Chapter D: G. ROSSETTI: Sonnets and Ballads.187 (1)

This picture was at one time attributed to Domenico Ghirlandajo; and Signor Frizzoni now attributes it to Granacci. But, says Sir Edward Poynter, "the beauty of the figures, the nobility of the heads, and the fine qualities of drawing and modelling stamp it as the work of the great master himself." "In my judgment," says Symonds (_Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti_, i. 65), "this is the most beautiful of the easel pictures attributed to Michelangelo.... Florentine painters had been wont to place attendant angels at both sides of their enthroned Madonnas. But their angels were winged and clothed like acolytes; the Madonna was seated on a rich throne or under a canopy, with altar-candles, wreaths of roses, flowering lilies. It is characteristic of Michelangelo to adopt a conventional motive, and to treat it with brusque originality. In this picture there are no accessories to the figures, and the attendant angels are Tuscan lads half draped in succinct tunics. The types have not been chosen with regard to ideal loveliness or dignity, but accurately studied from living models. This is very obvious in the heads of Christ and St. John. The two adolescent genii on the right hand possess a high degree of natural grace. Yet even here what strikes one most is the charm of their attitude, the lovely interlacing of their arms and breasts, the lithe alertness of the one lad contrasted with the thoughtful leaning languor of his comrade. Only perhaps in some drawings of combined male figures made by Ingres, for his picture of the 'Golden Age,' have lines of equal dignity and simple beauty been developed."

810. PARDON DAY IN BRITTANY.

_Charles Poussin_ (French: born 1819).

M. Pierre Charles Poussin, a pupil of L. Cogniet, was an
exhibitor at the French _Salon_ from 1842 to 1882. Many of his
pictures were, like this one, of scenes in Brittany.

The scene is that of a fête held in honour of _Notre Dame de Bon Secours_ of Guingamp in Brittany, on the 2nd of July in every year. Pope Paul V. in 1619 granted a plenary indulgence to all persons "who truly confessed and communicated, who shall visit the said church of Notre Dame de Guingamp on the day and fête of the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which it is the custom every year to celebrate on the 2nd day of July; who shall devotionally pray for the preservation of concord and peace among all Christian princes; who shall render hospitality to the poor pilgrims; who shall make peace with their enemies, and shall promote it amongst others--shall, in short, sweetly bring into the way of salvation some unfortunate and erring soul." An English visitor published a long account of the fête in the _Standard_ of July 5 and following days in 1870, describing "the frank but sedate festivity and merry-making under the trees." That was twenty years after this picture was painted.

811. TOBIAS AND THE ANGEL.

_Salvator Rosa_ (Neapolitan: 1615-1673). _See under 84._

For the subject of Tobias, who is in the water holding the fish, see 781. The wild rocky landscape conveys a general sense of savage power. Salvator, says Ruskin, is "a good instance of vicious execution, dependent on too great fondness for sensations of power, vicious because intrusive and attractive in itself, instead of being subordinate to the results and forgotten in them" (_Modern Painters_, vol. i. pt. i. sec. ii. ch. ii. § 9).

812. THE DEATH OF ST. PETER MARTYR.

_Giovanni Bellini_[188] (Venetian: 1426-1516). _See 189._

"Peter Martyr was general of the Dominicans in 1252, a most
powerful person in the Holy Inquisition, and a violent
persecutor for what he deemed the true faith, which made him
many inveterate enemies. There was one family in particular
which he had treated with excessive cruelty, and their
relations, who were in the army, were so enraged by Peter's
barbarity that they resolved to revenge themselves.... Having
been informed that he was to make a visit to a distant province
in pursuit of some wretched heretics, who had been denounced to
the inquisition, they lay in wait for him in a wood, through
which they knew he must pass, in company with one person, a
friar of his convent; here they attacked him, cleft his skull
with a sabre, and left him dead on the spot" (Mrs. Jameson;
_Handbook to the Public Galleries_, 1842, i. 70).

This picture, one of the painter's latest works, is interesting, first, for its skill in landscape. It is a true piece of local scenery that Bellini paints,--"all Italian in masses of intricate wood and foliage, in plain, mountain, and buildings, and glowing, not under direct sunshine, but with the soft suffusion of southern light" (_Layard_, i. 312). It is, says Ruskin, one of the six most beautiful landscapes in the earlier mediæval art, of the "purist" school, "being wholly felicitous and enjoyable." Every leaf is painted with loving care, and Bellini treats the incident in the foreground as "entirely cheerful and pleasing; it does not disturb or even surprise him, much less displease in the slightest degree." "You see in a moment the main characteristic of the school,--that it mattered not in the least to John, and that he doesn't expect it to matter to you, whether people are martyred or not, so long as one can make a pretty grey of their gown, and a nice white of their sleeves, and infinite decoration of forest leaves behind, and a divine picture at last out of all. Everything in the world was done and made only that it might be rightly painted--that is the true master's creed" (_Verona and its Rivers_, § 27, and _Lectures on Landscape_, pp. 22, 65, 73).[189] Notice, further, Bellini's compliance, as far as the subject admitted, with one of the conditions of the greatest art, "serenity in state or action." "You are to be interested in the living creatures; not in what is happening to them.... It is not possible, of course, always literally to observe this condition, that there shall be quiet action or none; but Bellini's treatment of violence in action you may see exemplified in a notable way in his "St. Peter Martyr." The soldier is indeed striking the sword down into his breast; but in the face of the Saint is only resignation and faintness of death, not pain--that of the executioner is impassive; and while a painter of the later schools would have covered breast and sword with blood, Bellini allows no stain of it; but pleases himself with most elaborate and exquisite painting of a soft crimson feather in the executioner's helmet" (_Relation between Michael Angelo and Tintoret_, p. 16).

814. DUTCH BOATS IN A CALM.

_P. J. Clays_ (Belgian: 1818-1900).

