Chapter IV: Front Matter (4)

"What Metsu undertook and carried out from the first with surprising
success was the low life of the market and tavern, contrasted with
wonderful versatility by incidents of high life and the drawing-room.
In each of these spheres he combined humor with expression, a keen
appreciation of nature, with feeling and breadth, with delicacy of
touch, unsurpassed by any of his contemporaries. In no single instance
do the artistic lessons of Rembrandt appear to have been lost on him.
The same principles of light and shade which had marked his school
work in The Woman Taken in Adultery[16] were applied to subjects of
quite a different kind. A group in a drawing-room, a series of groups
in the market-place, a single figure in the gloom of a tavern or
parlor, was treated with the utmost felicity by fit concentration and
gradation of light; a warm flush of tone pervaded every part, and,
with that, the study of texture in stuffs was carried as far as it had
been by Terburg, or Dou, if not with the finish or the _brio_ of De
Hooch. Metsu's pictures are all in such admirable keeping and so warm
and harmonious in his middle, or so cool and harmonious in his closing
time, that they always make a pleasing impression. They are more
subtle in modulation than Dou's, more spirited and forcible in touch
than Terburg's; and, if Terburg may of right claim to have first
painted the true satin robe, he never painted it more softly or with
more judgment as to color than Metsu."

One of the best pictures of Metsu's middle period is The Market Place of Amsterdam, in the Louvre.

=Two Fine Portraits by F. van Mieris.=--Frans van Mieris (1635-81) reached the highest rung of art in his portraits, of which The Hague Gallery possesses two fine examples. One is of Florentius Schuyl, Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Leyden, painted in 1666, and a still more important picture of the painter himself and his wife. He has made a charming _genre_ picture of it, which Sir Joshua Reynolds admired, not knowing who the characters were. The artist shows himself standing and pulling the ear of the beautiful little dog which his wife holds in her lap, while, to protect her pet, she gently wards off her smiling husband with her right hand. The little dog's mother is trying to spring into the lady's lap in order to take care of her offspring. Both the drawing and modelling here are masterly, and endow the scene with such charm that this work must be pronounced one of the best by his brush. The tablecloth and the lute lying upon it are beautifully painted.

=Description of Soap Bubbles.=--Sir Joshua also noticed the picture of Soap Bubbles dated 1663, representing a boy at an open and vine-framed window, blowing bubbles that are exquisitely painted and show beautiful reflections and prismatic colors. His red hat with white plumes is lying on the window-sill, near a bottle containing a sprig of heliotrope, and above hangs a cage. Behind the child in the half-light stands a young woman with a dog in her arms. On the window-frame is written the date in Roman numerals. Willem van Mieris often imitated this composition of his father's, who frequently repeated it himself.

=Pictures by Van Mieris Full of Refinement.=--Van Mieris takes us into an elegant world, although he himself was fond of low life, a heavy drinker and the companion of Jan Steen. He was the son of a goldsmith and diamond-setter of Leyden, who wanted him to follow his business. He was naturally influenced by his earliest surroundings, and in his father's shop became familiar with the dress and manners of people of distinction. His eye was also fascinated by the sheen of jewelry and stained glass. Houbraken writes:

"Seeing his talent for painting his father placed him with Abraham
Torenvliet, a famous glass painter and a good draughtsman. From him he
passed to the school of Gerrit Dou, where in a short time he eclipsed
every one and gained the affection of the master, who loved to call
him 'the prince of his pupils.' At the end of a few years, his father
sent him to the historical painter Abraham van Tempel; but he did not
remain long with him, for his natural taste would allow him to follow
no other manner than that of Gerrit Dou,--a manner extremely finished,
demanding attention and excessive care."

=His Love of Elegant Accessories.=--Houbraken calls Metsu a painter of _sujets de mode_. This term applies also to Frans van Mieris; for certainly with him costumes, materials, and accessories play an important part. If his people were less attractive one might imagine that they were only a pretext for showing off the velvet jackets, satin skirts, and rich furs. Very often Van Mieris shows us a spacious and magnificently decorated hall, in the background of which a richly dressed lady and her lover are walking; again he allows us to peep into a charmingly furnished room where a lady in white satin is playing the lute to entertain her guest, a handsome cavalier in black velvet; or we surprise a lady as she is about to drink a glass of wine which a page offers her on a silver salver. At other times we find a group of ladies and gentlemen about to enjoy a light repast; or see a table invitingly spread with luscious fruit in rich silver dishes; or watch a lady feed her parrot. Sometimes the pet monkey is discerned behind the looped-back curtains of taffetas. Frans van Mieris seldom chose panels above 12 by 15 inches in size. He never ventured to design life-sized figures.

=The Kind of Subjects he treated Best.=--"Characteristic of his art in
its minute proportions is a shiny brightness and metallic polish. The
subjects which he treated best are those in which he illustrated the
habits or actions of the wealthier classes; but he sometimes succeeded
in homely incidents and in portraits, and not unfrequently he ventured
on allegory. He repeatedly painted the satin skirt which Terburg
brought into fashion, and he often rivalled him in the faithful
rendering of rich and highly colored woven tissues. But he remained
below Terburg and Metsu, because he had not their delicate perception
of harmony, or their charming mellowness of touch and tint; and he
fell below Gerard Dou, because he was hard and had not his feeling for
effect by concentrated light and shade. In the form of his
composition, which sometimes represents the framework of a window
enlivened with greenery, and adorned with bas-reliefs, within which
figures are seen to the waist, his model is certainly Gerard Dou."

