The Standard Galleries - Holland Part 3

[Ill.u.s.tration: MOEYAERT The Visit of Antiochus to the Augur]

=Pieters and Lastman.=--Gerrit Pieters, the best pupil of C. Cornelisz, also went to Rome. He painted a.s.semblies, _genre_, and small portraits; his success prevented him from devoting himself to historical painting, which he preferred. A pupil of his was Pieter Lastman (1583-1633), who also made a long sojourn in Italy under Elsheimer's influence. He groped about in different styles for a long time, devoting himself princ.i.p.ally to Biblical subjects. He learned a good deal about light effects from Elsheimer; on his return he imparted what he knew to Rembrandt, who studied with him for a short time. Later, when his brilliant pupil grew famous, Lastman humbly followed his lead. Jan Lievens (1607-74), was another of his pupils. A picture by him, painted in 1622, when Rembrandt was still only fourteen years old, and therefore could not have influenced him, is in the Mauritshuis. It is called The Resurrection of Lazarus.

An artist who accompanied Lastman to Italy in 1605 was named Jan Pinas (f. 1608-21). He painted portraits, landscapes, and historical subjects.

=Herman Swanevelt's Study of Nature.=--Herman Swanevelt (Herman of Italy) (1600-55) was a pupil and imitator of Claude Lorraine in Rome, whither he went in 1624, and where his excessive application to study gained for him the name of "the Hermit" from the band of Dutch and German artists established in that city. Unlike Claude, with whom he used to walk in the environs of Rome, and who never sketched from nature, Swanevelt always had his pencil in his hand, taking note of all that he saw, studying the oaks and large plants, and copying the buildings, campaniles, and vine-wreathed arcades and ruins. He left nothing to his imagination. While Claude's landscapes speak of the Golden Age, Swanevelt's are actual reproductions of the country as he saw it. His buildings are not imaginary villas, temples, and palaces, but are the Roman ruins and the facades and cloisters that he knew. In his arrangement and composition he resembled Claude; and, like him, often placed in the corner of his picture wooded mountains or large trees, and sometimes even placed them in the very centre to make a striking contrast to the very light background.

Naturally rude and savage, Swanevelt contributed some of his character to his work. He liked bold mountains clothed with dark forests, deep ravines, solitary places, and torrents bounding from the rocks; and he understood how to mingle the heroic style with rural beauty.

Two Italian landscapes, one dated 1650, the other formerly attributed to Claude Lorraine, hang in the Mauritshuis.

=J. van Swanenburch.=--Rembrandt spent three years in the studio of J.

van Swanenburch (d. 1638), who had finished his studies at Rome, and worked in Naples for a long time, returning to Holland in 1617.

=Bloemaert, Founder of the School of Utrecht.=--Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651) const.i.tutes in many respects the link of transition with the succeeding epoch; for however his frequent mannerisms and gaudy coloring betray the tasteless period in which he was born, his later pictures show a power, taste, and broader touch. He painted a great number of religious and mythological subjects, portraits, landscapes, and animals.

By reason of his talent and his long life (ninety-two years), he exercised great influence over the School of Utrecht, and may be regarded as its founder.

=Some of his Pupils.=--Among his princ.i.p.al pupils may be mentioned: J.

and A. Both, the Honthorsts, J. B. Weenix, Knupfer, Cornelis van Poelemburg, and the father of Albert Cuijp. Two pictures painted in the prime of his life are in The Hague Gallery; they deserve attention if only for their size and the number of figures they contain. The subjects are: Hippomenes receiving the Prize (signed and dated 1626), and the Marriage of Peleus (signed and dated 1628). The latter was carried off by the French, but returned after 1815.

=Description of the Marriage of Peleus and Thetis.=--"It is composed of fourteen large figures, half nude, representing the G.o.ds of Olympus celebrating the marriage of Thetis. Seated at table and distinguished by their divine attributes, the G.o.ds appear to be troubled at the sight of Discord, who descends from above, borne on a cloud, and throws down among them the golden apple destined for the most beautiful. In the foreground, with her back turned to the spectator, is shown the figure of Venus, who displays unveiled her divine shoulders, her voluptuous neck, and her incomparably beautiful body, which will carry off the prize, and which has no need of the girdle of beauty to render the G.o.ddess beloved. Elsewhere than in The Hague Gallery this mythological painting would perhaps not excite more remark than any other picture, but there, in the midst of a family, _bourgeoise_, and Protestant school, which avoids the nude and ignores academic conventions and style, a picture of this kind cannot fail strongly to attract attention. Abraham Bloemaert, like the famous Cornelis of Haarlem, has the air of an Italian who has gone astray in these northern regions. These n.o.ble contours and learned lines, this modelling of the flesh pursued with a certain pedanticism by the former, and with grace and facility by the latter, and finally these more or less violent foreshortenings,--those, for instance, offered by this picture in the figures of Discord and the Loves who scatter flowers or suspend from trees the curtain that decorates the place of banqueting,--all this is at variance with the jollity and naturalism of the Dutch; all this betrays the influence of a foreign style, an influence that reigned in Holland in the sixteenth century, disappeared at the arrival of Rembrandt, and did not return till the appearance of Gerard de Lairesse, more than a century later."[3]