Paul Jean Clays was a native of Bruges. He studied art in Paris
under Gudin, and afterwards settled at Brussels, where in 1851
he received a gold medal. He frequently exhibited at the
French _Salon_, and was a chevalier of the Legion of Honour as
well as of the Order of Leopold. For a long time, says a French
critic, "the sea, or rather the water, has had no interpreter
more exact than Clays: he knows its clearness, and he knows how
to render the little noisy waves, all bathed in light." "He
does not paint the sea," says another, "but the Scheldt where
it widens, and those gray and light waters that bear you on a
steamer from Moerdyk to Rotterdam. With a profound feeling for
these things he expresses the humidity of the skies of Western
Flanders, the sleep of the calmed waters, or the caressing, and
sometimes menacing, of the breeze which makes the little uneasy
waves stride around the barges loaded to the brim." Some of his
pictures have fetched very large prices--one having sold in New
York for £3550 (Miss Clement and Laurence Hutton: _Artists of
the Nineteenth Century_).

815. DUTCH BOATS AT FLUSHING.

_P. J. Clays_ (Belgian: 1818-1900). _See 814._

816. THE INCREDULITY OF ST. THOMAS.

_Cima da Conegliano_ (Venetian: 1460-1518). _See 300._

A picture interesting among other things for its history. It is signed and dated (1504), and was painted as a commission for a religious fraternity, for the altar of their patron saint, St. Thomas, in the church of St. Francesco at Portogruario (near Conegliano). The price paid for it was equal to about £17 sterling, at that time representing a considerable sum. The account of its cost and of a law-suit instituted by the painter against the fraternity is still preserved. For 328 years it remained in its original place; it was then removed by the local authorities, and in 1870 was sold to our Government. When bought it "was greatly disfigured by various repaints, and was otherwise in bad condition. Judicious cleaning and restoration (by Mr. Wm. Dyer) have brought out its fine qualities. The heads are highly expressive, and some of the figures ... of great dignity" (_Layard_, i. 325).

817. TENIERS'S COUNTRY-SEAT AT PERCK.

_Teniers_ (Flemish: 1600-1694). _See 154._

"A perfect type of the Unromantic Art which was assailed by the gentle enthusiasm of the English School of Landscape. It represents a few ordinary Dutch houses, an ordinary Dutch steeple or two, some still more ordinary Dutch trees, and most ordinary Dutch clouds, assembled in contemplation of an ordinary Dutch duck-pond; or, perhaps, in respect of size, we may more courteously call it a goose-pond. All these objects are painted either gray or brown, and the atmosphere is of the kind which looks not merely as if the sun had disappeared for the day, but as if he had gone out altogether, and left a stable lantern instead. The total effect having appeared, even to the painter's own mind, at last little exhilatory, he has enlivened it by three figures on the brink of the goose-pond--two gentlemen and a lady,--standing all three perfectly upright, side by side, in court dress, the gentlemen with expansive boots, and all with conical hats and high features. In order to invest those characters with dramatic interest, a rustic fisherman presents to them, as a tribute,--or, perhaps, exhibits as a natural curiosity,--a large fish, just elicited from the goose-pond by his adventurous companions, who have waded into the middle of it, every one of them, with singular exactitude, up to the calf of his leg" (_Art of England_, pp. 209, 211). The group on the left comprise the painter and his wife, another lady, and his son.

818. COAST SCENE.

_Bakhuizen_ (Dutch: 1631-1708). _See 204._

819. OFF THE MOUTH OF THE THAMES.

_Bakhuizen_ (Dutch: 1631-1708). _See 204._

On representations of rough weather by this painter and Vandevelde, Ruskin writes as follows: "If one could but arrest the connoisseurs in the fact of looking at them with belief, and, magically introducing the image of a true sea-wave, let it roll up through the room,--one massive fathom's height and rood's breadth of brine, passing them by but once,--dividing, Red-Sea like, on right hand and left,--but at least setting close before their eyes, for once in inevitable truth, what a sea-wave really is; its green mountainous giddiness of wrath, its overwhelming crest--heavy as iron, fitful as flame, clashing against the sky in long cloven edge,--its furrowed flanks all ghastly clear, deep in transparent death, but all laced across with lurid nets of spume, and tearing open into meshed interstices their churned veil of silver fury, showing still the calm gray abyss below; that has no fury and no voice, but is as a grave always open, which the green sighing mounds do but hide for an instant as they pass. Would they, shuddering back from this wave of the true, implacable sea, turn forthwith to the papillotes? It might be so. It is what we are all doing, more or less, continually" (_Harbours of England_, p. 19). In default of the actual sea-wave, the visitor may be recommended to look next at Turner's rough seas (472 and 476). Such a comparison will show how much of the roughness in the Dutch pictures is due to mere blackness, how little to any terror in the forms of the waves, such as Turner depicts.

820. LANDSCAPE WITH RUIN.

_Berchem_ (Dutch: 1620-1683). _See 78._

821. A FAMILY GROUP.

_Gonzales Coques_ (Flemish: 1618-1684).

In spite of his Spanish-sounding name, this artist was a pure
Fleming. He was born at Antwerp and appears never to have left
his native town. His father, whose surname was Cocx, gave the
child the name of Gonzalvus: these names the painter afterwards
changed to Gonzales Coques. His first master was Peter Breughel
(the third painter of that name). He afterwards studied under
David Ryckhaert the Elder, whose daughter he married. His first
subjects were conversation-pieces and assemblies; but the
extraordinary reputation acquired by Van Dyck for his portraits
inspired Coques with the ambition to distinguish himself in
like manner, although on a smaller scale. There is in the
little works of Coques the same air of elegance and refinement
which distinguishes Van Dyck. Hence he has been called "the
Little Van Dyck." His works, says Bürger, are "Van Dycks seen
through the wrong side of the glass"; or as another critic puts
it, "Van Dycks in 18mo." They were greatly admired during his
lifetime, and he was patronised by Charles I., the Archduke
Leopold, and the Prince of Orange. His works, however, are very
rare; about half of them are in this country. He was admitted
as a master in the Guild of Painters in 1640-41, and twice
served as its Dean, in 1665-66 and 1680-81.

