last period.
“And now commence the most interesting events connected with the
picture under consideration. Many inquiries were instituted. Dr.
Bredius, from his rich stock of material bearing upon the master,
searched exhaustively for some indication where the picture might be
found. The known and unknown private and public collections of Europe
and even America were examined through and through, until at last his
efforts were rewarded and nine years after the discovery of the deed
and his subsequent article, the picture was recognized and acclaimed as
the lost _Simeon_.
“The painting was found in the collection of a nobleman in England, and
although it had lain neglected for centuries there could be no possible
doubt that it was the picture of _Simeon_ referred to in the deed.
“This discovery occurred in the year 1916, at a time when the world was
in the midst of the Great War; but such was the importance of the find
that the masterpiece was sent at once to Holland, there to be admired
by all of the great Rembrandt authorities.”
Critics have called attention to the fact that the _first_ important
picture painted by Rembrandt was _Simeon in the Temple_ which is now
in the Mauritshuis, The Hague, and which is also called _Presentation
in the Temple_. It is a little strange that the _last_ picture should
have been on the same subject. Yet any one can see they are by the same
hand. In the Hague picture it is beneath the high roof of a temple
that the Virgin and St. Joseph make the offering and present the Holy
Child to the Lord. Simeon, in a robe glittering with gold, holds the
Holy Child and the High Priest stands in front of the group, his hands
lifted in ecstasy. The latter’s robe of violet makes a beautiful note
of color which is carried through the lights and shadows and which
contrasts and harmonizes, too, with the Virgin’s dress of light blue.
In the vaporous distance persons are seen ascending and descending the
steps. All the light is concentrated on the central group and the cold,
mysterious depths of the vast fane are expressed with marvellous skill.
_Homer Reciting his Poems_, also in the Hague Gallery, representing an
old man in a yellow robe, has the face of the _Strawberry Hill Simeon_
and _Homer_ was painted in 1663. It could be possible that the same
model was used for _Homer_ and the _Strawberry Hill Simeon_.
How did Horace Walpole get this Rembrandt?
The information that we gain from the Catalogue of the _Strawberry
Hill_ Collection issued when Earl Waldegrave sold the contents of
_Strawberry Hill_ at Covent Garden in 1842 is rather tantalizing
than otherwise.
The items read as follows.
On Page XVII of prefatory remarks:
“A Fine Rembrandt (No. 100) and a Nicholas Poussin adorn this end of
the chamber. Page 204. The great North Bed Chamber: No. 100. _The
Presentation in the Temple_, displaying all the power of light and
shade so peculiar to this great master, Rembrandt.
“The above two pictures No. 99 and 100 were bought from a very old
gentlewoman for whose grandfather they had been painted, and till then
had never been taken out of their old black frames and are still in
their pure and genuine state.”
Was the “very old gentlewoman” the grand-daughter of Dirck van
Cattenburch?
PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER.
_Frans Hals
(1580?–1666)._
_Collection of
Mr. Henry Goldman._
The subject, which we might almost call a Dutch Falstaff, is seated
in a chair on the arm of which he rests his right elbow, while he
seems to be grasping a stick with his hand. The left hand is hidden.
Beneath his large grey felt hat with its wide turned-up brim a few
locks of straggly grey hair are visible. His doublet is of grey silk
with a dotted pattern (long anticipating the “Polka Dot” of the
early Nineteenth Century), a surcoat of buff leather, and a broad,
flat collar, trimmed with handsome and heavy lace, worn over a metal
breast-plate. The Officer looks directly at us with a half-humorous,
half-suspicious glance,--one of those characteristic Frans Hals’s
expressions.
The picture, oils on canvas (32½ × 25¾) bears the monogram F. H. and
the words “Ætat 55. A. 1637.” It was sold from the Collection of Mr. J.
H. Töpfer in Amsterdam in 1841 and then it was in the Collection of Sir
Edgar Vincent (Lord d’Abercorn) at Esher.