=Others who painted in the Italian Style.=--Nicholas (or Claes) Berchem (1620-83), Karel Dujardin (1622-78), and Jan (or Johannes) Both (1610-52), painted in the Italian style. Berchem was a pupil of his father, Pieter Claes, and of J. B. Weenix, Moeyaert, Pieter de Grebber, and probably Jan van Goyen. Karel Dujardin was a pupil of Berchem. All three travelled in Italy; and all three are represented in The Hague Gallery. Berchem has an Italian Landscape and Figures; an Italian Landscape or Pastoral (dated 1648), with life-sized figures.

=Berchem's Picture of a Boar-Hunt.=--A Wild Boar Hunt, of the year 1659, shows that he could successfully treat an animated scene. Crowe says:

"It is a model of precision combined with elegance of execution; though at the same time that blue dark tone which, to the eye of a connoisseur, so much detracts from the value of his later works, already partially appears. This is more seen in a landscape dated 1661 in the same museum, though otherwise belonging to his more attractive works. But here also the conventional and monotonous treatment of his cattle begins to be visible.... But the most striking example of the master's deterioration is afforded us by one of his latest works, the Cavalry Engagement, in The Hague Museum, which is a very type of crude and discordant effect and hardness of detail."

His fourth picture is An Italian Quay, dated 1661.

=Pictures by Dujardin, Jan Both, and Others.=--Karel Dujardin, famous for his animals, portraits, and landscapes, can be well studied in a fine Italian landscape, called A Cascade in Italy, rich and warm in tone and dated 1673.

Johannes Both has two Italian landscapes, one of which glows with sunshine and is remarkable for breadth and delicacy.

Other pictures showing this Italian influence are The Ambuscade and an Italian landscape by Moucheron, with figures by J. Lingelbach; the Terrestrial Paradise by Jan Brueghel the Elder; and The Torrent, by Adam Pynacker.

=Adam Pynacker and Jan Both compared.=--Pynacker, though inferior to Jan Both in his Italian landscapes, surpa.s.ses him in variety. His tone is cooler than Both's, and he excels in painting early morning scenes. In addition to pastoral scenes, he loves rocky heights, mountain ranges, Italian harbors, bold bridges, and waterfalls.

Pynacker enlivened his landscapes with human figures and cattle, both of which he was able to draw and paint extremely well.

=Albert Cuijp's Portrait of Sieur de Roovere.=--The famous Albert Cuijp (1620-91) belongs to this group, being a pupil of his father, Jacob Gerritsz Cuijp, who was a pupil of Abraham Bloemaert.

There is but one Cuijp in the Mauritshuis, Portrait of Sieur de Roovere directing the salmon fishery near Dordrecht, which need not detain us long, for we shall find more interesting examples of this master in the Rijks. Burger calls this A View in the Environs of Dordrecht, and says it is "a beautiful painting, but perhaps a little brusque." A gentleman wearing a black hat with red plumes and mounted on a bay horse, is seen on the left, to whom a fisherman in heavy boots is offering fish. On the right lies a spaniel. In the middle distance are some fishermen, a black horse, the other side of a ca.n.a.l, and a house. The two princ.i.p.al figures are about a foot high.

=The Beginning of the School of Dutch Landscape.=--Jan Hackaert (1629-99) forms a connecting link between those painters who represent Northern and those who represent Southern scenery. He travelled when young into Germany and Switzerland. The Hague has a good example of an Italian landscape with figures by Lingelbach; but better examples of his work are in the Rijks. This brings us to the beginning of the great school of Dutch landscape, when the painters began to take an interest in the scenery of their own country. Two great names are Jan van Goyen (1596-1666) and Jan Wijnants (1600-77), important not only because of their own productions, but because they were the first painters of Dutch landscape, and each had followers and pupils who attained great fame.

Jan van Goyen was a pupil of Esais van de Velde and the master of Salomon Ruisdael, who produced Jacob Ruisdael, who in turn produced Hobbema. Another famous pupil was Simon de Vlieger, who was also a follower of Willem van de Velde.

=Jan Wijnants and his Followers.=--Around Wijnants cl.u.s.ter Adriaen van de Velde, Wouwermans, Lingelbach, Barent Gael, Sch.e.l.linkx, and Helt Stockade.