Notice the youngest child in the go-cart, which is being pushed by another of the children, whilst the eldest sister, as befits her years, is playing the guitar. And the little dogs, as befits them, are sporting in front. It is pretty of the painter or his sitters to include them in the family group.

822. AN EVENING LANDSCAPE.

_Cuyp_ (Dutch: 1620-1691). _See 53._

An excellent example of the hazy, drowsy effect in which Cuyp excelled. "A brewer by trade,[190] he feels the quiet of a summer afternoon, and his work will make you marvellously drowsy. It is good for nothing else that I know of; strong, but unhelpful and unthoughtful. Nothing happens in his pictures, except some indifferent persons asking the way of somebody else, who, by the cast of countenance, seems not likely to know it. For further entertainment, perhaps, a red cow and a white one; or puppies at play, not playfully; the man's heart not going even with the puppies. Essentially he sees nothing but the shine on the flaps of their ears" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. chap. vi. § 12).

823. ON THE MEUSE.

_Cuyp_ (Dutch: 1620-1691). _See 53._

Notice the reflections. Cuyp "is a man of large natural gift, and sees broadly, nay, even seriously; finds out--a wonderful thing for men to find out in those days--that there are reflections in the water, and that boats require often to be painted upside down" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 12).

824. A RUINED CASTLE.

_Cuyp_ (Dutch: 1620-1691). _See 53._

The castle may be the same as that seen in No. 1289. Some lines from Beattie's "Scotland" have been applied to it:--

Behold our lakes ...
Each girdled with its mountain belt
Of rock and tower and forest trees,
And gemmed with island sanctuaries
Like floating palaces, they seem
The elysium of a poet's dream.

This picture was originally bought at Horn, in the Netherlands, of an old clothesman, for 1s. 3d. Sir Robert Peel paid 350 guineas for it.

825. THE POULTERER'S SHOP.

_Gerard Dou_ (Dutch: 1613-1675). _See 192._

This picture, as an acknowledged _chef d'oeuvre_ of the master, has long been celebrated. It was purchased by Sir Robert Peel from the Fonthill Collection in 1823 for £1270. Mrs. Jameson, on seeing the picture at Sir R. Peel's, wrote: "All executed with such a nicety of touch--such an inconceivable truth and minuteness of imitation--as to render the picture a very miracle of art. A higher merit consists in the admirable painting of the heads, especially that of the old woman, which is full of life." "A wicker market-basket is a common homely thing, but look at its presentment here--every polished, well-used twig of it following the true undulations of form and colour, light and shade, through the marvellous patience and skill of the vanished Dutchman--and see if it does not produce an exquisite poetic tremor by the thoughts it evolves. There is a dead image of the barnyard cock which Mr. Darwin may compare with the barndoor fowl of to-day as accurately as if it were photographed. His once fiery eye is glazed and sightless as a dim pearl, his neck feathers ruffled but no longer in anger or pride; his pale, amber-coloured legs helplessly and ingloriously reversed, their impatient and masterful scratching among his dames in the stubble over for ever; the glossy purples, greens, and blacks of his tail-feathers rising sharp and delicate out of the speckled hazes of colour which it required days and days to lay side by side among the crushed and crowding plumes. The cock, the horologe of Thorpe's light, crows no more to the answering hill-farms. He is destined for the spit of the housewife who holds up the hare. But his fate was glorious, for by what tens of thousands since the year 1650 or thereabouts have his perfections been admired and praised. It was worth living for, and, to chanticleer, worth dying for, to become the occasion of such a miracle of art" (Smetham's _Literary Works_, p. 240).

826. FIGURES AND ANIMALS.

827. FORDING THE STREAM.

828. LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE.

_Karel du Jardin_ (Dutch: 1622-1678).

This painter was the ablest of the followers of Nicolas
Berchem, and like that master often painted Italian scenery. He
stayed for some years in Rome, where his pictures were greatly
admired, and where, in the jovial artist circles of the day,
he was given the nickname of "Barbe de Bouc" (goat's-beard).
On his return from Italy he is said to have stayed some time
at Lyons, where he married a widow with whom he afterwards
settled in Holland. He resided at the Hague from 1656 to 1659,
and there was much influenced by the example of Paul Potter.
He next moved to Amsterdam, which he made his home for some
years. He returned in the end to the Italian haunts of his
early years, and died at Venice. In his best pastoral works,
the truth and finish of his execution, the brilliancy of their
atmosphere, and the harmonious colouring, are attractive. He
also painted portraits and large groups, and executed some good
etchings.

It has been said of Du Jardin that his works are "excellent when they are not detestable," a remark which is well exemplified in these pictures. No. 827 is at once vulgar in incident and unpleasant in colour. No. 826, on the other hand, one of the pastoral idyls for which Du Jardin is famous, is a _chef d'oeuvre_ of the painter (Sir Robert Peel paid 930 guineas for it). No. 828 has a true Italian air, and there is a touch of almost pathetic humour in the contrast between the cow and the woman. It is the beast that has its eyes on the sunset and enjoys the benediction of the evening hour. The woman is cumbered with much serving, and spins with her back to the light.

829. A STAG HUNT.

_Jan Hackaert_ (Dutch: 1629-1696).

Hackaert was a native of Amsterdam, but between the years
1653 and 1658 he travelled much in Switzerland, Germany, and
Italy. At this time he chose his subjects from the mountains.
In painting the landscape of his own country he especially
affected woodland views, with effects of light shining through
the trees.

The figures in this picture are attributed to N. Berchem.