=His Lack of Humor.=--"It has been said that he possessed some of the
humor of Jan Steen, who was his friend, but the only approach to humor
in any of his works is the quaint attitude and look of a tinker in a
picture at Dresden, who glances knowingly at a worn copper kettle
which a maid asks him to mend.... If there be a difference between his
earlier and later work, it is that the former was clearer and more
delicate in flesh, whilst the latter was often darker and more livid
in the shadows."[17]

Blanc says:

"Among so many Dutch painters who copy nature it is very pleasant to
find one who deigns to select his models, and who, preferring grace to
ugliness, would rather paint beautifully women elegantly dressed than
_magots_. Strange, indeed! He loved distinction, yet lived in a
tavern; he loved luxury, and was soon ruined; and, in spite of a life
devoid of dignity, Van Mieris always kept a love of beauty and
elegance, as is shown in his delicate faces, fine complexions,
beautiful hands, grace of attitude, taste in costume and furniture,
and choice of splendid materials."

=Willem van Mieris.=--The Grocer's Shop, by his son and pupil, Willem van Mieris (1662-1747), signed and dated 1717, also hangs in The Hague Gallery. In extreme finish and minuteness of painting, this picture would not disgrace Mieris the Elder or Gerrit Dou.

=Its Wealth of Still Life.=--You see only two figures, a young boy who is buying and a young woman who is selling; but these figures are of no more importance than the foods of all kinds exposed in the shop, on the sill of the window, and outside. The lower part of the window is decorated with a bas-relief, representing Cupids playing with a bird. This bas-relief is half hidden by a superb piece of tapestry, on which the painter has placed a basket of dried fruits. Great bags of grain, peas, and beans, and everything that is sold by the bushel are exposed on the pavement of the street, with a bucket and some tubs filled with olives, sardines, and anchovies. On the wall hang a basket and a bird-cage, and a magnificent damask curtain with large flowers falls in graceful folds from an outside ring. Among the innumerable details of the shop you note a little rat gnawing at the grains which have fallen through a hole in one of the sacks.

The pendant to this picture hangs in the Louvre, where it is called _Marchande de Volailles_.

=W. van Mieris influenced by his Father and by G. de Lairesse.=--Willem van Mieris was a pupil of his father, and at first had no other ambition than to imitate his style and produce those charming Conversations in which rich furniture, shining chandeliers of brass or copper, Japanese porcelains, silken curtains, Turkish table-carpets, flowers, and elegantly dressed people make a somewhat restricted, although delightful, world. Willem, falling under the influence of Gerard de Lairesse, who was much in vogue in Holland, selected such subjects as a young lady playing on the clavecin, or making lace, or walking in the country in a lilac satin robe with large sleeves that reveal through their slashes a beautiful arm, and a straw hat ornamented with a sweeping plume. Becoming a shepherdess this attractive lady next sits in his pictures with bare feet, in the shade of an oak, and beside her Corydon talks of love.

=His Success with Mythical and Biblical Subjects.=--Next he turned his attention to subjects from fable, romance, and mythology; and Diana, Armida, Cleopatra, Bacchus, Jupiter, Tarquin, the Sabines, etc., fill his panels or copper plates, which were hardly larger than your hand. Biblical and religious subjects occupied him for a time and then he again turned pagan. His success grew greater every day, and his Dutch patrons who loved scenes of familiar life demanded from Van Mieris pictures in the style of his famous father--those charming _genre_ pictures still being produced by Slingelandt, Van Tol, and other imitators of Gerrit Dou.

=A Window-frame his Favorite Setting.=--Like Gerrit Dou, Willem van Mieris selects a window-frame of stone, which he often decorates with graceful creepers or a bouquet of tulips or jonquils placed on the sill, or throws over it a bright piece of tapestry. From it a blond lady leans to flirt with the unseen passer, a child blows bubbles, a portly dame waters her flowers; or the artist himself sits calmly by. When tired of this, Willem van Mieris takes us to his favorite shop.

=Arie de Vois.=--Among the portraits one must not fail to notice the picture of A Huntsman Holding a Partridge by Arie de Vois (1630-80). This was originally in the collection of William V. and was bought for 1,210 florins. His pictures are so rare that we are not surprised that the Mauritshuis contains but one example. The Rijks is more fortunate in owning four by this delightful painter.

=Abraham de Pape's Style.=--Abraham de Pape (1625-66), supposed to have been a pupil of Gerrit Dou, is represented by An Old Woman Plucking a Cock, with a little boy kneeling beside her. It is a very good example of this master; and at the Gerrit Muller sale brought no less than 490 florins. Crowe says:

"This almost unknown artist is decidedly one of the best _genre_
painters of this time. He is true and speaking in action, animated in
his heads, harmonious, and even in some of his pictures warm in
coloring, and very careful and soft in execution."

=A. van der Werff's Biblical and Mythological Pictures.=--Adriaan van der Werff (1659-1722) occupied a peculiar position among Dutch painters. While his contemporaries were devoting themselves to the study of nature and becoming realistic, he adhered to the pursuit of the ideal and produced pictures inspired by Biblical or mythological subjects,--pictures noted for their beauty and elegance, and moreover finished with wonderful smoothness of touch, which he had learned from his master Eglon van der Neer. His figures as a rule are small, and the flesh-tints are of an ivory tone. Van der Werff was so popular that it was impossible for him to execute all the commissions sent him. His greatest patron was the Elector Palatine John William; the pictures that Van der Werff painted for him are now in Munich, where this master may best be studied.

=Description of The Flight into Egypt.=--He is fairly well represented in the Rijks; but The Hague has only two of his works,--a Portrait of a Man, dated 1689, and The Flight into Egypt, dated 1710. This is only one foot six inches high and one foot two inches wide. The Virgin is in profile in a Prussian-blue mantle, accompanied by St. Joseph, who is leading an ass. The road runs by the side of a brook, and the landscape is diversified with trees, ruins, and a portico. This picture was given by the artist to his daughter, who sold it to Mr. Schuijlenberg for 4,000 florins. At the Schuijlenberg sale at The Hague in 1765 it brought 6,500 florins.

