The Netherlands representation is conspicuous for its conservative note,
together with the absence of any single picture which might unduly
excite one by its merit. I do not wish to prejudice the art lover who
strolls into this well appointed section, but coming from Sweden, as we
do, so to speak, since it is Sweden's next door neighbor, it gives one
rather a shock. Most of the Dutch pictures are good, almost too good, in
their academic conventional repetition of the timeworn subjects we have
been in the habit of seeing for the last twenty years. The Swedish
section is full of real thrills, but the complacency of the Netherlands
section can hardly be explained by their national temperament alone.
While the Swedish people seem to be blessed just now with an unusual
number of men of great gifts in the field of art, the Netherlands have
entered into what I hope will be only an interregnum of not overly
original painters. The last quarter of the last century saw their glory
in the careers of men like the elder Israels, the Mesdags, the Maris,
Jacob and Willem, Bosbom, Mauve, Weissenbruch, Poggenbeck, and many
others who have departed during the last ten years, or who, if still
living, have scarcely maintained their high standards of earlier days.
The most illustrious name among the older men is Willem Mesdag, who can
hardly be expected at his age to be doing his best. Speaking of Mesdag,
one of their best marine painters of the older days, one is forcibly
reminded of the fact that though a people of the sea the Dutch do not
seem to possess a single strong marine painter. One looks in vain for
any pictures of the open sea reflecting the seafaring traditions and
activities of the Dutch, and if it were not for Mastenbroek's masterly
harbor pictures, one would have to console oneself over this lack of the
briny element with a view of the Amsterdam Marine Aquarium.
Mastenbroek's big canvas is full of life and well painted. It shows the
harbor of Rotterdam animated by a host of vessels of all kinds and
descriptions. While there is a fine feeling of loose accidental
arrangement about this big picture, it is nevertheless well composed.
His small canvas in the adjoining gallery is technically superb, and to
my mind the best canvas in the whole Dutch show. In the middle of the
same wall Gorter's very decorative autumnal landscape, of a group of
beech-trees, commends itself by an unusual feeling for colour and
design, so lacking in the two almost monochromatic, untemperamental
Witsens on either side. Almost opposite in the same gallery, the most
western in the Netherlands section, hangs a broadly painted canvas by
Breitner, of the timber harbor of Amsterdam. It is not so original a
subject as one is accustomed to see from Breitner, but fully deserving
of the best place on the wall. Thérèse van Duyl-Schwartze's portrait
alongside is equal to her usual performances, and very broad in style
and full of vigor. Jurres' "Don Quixote", Goedvriend's little canvas,
and Bauer's "Oriental Equestrian" should all be mentioned in this
gallery.
In the middle gallery, on the right of the big Mastenbroek, Christian
Addicks' "Mother and Child" charms by its richness of colouring, while
in the left corner hangs a very decorative still-life in the best manner
of such old Dutch painters as Hondekoeter. Nicolaas Bastert has a
typical Dutch canal, and Willy Sluiter a good study of a Volendam
fisherman. One gallery is entirely devoted to etchings, woodcuts, and
mezzotints, and the standard maintained in this gallery is high.
Martinus Bauer's three etchings are among the finest to be seen anywhere
in the exhibition, and the work of Harting, van Hoytema, and Haverman do
not fall much below his standard. There is young Israels (Isaac) with
some very snappy sketches. Nieuwenkamp is intensely interesting in the
few things he has there, with a certain sense of humor which is
conspicuous for its absence in most Dutch work. The woodcuts of Veldheer
are vital and unusually free from any academic feeling. Considering the
relative size of the Netherlands, they have a remarkably large number of
artists, but scarcely of sufficient bigness of caliber and independence
of character to live up to the traditions of this people.