830. THE AVENUE, MIDDELHARNIS.

_Hobbema_ (Dutch: 1638-1709). _See 685._

Perhaps the best rendering of a Dutch village in the Gallery--beautiful alike in its general effect and in the faithful way in which every characteristic of the country is brought out. Note the long avenue, a High Street, as it were, of lopped trees, to lead the traveller to the village; the bright red roofs, suggestive already in the distance of the cheerful cleanliness he will find; the broad ditch on either side of the road--the land reclaimed from the water, and the water now embanked to fertilise the land; the neat plantations, allotments it may be, each as trim and well kept as a lawn; and lastly, the nursery-garden on the left, in which the gardener, smoking, like the true Hollander, as he works, is pruning some grafted trees. Middelharnis is one of several places that dispute the honour of being Hobbema's birthplace.

This picture--which is signed, and dated 16-9 (third figure illegible)--is generally recognised as the painter's masterpiece. The subject is unusual, showing a more open landscape and a wider expanse of sky than Hobbema ordinarily represented. The power and freshness with which he has treated the theme are remarkable. "Such daylight," says Waagen, "I have never seen in any picture." It is to be noted further that the artist makes no effort to attain the picturesque, and that the picture offends in some respects against the laws of composition. Thus "M. Michel complains of the road coming straight, at once cutting the picture awkwardly in two, of the slender trees with which it is symmetrically bordered, and which have on their tops only small plumes of foliage, of the parallel ditches which hold in the road on either side, and of the cross-road which cuts the picture horizontally, and lastly, the rose-trees and shrubs planted regularly in straight lines. All this, he says, does not make a very picturesque picture. For our own part, it is the fearless and truthful manner in which Hobbema has treated what must at first sight have appeared an unpromising subject, that is one of its greatest charms" (Cundall: _The Landscape Painters of Holland_, p. 53). Like Hobbema's pictures generally, this masterpiece was held in little honour in its own country. It was sold at Dort in 1815 for £90. Sir Robert Peel bought it in 1829 for £800. It is said to have been restored and retouched by Reinagle (see Mrs. Jameson's _Handbook to the Private Galleries of London_, p. 354 _n._).

831. THE RUINS OF BREDERODE CASTLE.

_Hobbema_ (Dutch: 1638-1709). _See 685._

This fine picture also is somewhat unusual in subject for Hobbema, who was ordinarily content with humble village scenes. It affords a good instance of his literal truth to nature. M. Michel, in his monograph on the painter, gives side by side a reproduction of it and a sketch from his own pen of the ruins as they exist to-day, which, with the exception of the addition of a modern barbaric bell-turret and some battlements, preserve almost the identical appearance which Hobbema portrayed upwards of two centuries ago. "The ivy continues to entwine its garlands round the disjointed bricks, and, as formerly, the ducks sport in the stagnant waters of the moat, or take a luxurious siesta amidst the tufts of grass on its banks, while the rooks and crows, installed as masters in the recesses of the ancient walls, fill the air with their incessant cries" (quoted in Cundall's _Landscape and Pastoral Painters of Holland_, 1891, p. 52). The ducks[191] are ascribed to Wyntrank; the figures to Lingelbach. The picture is signed, and dated 1667. It was, however, at one time re-christened as a Wijnants, in order to procure a better price at auctions. In 1825 it sold for £880.

832. A VILLAGE WITH WATERMILLS.

_Hobbema_ (Dutch: 1638-1709). _See 685._

This is one of Hobbema's most usual subjects--a cottage, a mill, a few trees. The effect is that of a summer sky, with light fleecy clouds, and gleams of sunshine seem to pass over the scene. Sir Robert Peel paid £525 for the picture. It should be compared with Ruysdael's of a similar scene (986).

833. A FOREST SCENE.

_Hobbema_ (Dutch: 1638-1709). _See 685._

834. A DUTCH INTERIOR.

_Pieter de Hooch_ (Dutch: 1630-about 1677). _See 794._

This picture is interesting as enabling us to discern the painter's technical process. "The more luminous parts of it, such as the costumes of the two men at the table, are painted in semi-opaque colour over a brilliant orange ground. Here and there the orange may be seen peeping out, and its presence elsewhere gives a peculiar pearliness to the tints laid upon it. De Hooch painted very thinly. In this picture the maid with the brazier is an afterthought. She is painted over the tiles and other details of the background, which now show through her skirts. Before she was put in, this space to the right was occupied by an old gentleman with a white beard and moustache, and a wide-brimmed hat, all of which can be descried under the brown of the mantelpiece" (Armstrong: _Notes on the National Gallery_, pp. 36, 37).

835. COURT OF A DUTCH HOUSE.

_Pieter de Hooch_ (Dutch: 1630-about 1677). _See 794._

A courtyard at Delft: superbly painted, and a good picture of Dutch home life--of its neatness, its cleanliness, its quiet, and its content. Notice over the entrance a commemorative inscription, partly covered already by vine leaves, dated 1614. The day's work is done, and the wife stands in the porch, waiting for her husband's return; a servant brings down the child too into the courtyard to greet its father. "It is natural to think your own house and garden the nicest house and garden that ever were.... They are a treasure to you which no money could buy,--the leaving them is always pain,--the return to them a new thrill and wakening to life. They are a home and a place of root to you, as if you were founded on the ground like its walls, or grew into it like its flowers" (_Fors Clavigera_, 1876, p. 51). Such a home (says Mr. Pater in his _Imaginary Portraits_) "was, in its minute and busy wellbeing, like an epitome of Holland itself, with all the good-fortune of its thriving genius reflected, quite spontaneously, in the national taste. The nation had learned to content itself with a religion which told little, or not at all, on the outsides of things. But we may fancy that something of the religious spirit had gone, according to the law of the transmutation of force, into the scrupulous care for cleanliness, into the grave, old-world, conservative beauty of Dutch houses, which meant that the life people maintained in them was normally affectionate and pure." This picture was much admired by Constable. "The least mannered," he said, "and consequently the best pictures I have seen, are some of the works of De Hooge, particularly one of an outdoor subject, at Sir R. Peel's. His indoors are as good, but less difficult, as being less lustrous" (Leslie's _Life of Constable_, p. 299). The picture is signed, and dated 1658.