=Reynolds on Van der Werff's Manner.=--This picture was much admired by Sir Joshua Reynolds, who saw it in the King's collection. In describing Van der Werff's manner he said:

"He has also the defect which is often found in Rembrandt,--that of
making his light only a single spot. However, to do him justice his
figures and heads are generally well drawn and his drapery is
excellent; perhaps there are in his pictures as perfect examples of
drapery as are to be found in any other painter's work whatever."

=Philip van Dijk and his pupil, Louis de Moni.=--To this group belongs Philip van Dijk (1680-1753), a pupil of Arnold Boonen, and an imitator of Van der Werff. Judith with the Head of Holofernes is a good example of his historical work; and two good _genre_ pictures, A Lady Playing the Guitar, and A Lady at her Toilet, show this artist in a happier mood, where he gives free play to his more delicate touch. His Bookkeeper also hangs in this gallery. His pupil, Louis de Moni, shows the decline of the school. An Old Woman and a Boy, in a window, the boy blowing soap bubbles, is dated 1742.

=Ochtervelt a follower of Metsu and of Pieter de Hooch.=--Jacob van Ochtervelt (?-1700), who occupies a first place among the second-rate painters of his day, was a follower of Metsu and also of Pieter de Hooch. The Fish Vender, representing a woman in a room where a man is offering her fish, in conception and careful finish recalls Metsu, while in lighting and combination of color it reminds one of Pieter de Hooch. The general tone is warmer than most of Ochtervelt's pictures.

=Jan Steen's Favorite Subjects.=--One of the greatest of all the Dutch _genre_ painters is Jan Steen (1626-79), "the jolly landlord of Leyden." As a draughtsman and colorist he takes high rank, and as a student of human nature he has been compared to Hogarth and Moliere. His pictures are studies of life and character, and are full of humor. He paints feasts and merry-makings, weddings, quacks, tavern-brawls, dentists, invalids, children at play, family parties, etc., with sympathy and joyousness.

=His Character-painting.=--As a character-painter, he is unapproachable. Nobody so well as he has understood all human passions, all emotions--hilarious joy, deep-seated satisfaction, fear, grief, and _Weltschmerz_ with such mastery, and known how to represent them in the smallest possible space.

=His Method of showing Background to Advantage.=--With regard to Jan Steen's interiors it is interesting to note that, like Ostade's, they are painted from an elevation, so that the figures in the background are not hidden by those in the foreground. Ordinarily he opens a window in the background to illuminate the distant figures and thus is formed an echo of the principal light. The number of utensils is less than with most painters of this class, for Jan Steen had too much sense to multiply them uselessly. Like Metsu, he often painted little pictures on the walls of his interiors, and it is singular that these depict heroic landscapes, battle scenes, mythological subjects, etc., and never tavern or _genre_ scenes such as he himself painted.

=Refinement and Culture in his Pictures.=--Another thing to notice is that whether in houses of affluence or in common taverns his people do not drink grossly and from jugs, as in the taverns of Adriaen Brouwer. Each one takes his place gracefully and naturally at the table or in the room; and the details of the furniture accord with the politeness of the people or the players. On the mantelpiece, for instance, stands a bronze figure of Love; a guitar hangs from one of the panels; and here hangs a fine landscape in an ebony frame. The collation consists of delicious fruits that rejoice the eyes; perhaps also open oysters, which glisten in the light like pearls; ripe grapes and beautiful peaches, whose furry skins are blushing like the cheeks of a young girl, and finally some lemons half peeled, the skin falling in a golden spiral. All this shows the influence of Van Mieris, who was a friend of Steen and who spent many hours in his tavern at Leyden.

=Reynolds's Appreciation of Jan Steen.=--Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was so delighted with the Steens he saw in Holland, wrote the following appreciative criticism of the artist:

"Jan Steen has a strong manly style of painting, which might become
even the design of Raffaelle, and he has shown the greatest skill in
composition and management of light and shadow as well as great truth
in the expression and character of his figures."

=Jan Steen's Fondness for painting his own Family.=--Jan Steen was very fond of painting his own family; his wives, his aged parents, and his children provided him with varied models of assorted ages and sizes. He had six children by his wife Marguerite van Goyen, daughter of the painter; and when she died, he married a widow, named Mariette Herkulens, who had two. He has characterized the pleasures of all ages in his picture called The Family of Jan Steen, bearing the legend "_Soo de ouden songen pypen de jongen._" (As the old ones sing so will the young ones pipe.) This is particularly interesting, because the artist has painted himself between his wife Marguerite van Goyen and Mariette Herkulens, who was destined to be his second wife. They were both quite handsome, especially Marguerite. Mariette Herkulens was a meat vender.

=How he ridiculed the Physicians.=--Physicians were always butt for Steen's caustic wit. It was a common practice in the seventeenth century to turn them into ridicule; and as Moliere brought them on the French stage, Jan Steen painted them with all their charlatanism and gravity and that severity of costume so studied for effect.

=Description of The Young Lady who is Ill.=--The Hague Gallery contains two of these,--one known as The Young Lady who is Ill (sometimes called The Doctor Feeling the Pulse of a Young Woman). In this picture a doctor dressed in black, with a pointed hat like that worn by Sagnarelle in the _Medecin malgre lui_, is seated at the bedside of a young and pretty girl with round arms and clear, pale complexion, who looks with interest at the potion that is being prepared according to the doctor's instructions. The latter pretends to be looking at the medicine which an elegant woman is bringing, but he is really looking at the beautiful throat of the blond and well-dressed Dutch lady, who lowers her eyes, charmed to let him gaze at her brilliant white neck, her little _retrousse_ nose, and her hair arranged _a la Ninon_, which is half covered with a sort of black cap. "If it were not for a little touch of malice and certain inconsistencies in the somewhat careless execution," Blanc says, "this picture might pass for a Van Mieris or a Metsu."