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. Henry Goldman_
PORTRAIT OF AN OFFICER
--_Frans Hals_]
Frans Hals (1580?–1666), one of the greatest masters of painting, was
born in Antwerp, where his parents (natives of Haarlem, and of good
lineage), are supposed to have gone because of political disturbances
of the time. It seems that Hals was settled in Haarlem before 1591,
busily painting, and he lived there all the rest of his life. In
1637 he came under Rembrandt’s influence in Amsterdam. Hals’s life
was rather disgraceful and went from bad to worse until poverty and
comparative oblivion compelled him to accept charity. He died in
Haarlem in 1666, leaving a great many followers. The real life of the
man is to be found in such works as _The Laughing Cavalier_ in
the Wallace Collection and those vagabonds, lute-players, topers, and
other rascals that belong to the same class as Autolycus, Launcelot
Gobbo, Touchstone, Dogberry, Sir Toby Belch, Falstaff and our other
much-prized, although disreputable, Shakespearian low-comedy characters.
Hals always accomplished his work by the greatest economy of means. A
few broad, rapid, and unhesitating strokes, or _swipes_, of the
brush, a dot here and there of light,--and that is all!
Everything that Hals painted shows his dazzling genius, his astounding
instinct for striking effects, and his marvellous ability for catching
a likeness. Hals never worked out his ideas: he left no sketches, nor
studies. His extraordinary power of quick analysis with the eye and the
gift his hand had for expressing what his eye had seen, combined with a
rapid, sure, and skilled technique rank Hals as a master among masters.
Moreover, he had a keen and gay humor. No painter has ever been able
like Hals to render the face in action and to fix forever, a rapid and
fleeting expression on canvas. He loved to catch and make permanent a
wink, a smile, a leer, or even hearty laughter.
Frans Hals was a genius at portraiture. Those who have seen the large
number of Hals’s _Doelen_ pictures in the Town Hall of Haarlem,
each canvas containing from fourteen to twenty life-size portraits,
stand aghast at the power represented in just this one phase of his art.
When we look upon these pictures 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 scarves. Flags flutter,
spears glitter, spurs and swords clink and rattle and flash in the
sunlight; and plumes on the large hats nod in the breeze, or with the
motions of these men’s bodies. Loud talk and bursts of laughter seem
to issue from the frames. These convivial men have fought against the
hated Spaniard and are ready “to trail a pike” again at any moment. A
gallant and a jovial crowd,--these Arquebusiers of St. George and St.
Andrew!
The artist was commanded to paint each man accurately and according to
his rank in the Company; and Hals did more than fill his order,--he
made each and every man _live_.
THE LAUGHING MANDOLIN PLAYER.
_Frans Hals
(1580–1666)._
_Collection of
Mr. John R. Thompson._
Here is a half-figure of a young man seated, turning his head towards
the spectator, and laughing merrily as he holds up a glass of wine in
his right hand. His mandolin is lying on the table beside him and his
left fingers close around its neck. He wears a dark cloak lined with
blue and a large black cap thrown carelessly at the side of his head
and his hair is unkempt and straggly. But what cares he? He has sung
his song and played his tune and has been rewarded well,--well enough,
indeed, to have a glass of good wine. So no wonder he laughs! Life is a
joke anyway--“So here’s to the company and thank you, gentlemen!”
[Illustration:
_Collection of Mr. John R. Thompson_
THE LAUGHING MANDOLIN PLAYER
--_Frans Hals_]
The picture is an oil painting on panel (36 × 30 inches), and is signed
with the monogram F. H.
The _Laughing Mandolin Player_ belonged to the Capello Collection,
Amsterdam, from which it was sold in 1767, and then it passed to Count
Bonde, Stockholm; to Jules Porges, Paris; to the late Baron Ferdinand
de Rothschild, Waddeston Manor, England; and to M. A. Veil-Picard,
Paris.
A MUSIC PARTY.
_Pieter de Hoogh
(1629–1677?)._
_Collection of
Mrs. John N. Willys._