836. A VIEW IN HOLLAND.

_Philip de Koninck_ (Dutch: 1619-1688).

Koninck, or Koning, was born at Amsterdam and became a pupil of
Rembrandt. He painted historical subjects and portraits, but it
is for his landscapes that he is now most admired. These are
generally expansive views in which aerial perspective is well
given: "The distances of the painters of the older schools had
been full of objects and figures as minutely rendered as those
on the foremost places, only ever so much smaller. Compare with
these distances the simply treated expanse of country offered
to view in P. de Koninck's landscapes. Here we do not have
merely a series of objects getting smaller as they recede, but
a far more generalised representation of the whole face of
nature bathed in an atmosphere in which objects are lost to
view" (Baldwin Brown's _Fine Arts_, p. 301).

There is a repetition of this picture in the Royal Museum at the Hague. One may presume that Koninck's pictures had aristocratic purchasers; for, unlike the painters of "pastoral landscape," he is fond of introducing persons of distinction--here it is a hawking party; in 974 a carriage-and-six with outriders.

837. THE HAY HARVEST.

_Jan Lingelbach_ (Dutch: 1623-1674).

Though a German by birth, Lingelbach is included amongst the
Dutch painters; for he lived chiefly in Amsterdam, and was
largely employed in inserting the figures in the landscapes of
Wynants and others. He also passed some years in Italy, and
frequently painted Italian scenes and incidents.

838. THE DUET.

_Gabriel Metsu_ (Dutch: 1630-1667).

Metsu is one of the _genre_ painters who are now appraised
most highly--sums of £2580 and £3200 severally were given
at the Secrétan Sale for pictures of his. In the Hertford
House Gallery are some good specimens which the late Sir
Richard Wallace acquired at great cost. Though, like most of
his brother-artists, he was fond of painting tavern-scenes
(_e.g._ No. 970), he was also a painter of high life and the
drawing-room, like Terburg and Netscher. "In each of these
spheres he combined humour with expression, a keen appreciation
of nature with feeling, and breadth with delicacy of touch, in
a manner unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries" (Crowe).
"When his pictures have escaped the ordeal of ruthless cleaning
they are pervaded by the finest tone, and the whites in them
have that delicate glow which distance and atmosphere lend
to snowy peaks. It is obvious that he caressed this least
manageable of colours with unceasing love. Altogether his works
have a quality of distinction rare in those of any school"
(Burton). Metsu's father was a painter, whose third wife (the
mother of Gabriel) was a painter's widow. The boy was taught by
Gerard Dou, and already at the age of fourteen was admitted a
member of the Leyden Guild of Painters. In 1650 he removed to
Amsterdam, where he fell under the influence of Rembrandt. The
large picture in the Louvre of "The Woman taken in Adultery,"
signed by Metsu and dated 1653, shows this fact. Metsu did not,
however, adhere to religious subjects, but applied the lessons
he learnt from the great master to subjects more congenial to
his talent.

839. THE MUSIC LESSON.

_Gabriel Metsu_ (Dutch: 1630-1667).

A picture that might serve as an illustration of "the gamut of Hortensio" (see _Taming of the Shrew_, Act. iii. sc. 1).

840. A LADY FEEDING A PARROT.

_Frans van Mieris_ (Dutch: 1635-1681).

This painter, the son of a goldsmith (one of twenty-three
children) and the pupil of Gerard Dou, is known as "Old Frans,"
to distinguish him from his grandson of that name, who, like
his son William (see 841), was also a painter. The works of
Frans are very much superior to those of his successors.
"Unlike William Mieris, he rarely cared to carry the eye from
the beautiful painting of the figures by working up or covering
the base of the casement with highly finished bas-reliefs. That
kind of thing may be looked for in William Mieris's curiously
finished pictures, but certainly is not wanted in the works
of Francis. His female figures, independently of being always
well painted, are often graceful and pretty; he could paint a
lady at her toilet with the delicacy and feeling of Metsu and
Terburg, and was besides happy in varying the expressions and
faces of his female beauties; he was fond of painting them in
richly coloured jackets trimmed with fur. He was also a capital
hand at painting birds" (Seguier). The elegance and high
technical qualities of his productions brought him numerous and
distinguished patrons. The Grand Duke of Tuscany visited him at
Leyden, and the Archduke Leopold William desired to attract him
to Vienna. Mieris, however, would not leave Leyden; nor did his
large and lucrative practice induce any carelessness or neglect
in his work.

841. A FISH AND POULTRY SHOP.

_Willem van Mieris_ (Dutch: 1662-1747).

The son of Frans (see above, 840). He succeeded to his father's
practice, but was an indifferent imitator. A comparison between
him and the leading "Little Masters of Holland" will show the
difference between true finish and laborious trifling.

Decidedly an "artistic" shop: notice the elaborate bas-relief (as also in 825), with marine subjects suitable to a fishmonger's, below the shop-window, and the handsome curtain ready to serve as shutters. The picture is sometimes called "The Cat," from the cat eyeing the duck whose head hangs from the window-sill.

842. A GARDEN.

_Frédéric de Moucheron_ (Dutch: 1633-1686).

This painter came of an Antwerp family, but he studied and
afterwards settled at Amsterdam. He also studied and worked
for some years in Paris. He confined himself to landscape;
Lingelbach, A. van de Velde and others were employed to paint
in his figures.

The figures here are ascribed to Adrian van de Velde.

843. BLOWING BUBBLES.

_Gaspard Netscher_ (Dutch: 1639-1684).