=Description of The Doctor's Visit.=--In The Doctor's Visit, a physician dressed in black, with pointed hat and holding his gloves in one hand, with the other is feeling the pulse of a young lady who is sitting near her bed in a _neglige_ costume. With a very knowing and solicitous manner the doctor seems to interrogate the throbs of the pulse; but while he seeks for the secret of the illness, the chamber-maid has found it out, as her glance indicates; and, that you may not be left in doubt, the painter has placed on the corner of the chimney a little statue of Love the Conqueror. In some of his pictures of this class Steen adds the legend "_Wat baet hier medecyn--het is der minne pijn_" (Of what use is medicine here? Love is the trouble).

=Other Pictures by Jan Steen, in the Mauritshuis.=--In addition to those already mentioned, the Mauritshuis owns A Village Feast, a picture of his first period; the Dentist, who is extracting the tooth of a peasant; A Menagerie; and an Interior known as The Oyster Feast and Jan Steen's Tap-room.

=Description of Jan Steen's Tap-room.=--The latter is not an inn of the common or rustic type such as is seen in Ostade's or Brouwer's pictures, for the room is furnished in the best style of the period. In it we see about twenty figures in several groups. On the left, an old man is playing with a little child; near him a young girl is kneeling as she cooks the oysters; and in the centre an old man offers an oyster to a seated woman. Children are amusing themselves everywhere: here one is making a cat dance; another is holding a dog; another is carrying a jug and a basket of fruit. At the table on the right and a little back Jan Steen sits playing a lute, a young woman is listening to him, a fat companion with a glass of liquor in his hand is laughing; and in the background are groups of players and smokers. Above and in the foreground a large violet curtain is looped and casts its shadow over a part of the interior. This fine picture is only 2 feet 3 inches by 2 feet 8 inches.

=Description of A Menagerie.=--A Menagerie is nearly four feet square, and represents the courtyard of a country house--that of William III. at Honsholredijk, which is seen in the distance. Near the stone terrace, beneath the steps of which is a pool, a peacock sits on a branch of an old tree; ducks are swimming in the pool, and hens, turkeys, and pigeons are picking up grains in the courtyard. A little girl in a pale straw-colored dress and a white apron is sitting on the steps and giving a lamb milk out of a cup. A man, carrying a basket of eggs and a green pot, is laughing and talking with her. Another old farm-servant is also laughing as he regards his young mistress; another person, who carries a hen under his left arm and her brood of chickens in a basket, is one of those dumpy and deformed creatures that Jan Steen likes to paint. Burger considers the head of the man with the basket of eggs is one of the most wonderful heads that were ever painted by Jan Steen or any of the Dutch Little Masters.

=Troost, the Dutch Watteau or Hogarth.=--Cornelis Troost (1697-1750) was born at the close of the great period of Dutch art. The great painters were all dead. Dutch painting had lost its originality and native vigor. Under these circumstances Troost made himself the painter of his period and of his country. Impelled by a witty and caustic humor, he thought to bring back in the eighteenth century what Jan Steen had illustrated in the seventeenth. But, inferior in every way to that master, he saw contemporary society only on the stage or in books; and, instead of painting manners, customs, and absurdities of the middle classes by observing them in nature, he painted them as they were represented on the stage. Almost all his heroes were characters of the comedy or the novel. Troost has been called the Dutch Watteau and the Dutch Hogarth. His pictures may be classified as follows: Conversations, Comic subjects, Portraits, and Military subjects. The first follow the style of Watteau; the second, Hogarth; and the last are reminiscent of Frans Hals.

=His Excellence in Drawing and Color.=--Excellence of drawing and richness of color distinguish all his works, which are also valuable for their accurate portrayal of the manners and customs, costume and furniture of his day. Troost worked in oil, pastel, and gouache with equal facility; and produced many excellent mezzotints and etchings.

=Blanc on Troost's Style.=--"What we admire in him to-day is the
talent of the painter properly so-called, the art of enlightening and
grouping his figures and placing them on the stage, the brush-work,
the selection and quality of the tones,--in other words, order,
chiaroscuro, color, and touch. A man of wit, he shines in composition;
although adroitly calculated, his own humor always appears spontaneous
and natural. Troost never introduces useless personages nor
superfluous ornaments into his pictures. He clearly sets forth what he
wants to show; and, contrary to the habits of the other masters of his
nation who take pleasure in the accumulation of accessories, he only
puts into his interiors necessary furniture and significant utensils;
and in his open-air Conversations the surroundings are not overloaded
with detail, but simple and agreeable, being calculated to achieve the
idea of the picture, so admirably are they connected with the action
of the figures. Troost and Terburg, of all the Dutch masters of
_genre_, are the ones who best understood the concentration of the
interest of a picture, and what is called the repose of the
composition."[18]

=A Picture Illustrative of the Concentration of its Interest.=--"On
looking over his pictures in the little room devoted to his work in
the Mauritshuis, we find more than one example of this intelligent
sobriety. Take for instance _L'Amour mal assorte_. Here we have an old
man declaring his love to a young widow. He has thrown on the floor
his cane, hat, and gloves; and, in his senile ardor, he clasps the
facilely chaste Susanna. What a pretty interior! A Slingelandt, a
Gerard Dou, or a Mieris would have multiplied here the details of
domestic comfort; here there is not a detail, not a single piece of
furniture too much; but yet there is nothing lacking that should be
there,--neither the clock, the canary in its cage, the portrait of
the deceased husband whose place the guest desires to fill, nor the
flower-vase with its full-blown rose, like the charmer whom the
admirer wants to gather."