Netscher, one of the chief painters of Dutch "high life," had
a somewhat eventful career. He was born at Heidelberg, which
was then being besieged. His mother, after seeing her two elder
children die of hunger before her eyes, escaped with Gaspard
through the investing lines to Arnheim. The boy was intended
for a doctor, but took to painting and studied under Terburg.
In 1659 he started on a tour to Italy, but at Bordeaux he fell
in love with a girl from Liège, whom he married. He settled
at Bordeaux, but his pictures, such as this, which are now
so much valued, then brought him but slight remuneration;
and after returning to the Hague, he turned his attention to
portrait-painting. Several of his portraits are of English
sitters, and it is supposed that he visited this country, but
this is uncertain. Netscher's portraits are generally on a
small scale, and very highly finished. He was patronised by
William III., and was rapidly acquiring fame, when he died at
the age of forty-five. His _genre_ pieces resemble those of F.
Mieris.

844. MATERNAL INSTRUCTION.

_Netscher_ (Dutch: 1639-1684). _See 843._

Notice in the background, over a cupboard, hanging in a black frame, a small copy of Rubens' "Brazen Serpent," now in this collection (59).

845. A LADY AT A SPINNING WHEEL.

_Netscher_ (Dutch: 1639-1684). _See 843._

846. THE ALCHYMIST.

_Adrian van Ostade_ (Dutch: 1610-1685).

Adrian, the elder of the two Ostades, was a pupil of Frans
Hals. Later in life, he felt the influence of Rembrandt, and
he painted some religious subjects. But he is best known for
his scenes from peasant life. These are now greatly esteemed,
and pictures which the painter himself probably sold for a few
shillings now fetch hundreds and even thousands of pounds.
Adrian Ostade is the contemporary of Teniers, and it is
interesting to compare their respective delineations of rustic
life. "The contrast lies in the different condition of the
agricultural classes of Brabant and Holland. Brabant has more
sun, more comfort, and a higher type of humanity; Teniers, in
consequence, is silvery and sparkling; the people he paints are
fair specimens of a well-built race. Holland, in the vicinity
of Haarlem, seems to have suffered much in war; the air is
moist and hazy, and the people, as depicted by Ostade, are
short, ill-favoured, and marked with the stamp of adversity on
their features and dress. The greatness of Ostade lies in the
fact that he often caught the poetic side of the life of the
peasant class, in spite of its ugliness and stunted form and
mis-shapen features. He did so by giving their vulgar sports,
their quarrels, even their quieter moods of enjoyment, the
magic light of the sun-gleam, and by clothing the wreck of
cottages with gay vegetation" (Crowe). Ostade was especially
fond of the foliage of the vine. He is often coarse, but
sometimes shows a genuine sense of humour. He had, says Sir
F. Burton, "artistic qualities of a high order--consummate
skill in composition and taste in arrangement; subtlety of
chiaroscuro and refined delicacy of colour; appropriate, and
never overstrained action in the figures, and precision,
combined with breadth, of handling. His earlier pictures are
the coolest in tone; those of his middle period more golden,
showing gradually the influence of Rembrandt. His drawings and
etchings are extremely fine." His father, Jan Hendrik, was a
weaver; the children adopted the name of Ostade from a small
hamlet, near Eindhoven, which their parents left to settle at
Haarlem. There Adrian lived and worked, being enrolled as a
member of the Civic Guard in 1636, and becoming Dean of the
Painters' Guild in 1662. He was twice married; the second time,
to a daughter of Jan van Goyen.

Under the three-legged stool is a paper on which is written a warning of the vanity of the alchymist's labour--_oleum et operam perdis_: "you are wasting your cost and pains"--a warning not unjustified in a painter's mouth, for more than one old master devoted the end of his life to the fruitless task of making gold (_e.g._ Parmigiano, see 33). The English painter, Romney, too, dabbled in alchemy when he was a young man, and in his declining years sketched a melodrama representing the progress of an alchymist in quest of the philosopher's stone. The picture is signed (on a shovel hanging against the wall), and dated 1661. It is, says Mr. J. T. Nettleship in a comparison between Ostade and George Morland, "a marvellous example of the _atmosphère de tableau_. Everything takes its place, but is also a wonder of finish. The whole picture gives you a large feeling of space and tone. And there is no bogeydom, no straining after weirdness; the whole is a common workshop, the scene of the man's daily life; he feeds well, one is sure--if he has dreams his face does not betray them, it is just the face of a born craftsman. It is impossible to look at this picture without acknowledging the influence such work must have had on Morland. But Morland never achieved such delicacy united to breadth, such finish combined with harmony of effect, though before he took the wrong turn he came near achieving it" (_George Morland_, p. 23).

847. A VILLAGE SCENE.

_Isaac van Ostade_ (Dutch: 1621-1649).

Isaac, born at Haarlem, was the younger brother of Adrian van
Ostade, with whom he remained as pupil till 1641, when he set
up in business on his own account. There is a record of a
transaction of his in that year which throws an interesting
light on the picture-dealing world of the day. In 1643 a dealer
summoned him for breach of a contract made in 1641 to deliver
six pictures and seven "rounds" for twenty-seven florins. Part
of Isaac's defence was that his pictures had since risen in
value. The case was referred to the Painters' Guild, which
decided that he must perform his contract, but that the number
of the "rounds" should be reduced to five and the price of the
whole be increased to fifty florins. It may be conjectured that
the low value thus set upon the cottage scenes in his brother's
manner induced Isaac to cultivate a different style of his own.
This consisted largely of village inns (of which the present
picture is a capital example), and winter scenes (among which
No. 963 in our Gallery is a masterpiece). He combined a genuine
appreciation of nature with great skill in the treatment of
figures. He was fond, as will be seen, of introducing a white
horse to serve as the principal light in his compositions.

This picture was bought by Sir Robert Peel for 400 guineas, and was esteemed, says Mrs. Jameson in her catalogue of his collection, "the masterpiece of the painter. The transparent, sparkling beauty of the execution was never surpassed. The figures, the foliage, the animals, the atmospheric effect, are all perfect."

848. A SKATING SCENE.

_Isaac van Ostade_ (Dutch: 1621-1649). _See 847._

849. LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE.

_Paul Potter_ (Dutch: 1625-1654).

Paul Potter, the best of the Dutch cattle painters, was the
son of an artist (see 1008), and a remarkable instance of
precocious talent, having been a clever painter and etcher
at the age of fourteen. The environs of Enkhuizen, where
he was born, did not offer scenes of surpassing beauty;
but the rich brown and gold tints of the cattle contrasted
pleasantly with the verdure of the flat fields. These Potter
set himself to study and to paint; and so accurately did he
master the anatomy of cattle that a writer on the natural
history of Holland, in 1769-79, did not hesitate to utilise,
in order to illustrate his work, paintings and sketches by
Potter, including geometrical drawings which he had made to
demonstrate the proper proportions of cattle. His skill brought
him much patronage at the Hague; and in 1650 he married the
daughter of a distinguished architect in that city, who made
some objections, it is said, to his daughter marrying a mere
"painter of animals." But the painter of animals prospered
better than many of his contemporary painters of men, and
both at the Hague and at Amsterdam his works continued to be
in great request. But a too close application to his art told
on a weak constitution, and he died of consumption at the age
of twenty-nine (Cundall's _Landscape and Pastoral Painters
of Holland_, pp. 113 _sq._). For a century after his death
his works realised very small sums, but latterly they have
been sought after at extravagant prices. Technically they are
very accomplished; but Ruskin calls attention to a certain
defect of feeling in his treatment. He "does not care even for
sheep, but only for wool; regards not cows, but cow-hides. He
attains great dexterity in drawing tufts and locks, lingers in
the little parallel ravines and furrows of fleece that open
across sheep's backs as they turn; is unsurpassed in twisting
a horn or pointing a nose; but he cannot paint eyes, nor
perceive any condition of an animal's mind except its desire of
grazing" (_Modern Painters_, vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vi. § 12). In
estimating his work, it should however be remembered that he
died very young, and died learning. The famous "Young Bull" of
the Hague, painted in 1647 when he was twenty-two, is usually
considered his masterpiece. Rather, says Fromentin, is it only
a _tour de force_, a wonderful study. The portrait of the
painter as he appeared in his last days, done by his friend Van
der Helst, is in the Hague Museum.

Signed, and dated 1651, and therefore among the painter's later works.

850. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.

_Rembrandt_ (Dutch: 1606-1669). _See 45._

Dated 1635. The sitter wears the typical "Rembrandt collar."

851. VENUS SLEEPING.

_Sebastiano Ricci_ (Venetian: 1659-1734).

An unimportant work by a painter who worked for several years
in this country, and covered many walls and ceilings with his
facile compositions. Examples of his religious and mythological
pictures may be seen at the Dulwich Gallery. Ricci, says
Dr. Richter in his catalogue of that collection, "is one of
the most attractive painters of the Italian decadence. His
compositions are lively and ingenious, without, however, being
profound." There are also several of his works at Hampton
Court. He was born at Belluno in the Venetian State, and before
coming to England was employed by the Duke of Parma and at the
Viennese court in decorating the palace of Schoenbrunn. He left
England in disgust on finding that the work of decorating the
cupola of St. Paul's was to be entrusted to a native artist,
Sir James Thornhill. "Ricci had great facility in imitating
the style of other masters. His picture of the 'Apostles
adoring the Sacrament' in the church of S. Giustina at Padua is
painted in imitation of the cupola of S. Giovanni at Parma by
Correggio; and his 'S. Gregorio' at Bergamo recalls the works
of Guercino. But his most successful imitations were those of
Paul Veronese, many of which he is said to have sold as by that
master. He deceived the French painter La Fosse, who avenged
himself by the sarcastic remark, 'For the future, take my
advice and paint no more Ricci's'" (Bryan).

852. THE CHAPEAU DE POIL.

_Rubens_ (Flemish: 1577-1640). _See 38._

One of the best known and most be-copied pictures in the Gallery. Its fame among artists "depends to no slight extent on its being a _tour de force_. The head is painted in reflected light, so as to come as near as may be to Queen Elizabeth's _shadowless_ ideal" (Armstrong: _Notes on the National Gallery_, p. 31). "No one who has not beheld this masterpiece of painting can form any conception," says Dr. Waagen, "of the transparency and brilliancy with which the local colours in the features and complexion, though under the shadow of a broad-brimmed hat, are brought out and made to tell, while the different parts are rounded and relieved, with the finest knowledge and use of reflected lights." The expression of the subject is as much a _tour de force_ as the technical treatment--

I know a maiden fair to see,
Take care!...
She gives a side-glance and looks down,
Beware! beware!...
She has a bosom as white as snow,
Take care!
She knows how much it is best to show,
Beware! beware!
Trust her not,
She is fooling thee!

LONGFELLOW: from the German.

The picture is a portrait of Susanne Fourment, an elder sister of Rubens's second wife, Helène Fourment. Susanne often sat to Rubens; other paintings and drawings of her by his hand exist. She afterwards married Arnold Lunden. The picture remained in the possession of the painter until his death, when it passed into that of Nicholas Lunden, who had married Isabella, a daughter of Rubens by his second wife, Helène Fourment. The picture remained in the Lunden family until 1822, when it was sold by auction for 36,000 florins and brought to England. After being offered in vain to George IV., it was bought by Sir Robert Peel for 3500 guineas. Why and when this picture of a lady in a beaver hat acquired the inappropriate title of "Chapeau de Paille" ("The Straw Hat"), by which it has hitherto been called, is unknown. Perhaps the title is a corruption of "Chapeau d'Espagne." An entirely different story about the picture was current in the Lunden family. According to this not very probable tradition, Miss Susanne had refused to sit to Rubens, so he painted her unawares whilst she was in her garden, wearing a large straw hat. When the picture was done, she pardoned the flattering indiscretion and accepted it as a gift. Rubens afterwards begged leave to take back the portrait, promising in return a work in which he would put all his talent. This was a _replica_ of the same portrait, but instead of a straw hat (_chapeau de paille_) he introduced in the second version the beaver hat (_chapeau de poil_) that we see. The Lunden family had christened the original "Chapeau de Paille," and the present picture has ever since retained the same title. (See letter in the _Times_, August 6, 1886, from M. Jules Nollée de Noduwez, himself a connection of the Lunden family).