=Pictures of Love and Intrigue.=--"Again we have The Deceived Tutor, a
scene anticipated from 'The Barber of Seville.' Here we see coming
down the street a maiden led prisoner by her tutor, a jealous bear
clothed all in black. While she occupies his attention with a sweet
smile, her little hand receives the kiss of a lover whom chance has
led that way. Other scenes of similar intrigue treated in this light
vein are The Lover in Disguise and The Lover Artist. The scenes are
taken from the comedies and vaudevilles of Langendijk, Lingelbach,
Asselijn, Van der Hoeven, Van Paffenrode, and D. Buysero."

=The Dispute of the Astronomers.=--"A picture that does not deal with
love and intrigue, but is full of a different kind of humor is The
Dispute of the Astronomers, from a comedy by P. Langendijk, in which
two astronomers in the heat of their discussion on the systems of
Copernicus and Ptolemy make use of the plates and bottles on the
supper table to illustrate the sun and the planets. Another
interesting pastel is one depicting the old Dutch custom of a band of
men and children singing hymns before the doors of the village on
Twelfth Night, carrying a huge paper star, lighted within."

=Hondecoeter, Painter of Living Birds.=--The great Melchior d'Hondecoeter (1636-95) began his career with marines; but it was not long before he acquired celebrity as a painter of birds only, which he represented not exclusively like Fyt, after a day's shooting, or as stock in a poulterer's shop, but as living beings with passions of joy and fear and anger. Though without Fyt's brilliant tone and high finish, his birds are always full of action. William III. employed him to paint his menagerie at Loo, and this picture shows that he could overcome the difficulty of painting India's cattle, elephants, and gazelles. Hondecoeter's best pictures have remained in Holland, and The Hague and Amsterdam galleries possess his most interesting canvases. The four at the Mauritshuis are: Geese and Ducks, Hens and Ducks, The Menagerie of William III. at Loo, and The Jackdaw Stripped of his Borrowed Feathers. All these are worthy of study, although Hondecoeter's most celebrated picture, The Floating Feather, hangs in the Rijks.

Blanc says:

"In one of these the artist has amused himself with making his usual
heroes play a scene of human comedy; and, as a professional fabulist
would have imagined it, he has shown a jackdaw stripped of the
borrowed plumes with which he had adorned himself in his vanity. This
is a very fine picture, although it has somewhat blackened in certain
parts. Hondecoeter seems to us to have been happier in another canvas
in which he has grouped various birds. It seems as if on this occasion
he wanted to prove what prodigies he was capable of in the touch of
divers plumages; and the effect he has obtained is, in truth,
astonishing. We could not find the equivalent of this lightness of
touch and of this coloring either in Gryff[19] or in the two Weenixes,
or in any of the masters who have tried to paint birds, with the
possible exception of Giacomo Victor."[20]

=His Preparation for Bird-painting.=--"It is true that before having
succeeded so well in the representation of the bird, Hondecoeter made
a long study, not only of its external form, but of its habits,
customs, and manner of life. His studio had been turned into a
menagerie, or, rather, a game preserve. He had paid particular
attention to the education of a handsome cock, which seemed to
comprehend every word and gesture of his master; and who, at the
slightest sign, came near the easel and posed, often in very fatiguing
attitudes, for hours."

=Hondecoeter's Skill in painting Farmyard Scenes.=--"In painting,
Melchior d'Hondecoeter was a very able man without leaving the poultry
yard, and was satisfied with painting on the spot either the bloody
dramas or the peaceful scenes of the farmyard--the hen teaching her
chickens to scratch for grubs, the duck giving her little ones their
first swimming lesson, the superb cock keeping watch over his
seraglio, the peacock spreading his magnificent tail, and those
memorable combats in which for a fine-plumaged Helen, two rivals spur
one another while awaiting the hawk's talons. He painted 'the crested
gentry' and knew how to interest us in them by means of picturesque
truth, rustic grace, color, and spirit.

"Melchior, after the death of his father, found an excellent guide in
his uncle, J. B. Weenix, and followed his manner till his death in
1660 without servility."[21]

Burger says:

=His Pictures of Bird Families.=--"No one has painted better than he
cocks and hens, ducks and drakes, and particularly little chicks and
ducklings. He has understood such families as the Italians have the
mystical Holy Family; he has expressed the motherhood of the hen as
Raphael has the motherhood of the Madonna. In fact, the subject is
more naturally treated because it has less sublimity. Hondecoeter
gives us here a mother-hen, who could face the Madonna of the Chair.
She bends over with solicitude, with outspread wings, beneath which
peep the excited heads of the little chickens; while on her back is
perched the privileged _bambino_: she does not dare move, the good
mother!"

A picture of Cock and Hens by his father, Gijsbert d'Hondecoeter (1604-53), was acquired in 1876. He was the teacher of his more talented son, who also studied with his uncle, Jan Baptist Weenix (1621-60), no pictures of whom are owned by the Mauritshuis.

=Jan Weenix's Tasteful Compositions.=--Two pictures of Jan Weenix (1640-1719) hang in this gallery and are good examples. One is The Dead Swan, the other is Game. Though Weenix painted portraits, landscapes, and even seaports, his chief works represent dead animals, the size of life. Peacocks, pheasants, partridges, geese, and most frequently swans, figure in his pictures. Sometimes, too, he introduces a living dog and paints it in the most spirited manner. Weenix had great taste in composition and arranged his models (more often dead than living) around the base of a handsome vase or urn in a beautiful park.

=Reynolds and Blanc on Jan Weenix's Paintings.=--"What excellence in coloring and handling is to be found in the dead game of Weenix!" exclaimed Sir Joshua Reynolds, who declared that he saw no less than twenty dead swans by this painter during his walks through the Holland galleries. "In his works of small dimensions," says Blanc, "his execution is delicate and caressing; but it is broad and accentuated in his decorative paintings. At his best he was the equal of his father, which is no small praise."

=Jan David de Heem, the Greatest of the Group of Fruit and Flower Painters.=--First in this group comes Jan David de Heem (1606-03 or 04), the pupil of his father, David de Heem, and not only the first to develop the art of fruit-painting, but the greatest master of the class that the school produced. In the beautiful arrangement of his subjects he has been compared to Giovanni da Udine. He is also a great colorist; some of his early works approach Rembrandt in their golden tone.

Although his two most important works are in the galleries of Vienna and Berlin, and splendid examples hang in the Louvre, Dresden, and Cassel, the Mauritshuis owns two very fine examples. One is a Table with Fruits, very tasteful in arrangement and soft in treatment; the other is a Garland of Flowers and Fruits, enlivened with insects.

When Sir Joshua Reynolds visited the Prince of Orange's collection, he saw these pictures and noted: "Fruits by De Heem, done with the utmost perfection."

=His Greatness as a Painter of Fruits, Flowers, and Insects.=--De Heem was one of the greatest painters of still life in Holland; no artist of his class combined form and color more successfully. His drawing is correct, and his colors are brilliant and combined harmoniously. He is familiar with every object of stone and silver, every flower, whether humble or gorgeous, every fruit of Europe or the tropics, every twig and leaf and blossom. Burger has said of Heda, but it is true of De Heem, that "he glorified insects, butterflies, and all the minute beings that swarm in vegetation, and made the moths drink in cups of chased gold."

=His Pictures that point a Moral.=--De Heem was also famous for his pictures that point a moral or illustrate a motto--those canvases known as Vanitas. Here the snake lies coiled under the grass; there a skull rests on blooming plants. "Gold and silver tankards or cups suggest the vanity of earthly possessions; salvation is allegorized in a chalice amid blossoms; death, as a crucifix inside a wreath." Sometimes De Heem painted alone, or with men of his school, Madonnas or portraits surrounded by festoons of fruits and flowers. He was so fond of the festoon that he sometimes painted it alone. Sometimes, too, a nosegay is figured alone.

=Cornelis de Heem's Subjects like those of his Father.=--The Hague Gallery also owns Fruits by his son Cornelis (1631-95). The latter painted precisely the same subjects as his father and with scarcely less success. Still life, flowers, fruits, oysters, and lemons on a plate; cold hams, boiled lobsters, flowers, knives, forks, glasses, watches, clocks, etc., are all treated by him with the utmost cleverness. Crowe says:

"He is not inferior to his father in drawing and warmth of color, and
with an equally solid impasto, almost surpasses him in melting
softness of touch. He is, however, in rare instances, somewhat
gaudier. Under these circumstances it is easy to understand that his
works are often mistaken for those of his father."

=Abraham Mignon, Pupil and Imitator of De Heem.=--Another pupil was Abraham Mignon (1640-79), who is represented in the Mauritshuis by Flowers and Fruits, and two canvases called Summer Flowers, which show the influence of his master. Mignon's fruits and flowers have all the bloom of nature; his butterflies and other insects seem to live and feed on the leaves, buds, and blossoms; and the dewdrops on the leaves and petals have all the transparency of real water. He was very popular in his day and was overwhelmed with commissions.

=Jacob Walscapelle.=--Jacob Walscapelle is also supposed to have been a pupil of De Heem, and many of his pictures have been attributed to one of the De Heems.

=Maria van Oosterwyck, an Excellent Painter of Flowers.=--Another pupil was Maria van Oosterwyck (1630-93), who usually painted flowers in vases or glasses, and occasionally fruits. In 1882 the Mauritshuis acquired a picture of Flowers, by this artist, who, perhaps, because of the rarity of her pictures, is not so widely known as she deserves to be. Although her flowers are not always arranged with taste and the colors are often gaudy, yet Crowe thinks she represents them with the

"utmost truth of drawing, and with a depth, brilliancy, and juiciness
of local coloring unattained by any other flower-painter. At the same
time, her execution, in spite of great finish, is broad and free, and
the impasto excellent."

She was much admired in her day and received commissions from Louis XIV., William III. of England, Augustus I. of Poland, and the Emperor Leopold.

=Jan van Huysum, the Correggio of Flowers and Fruits.=--"If De Heem,
by the harmony of his warm golden color, be called the Titian of
flowers and fruits, Jan van Huysum's bright and sunny treatment
entitles him to the name of the Correggio of the same branch of art.
In masterly drawing and truth of single objects, both masters may be
classed on the same level, only that De Heem's principal subjects were
fruit; Van Huysum's were flowers, in which he entered into greater
detail; for instance, in the gloss of the tulip, the pollen of the
auricula, and the dewdrop on the petal. It is to these merits, fitted
as they are to the capacity of the greater number of admirers of art,
that Van Huysum owed the eager demand for, and high payment of his
pictures by princes and wealthy amateurs, even in his own day, and
also that of all painters of his class he still commands the highest
prices."[22]

=Van Huysum's Pictures in The Hague.=--Jan van Huysum (1682-1749) is not so well represented in his own country as in the Louvre (which contains eleven fine examples), Berlin, St. Petersburg, Munich, Hanover, and Dresden. The Rijks owns but six, and The Hague only three,--an Italian Landscape, Fruits, and Flowers. The two latter are such beautiful examples of Van Huysum's art that they deserve study. In the one are found that marvellous blush and downy bloom for which he was so famous, while the other reveals his delicate treatment of petals and his graceful arrangement. In Fruits, a peach, two plums, a small bunch of grapes and some gooseberries are beautifully grouped, as to form and color, on a marble table. Its pendant, Flowers, is an exquisite picture of a full-blown rose and a rosebud, a pink and a convolvulus, placed on a marble console. A butterfly of the admiral variety has alighted on the rosebud.