853. THE TRIUMPH OF SILENUS.

_Rubens_ (Flemish: 1577-1640). _See 38._

For the subject see under 93. "Rubens painted these subjects with a gusto in which there is something fearful, so wonderful is the skill, the felicity of execution, the life, the energy, the fancy displayed--so gross and so repulsive the sentiment. In Niccolo Poussin's Bacchanalian scenes we have the licence and the revels of gods and nymphs, and of the golden age. Rubens gives us, with perhaps a truer moral feeling but more depraved taste, mere animal sensuality, with all its most brutal attributes" (Mrs. Jameson's _Handbook to the Private Galleries of London_, p. 362). This picture was in the artist's possession at the time of his death, and was then bought for Cardinal Richelieu. It was afterwards in the collection of Sir Robert Peel, who gave £1100 for it.

853. a-p.

These sixteen drawings by Rubens formed part of the rich collection of Sir Thomas Lawrence, P.R.A., after whose death they were acquired for Sir Robert Peel. They were purchased for the nation in 1871 with the Peel Collection of pictures. The subjects are as follows:--

=853 a=, =b=, =c=, and =d=. Four studies for the famous picture
at Munich, representing the "Fall of the Damned." In black
chalk, tinted slightly. "Inconceivably fine," says Mrs. Jameson.

=853 e.= THE MARTYRDOM OF A SAINT.--He kneels, and a woman is
about to bind his eyes. Fifteen figures with angels.

=853 f.= THE DESCENT OF THE HOLY GHOST.--Study for the picture
at Munich.

=853 g.= THE CRUCIFIXION.--Drawing from the great picture at
Antwerp, done for the engraver to work from.

=853 h.= PORTRAIT OF A GIRL; with a cap and feather. Study from
one of his own children.

=853 i.= PORTRAIT OF A LADY, with flowers in her hair. Probably
a study from his first wife. "Extremely fine," says Mrs.
Jameson, "and full of life."

=853 j.= HEAD OF A LADY, in chalk and sepia, wonderfully
spirited.

=853 k.= SKETCH FOR MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE, or design for a
frontispiece--with a figure of "Fame."

=853 l.= THE SAME, with figures of Moses and Aaron.

=853 m.= THE SAME, with satyrs.

=853 n.= THE SAME, representing the siege of Breda: Minerva and
Hercules, prisoners, implements of war, etc.

=853 o.= STUDY OF A LIONESS, introduced into his picture of
"Daniel in the Lion's Den."

=853 p.= SKETCH OF A LION HUNT.--Study for the great picture at
Dresden.

854. A FOREST SCENE.

_Ruysdael_ (Dutch: 1628-1682). _See 627._

Of this picture, when it was in Sir Robert Peel's collection, Mrs. Jameson tells a pretty tale. "'I cannot express to you,' said the statesman, 'the feeling of tranquillity, of restoration, with which, in an interval of harassing official business, I look around me here.' And while he spoke, in the slow, quiet tone of a weary man, he turned his eyes on a forest scene of Ruysdael, and gazed on it for a minute or two in silence, as if its cool, dewy verdure, its deep seclusion, its transparent waters stealing through the glade, had sent refreshment into his very soul" (_Handbook to the Private Galleries of London_, p. xix.).

855. A WATERFALL.

_Ruysdael_ (Dutch: 1628-1682). _See 627._

856. THE MUSIC-MASTER.

_Jan Steen_ (Dutch: 1626-1679).

It is in the collections of Holland, and especially in the
Museum of Amsterdam, that the best works of this remarkable
painter are to be seen--a painter whose talent and occasional
grace made Reynolds name him in the same breath with Raphael,
and who has by other critics been called the Molière of
painting. This latter comparison happily expresses the dramatic
and intellectual quality of Steen's best works. He drew not
merely Dutch life, but human nature. He depicts the comedy
of human life, for the most part, in a spirit of genial
toleration, but sometimes with touches of almost Hogarthian
satire. With regard to technical qualities, his best works are
admirable for their skilful composition, brilliant touch, and
harmonious colouring. "Steen when it pleased him was an artist
of great ability. Unfortunately it did not always please him
to be so, and then his colour became blurred, his execution
trivial, and the general aspect of his figures heavy and
monotonous; but whenever he exerts himself he becomes once
more and remains a great master. It is the more astonishing
to find these defects, as they are peculiar neither to the
beginning nor to the end of his career, and therefore cannot
be attributed to a hard apprenticeship or premature decay.
They are to be explained by the irregular life which the
painter led" (Havard). The number of his works, however,--of
which more than 500 have been catalogued--seem to negative the
stories in which some biographers accept of Steen's drunken
and dissolute life. He was the son of a brewer and was born at
Leyden. He first studied under a German painter, Knüpfer, at
Utrecht; afterwards with Adrian van Ostade, and Jan van Goyen
whose daughter he married in 1649. In the previous year he had
joined the Painters' Guild of Haarlem. That he was improvident
is proved by records of executions for debt which have been
discovered in the archives of that town. His pictures must have
fetched small prices, for he contracted to pay the year's rent
of his house for 1666-67 with three portraits "painted as well
as he was able," the rent being 29 florins. In 1669 his wife
and his father died, and Steen, who is supposed to have resided
for some years at the Hague, returned to Leyden and opened a
tavern, and for the rest of his life combined the businesses of
painter and publican.

A work of some humour. The music-master is sadly bored with the exercises of his pupil at the harpsichord, but his disgust is fully shared by the young brother whose turn is to come next, and who is bringing a lute into the room. The picture is signed on the harpsichord.

857, 858, 859, 860. THE FOUR SEASONS.

_Teniers_ (Flemish: 1610-1694). _See 154._