=His Earliest Works.=--In his earliest period he painted landscapes representing views of imaginary lakes and harbors, woods with tall, lifeless trees, and classic buildings and ruins--finished in a glossy and smooth style--which are now of little value in comparison with his fruit and flower pieces. The Italian Landscape, which the Mauritshuis acquired in 1816, is a very good example of this style.

=Fruits and Flowers his Forte.=--It is doubtful if any artist ever surpassed Van Huysum in the representation of fruits and flowers, to which he finally devoted himself with the greatest success. He set himself the task of surpassing De Heem and Abraham Mignon; and he studied the most exquisite fruits and flowers known. His taste in the arrangement of his groups in elegant vases, of which the ornaments and bas-reliefs were finished in the most polished and beautiful manner, and in graceful baskets on marble tables, is generally considered to be superior to that of any other flower-painter. He also shows great art in relieving flowers of various colors against each other, and often they stand out from a light transparent background. His fame rose to the highest pitch, and the first florists of Holland were ambitious of supplying him with their choicest flowers for subjects. Naturally, therefore, we find on his canvases beautiful groups and bunches of hyacinths, roses, pinks, primroses, and other garden buds and blossoms.

=His Skill in depicting Dewdrops and Insects.=--With marvellous skill he frequently introduces dewdrops of incomparable transparency that trickle down the leaves or sprinkle the fresh delicate petals. Butterflies and other insects are also depicted with a truthfulness and precision that give a perfect illusion, and often a bird's nest with eggs is introduced.

=His Exquisite Taste.=--Jan van Huysum's pictures are so bright that they have even been accused of being gaudy; but no critic has yet found fault with his exquisite taste and faultless velvet-like finish that seems to rival nature. His fruit pieces are inferior to his flowers, though they are worthy of great admiration. Those painted on a clear or yellow background are the most esteemed, and are distinguished from his early works, which are usually on a dark one, by a superior style of pencilling and a more harmonious color.

=Rachel Ruijsch.=--Another charming flower and fruit painter,--noted especially for her flowers,--Rachel Ruijsch (1664-1750), is represented in The Hague Gallery by two Bouquets. In 1693 she was married, but she always signed her maiden name, and in several ways,--Ruijsch, Ruysch, and Ruisch. She took great pains with her pictures, and the amount of time spent on them limited their number. She is said to have given seven years to two pictures, Flowers and Fruits, which she gave to one of her daughters for a wedding present.

Blanc has most sympathetically described her qualities. He says:

=Her Truthfulness to Nature.=--"Whether she is painting the flowers of
the gardens or those of the field, which she groups so beautifully on
marble tables and calls around them fluttering butterflies and droning
bees, or beautiful ripe fruits that refresh the eyes and mind, Rachel
is always truthful, graceful, and clever. A colorist, she frankly
selects the brightest tones and combines them marvellously; a
draughtsman, she reproduces splendidly the most complicated forms,
while preserving to each plant its individual elegance, its aspect,
its way of holding itself, and foreshortening."

=Her Love of Nature.=--"In all justice, therefore, the Dutch rank
Rachel Ruijsch among their most excellent painters. She retained her
love of nature in all its freshness; it even seems as if she had a
weakness for rustic beauty, and that she found the same pleasure in
wandering about the country that others have in gardens and
greenhouses. Sometimes she even mingles thistles with her field
flowers, which she carelessly throws on a table; sometimes she chooses
an old tree-trunk overgrown with moss, upon which she places her bunch
of spring blossoms, while the insects hum around them, and the wings
of a beetle gleam through the shadow. Sometimes she brings a green
frog from some pool in the neighboring meadow and gives him a place in
her picture. In the infinite little world of great nature Rachel finds
no creature unworthy of her brush--not even the snail that crawls on
the leaf and is hunted away by the gardener, nor the little worm who
moves his variegated rings and spins his thread, destined to clothe
magnificent ladies, as he elevates himself into the air. Those insects
that we deem vile she honors in her paintings: she lets them lie on
her marble tables, crawl on the stem of the glass in which her peonies
and pinks are arranged; and she even allows them to devour the plums
and grapes of her picturesque collations. Nothing, however, is more
charming than her birds' nests, lined with lightest down and tiny
blades of grass, moss, and straw, expressed with the art and industry
of a wren or a tomtit."

The larger picture in The Hague Gallery is a charming group of roses and tulips, with butterflies and insects.

Rachel Ruijsch was a pupil of Willem van Aelst (1626-83?), whose Flowers (dated 1663) and Still Life (dated 1671) hang in The Hague Gallery.

=Description of One of Willem van Aelst's Pictures.=--M. de Burtin has described a picture by Willem van Aelst which gives an idea of all the works of this master:

"A table covered with a crimson velvet carpet bordered with golden
fringe, on which stands a drinking-vessel of antique shape half filled
with Rhine wine. The sides of this glass cup reflect several times and
in different views the street with the most magical and astounding
way, and in the very centre you see the reflection of the painter
himself, holding his palette. On one side of the cup are placed, on a
glass dish, four superb peaches and some roasted chestnuts; on the
other side are bunches of red and white grapes. Butterflies and other
insects add to the illusion, and the vine and peach leaves are
artistically used to decorate the beautiful pyramidal group that
stands out from a looped-back curtain of brownish yellow."

=Resemblance of his Work to that of Van Huysum.=--Although his name is less celebrated than that of Van Huysum, Willem Aelst is not very far removed from him in his beautiful productions; and certainly he surpasses Evert van Aelst (1602-58) who was his uncle and master. Without carrying finish to excess and preserving a certain freedom of touch, he knows how to express marvellously the delicate wings of a butterfly, the down of a peach, the dewdrops on a bunch of grapes, the feathers of a dead bird, and the wrinkles of a game-pouch.

=In Favor with Princes and Cardinals.=--Many of his works are in France, where he spent four years, and in Italy, where he lived seven years filling orders for princes and cardinals. He was only thirty years old when he returned to his native town, Delft; but he removed to Amsterdam, where his works brought high prices.

=His Favorite Subjects.=--The pictures by him representing dead birds are, as respects picturesque arrangement, finely balanced harmony of cool but transparent color, perfect nature in every detail, and delicate, soft treatment, admirable types of the perfection of the Dutch School. Specimens of this class are a picture in the Munich Gallery of two dead partridges and instruments of the chase, and another in the Berlin Museum signed "W. v. Aelst, 1653," representing a marble table with two woodcocks and other small birds, and two French partridges suspended above. His favorite subjects, however, were fruit and other eatables, herrings, oysters, bread, etc., with glasses and gorgeous vessels in gold and silver. Although Willem van Aelst owed much to his uncle Evert van Aelst, so famous for his dead birds and instruments of the chase, perhaps he owed still more to his other teacher, Otho Marcellis van Schrieck (1613-73), who acquired celebrity, excelling in a singular branch of art. He painted the humblest creatures,--frogs, snails, lizards, worms, serpents, and curious plants. The name of his master is unknown; but he painted entirely from nature and is said to have kept a kind of museum of serpents, vipers, insects and other curiosities. These he studied with great attention, and drew them with extraordinary fidelity and care, reproducing also their glowing and metallic hues.

=Two Pictures by Beijeren, and Two by Seghers.=--Another famous Flowers is that by Abraham van Beijeren (1620 or 1621-75), which was acquired at the Van Pappelendam sale in Amsterdam in 1889. A fine Fish and Lobster by the same painter should also be studied. The visitor will perhaps notice as he passes two pictures by Daniel Seghers (1590-1661), one a garland of flowers around a statuette of the Virgin; the other, a garland of flowers around the bust of William III. The bust was a later addition.

=Other Painters belonging to the Same Group.=--An interesting and curious work is Shells, by Balthasar van der Ast (?-1656). There is also a still life (1644) by Pieter Claez. To this group should be added Pieter Roestraeten (1627-1700), famous for his great vases of gold and silver, bas-reliefs, musical instruments, etc., which he designed with precision. He spent most of his time in London, where he was injured in the Great Fire (1666). Belonging to the same group are Pieter de Ring and Willem Kalf, whom we shall see in the Rijks, and the strange Christoffel Pierson, whose specialty was still life (particularly the attributes of the chase) and portraits. His works are very rare; but a peculiar combination of portraiture and still life hangs in The Hague Gallery, representing the pastor of the Protestant Church at Hoorn, Joris Goethals, and noticeable for the number of hunting implements and objects hanging on the wall. Though sombre and monotonous in tone, his touch and drawing are masterly. He thoroughly understood composition and distributed lights and shadows with skill. Pierson was turned aside from painting historical subjects and portraits by the success of Leemens, a painter of dead game, guns, etc., and speedily surpassed his model.

Jan van Os, Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os, and Marie Margrita van Os we shall see in the Rijks.

=Portrait of Rubens's Second Wife.=--Although Holland is not the land where we can study Rubens (1577-1640) in all his greatness, yet the Amsterdam Gallery and more particularly The Hague Gallery possess some splendid pictures by his hand. In the latter hang the portraits of his two wives. That of his second wife, the buxom Helena, whom he married on December 6, 1630, and who bore him five children, is a masterpiece of the first rank; certainly an entirely individual work of the artist's later period.

=Much of Rubens's Work done by his Pupils.=--Thus we immediately come to the question: What has the master himself and what have his pupils done on it? No master has left behind him a larger amount of painted surface of canvas and wood; but how unequal is the artistic value of all this material! We know how that happened. Overwhelmed with pressing orders and surrounded by a large throng of sometimes very able pupils, he often only made a sketch, leaving the chief work to his best pupils, and finally adding a few corrections; perhaps here or there a head or a figure that particularly interested him. Rubens made no secret of this fact; he often openly acknowledged what he and what his scholars had done on a work.

=Dr. Sperling's Visit to Rubens's Studio.=--An eye-witness, the Danish physician, Otto Sperling, who visited Rubens's studio in 1621, describes the master as walking up and down in his vast hall among his many pupils, making remarks and going over a picture here and there finally with a few brush-strokes. The Doctor jocularly adds: "It is supposed that everything is the work of Rubens, by which this man has amassed enormous wealth, and has been rewarded by kings and princes with great gifts and many jewels."

=His Pupils not very often allowed to assist him in Portraits.=--One should remember that this assistance of his pupils was generally confined to his greater historical pictures and church pieces; but the portraits that Rubens painted are not always entirely the work of his hand. Sometimes an order for a portrait was repeated, and his students made the replica of a well-known personality. Rubens painted portraits of small dimensions and then left them to be enlarged by able pupils; but he himself added the final touches.

=Dr. Bredius on the Portraits of Rubens's Two Wives.=--"Even in the
case of the portrait of one of his wives, we are not quite sure
whether the work is exclusively his own. There exist such a marvellous
number of these portraits, and, moreover, of such varied artistic
value, that we must at last conclude that the family and friends of
these ladies, who belonged to the best families in Antwerp, all
ordered portraits from Rubens, who painted some of them entirely and
others only in part.