=Characteristics of Van Goyen's Works.=--Jan van Goyen was fortunate in being the son of an amateur of painting, who encouraged his talent.

After studying with various artists of no special reputation, he travelled in France and on his return studied with Esais van de Velde.

He is always simple in painting and manner. Ordinarily he selects tranquil river scenes on which merchant ships or fishing-boats are quietly sailing. You often see hamlets on piles, and, very frequently, the steeple of a church, standing out in picturesque contrast to the horizon line. Sometimes a ruined tower forms the chief motive of his composition.

=His Marines and Watery Landscapes.=--One of the princ.i.p.al characteristics of Van Goyen's marines and landscapes is their peacefulness, calmness, and slight touch of sadness. It is not the sadness inspired by Ruisdael's groves, but a gentle melancholy feeling that touches the imagination and induces dreams. The sun never appears in Van Goyen's pictures. Humid clouds veil his skies, which in their light portions have the silvery tones of Teniers. His beach or sh.o.r.e is generally enveloped in a grayish mist, and in the moving clouds you feel the breath of wind and fancy you hear it sigh. His long flat surface, so dull and solitary, is animated only by a fishing-boat or a shallop.

Holland, because of its water-ways, is a silent country and the impression of silence and peace is marvellously reproduced in Van Goyen's pictures. He never allows a brilliant tone to disturb the uniformity and harmony of his watery landscapes; but behind the clouds that float across the sky you divine the far-away sun, like a light behind a curtain. The famous View of the City of Dordrecht, by the latter, signed and dated 1634, is a splendid example of his qualities and style.

=His Ill.u.s.trious Pupils.=--After his marriage, Van Goyen established himself in Leyden, his native town, where he opened a school, to which flocked painters who afterward became ill.u.s.trious. Among them was Jan Steen, who married Van Goyen's daughter Marguerite.

Only one of Esais van de Velde's (1590-1630) pictures--A Dinner in the Open Air, painted in 1614, hangs in this gallery, so that one cannot learn here how much Jan van Goyen owed to his master.

Hermann Saftleven (1606-81), a pupil of Jan van Goyen, painted, as a rule, views of the Rhine and Moselle with small boats and figures. He was a good portrait-painter and was successful with animals. His Landscape with Cattle is a charming example of his work.

To Salomon Ruisdael, who so greatly resembles Jan van Goyen with his pictures of ca.n.a.ls, bordered with houses and trees, river banks, etc., we shall return when visiting the Rijks; for the Mauritshuis possesses no picture of this artist. He taught his more famous brother.

=The Greatest of the Dutch Landscape-Painters.=--"Jacob Ruisdael (1628-82) is beyond all dispute the greatest of the Dutch landscape-painters. In the works of no other do we find that feeling for the poetry of Northern nature and perfection united in the same degree. With admirable drawing he combined a knowledge of chiaroscuro in its most multifarious aspects, a coloring powerful and warm, and a mastery of the brush, which, while never too smooth in surface, ranges from the tenderest and most minute touch to the broadest, freest, and most marrowy execution. The prevailing tone of his coloring is a full, decided green. Unfortunately, however, many of his pictures have, in the course of years, acquired a heavy brown tone, and thus forfeited their highest charm. Many also were originally painted in a grayish but clear tone."

=His Favorite Subjects.=--"He generally presents us with the flat and homely scenery of his native country under the conditions of repose; while the usually heavy clouded sky, which tells either of a shower just past or one impending, and dark sheets of water overshadowed by trees, impart a melancholy character to his pictures. Especially does he delight in representing a wide expanse of land or water. If the former, the scene is frequently taken from some elevation in the surrounding country, commanding a view of his native city, Haarlem, which is seen breaking the line of the horizon with its spires.

"Taken altogether, his wide expanses of sky, earth, or sea, with their tender gradations of aerial perspective, diversified here and there by alternations of sunshine and shadow, may be said to attract us as much by the deep pathos as well as picturesqueness of their character. On the other hand, we often find the great master taking pleasure in the representation of hilly and even mountainous districts, with foaming waterfalls, in which he has won some of his greatest triumphs; or he gives us a bare pile of rock, with a dark lake at its base; but these latter subjects, which embody the feeling of the most elevated melancholy, occur very rarely. In his drawing of men and animals he was weak, and occasionally obtained the a.s.sistance of other masters, especially of A. van de Velde and Berchem."

=Difference between his Earlier and Later Works.=--"As he seldom dated his pictures, and early attained his full development, we find a difficulty in determining the order in which they were painted. His earlier works, however, may be identified by the extraordinary minuteness with which all objects--trees, plants, and every diversity in the soil--are represented; by a decision of form bordering on hardness, and by less freedom of handling and delicacy of aerial perspective."[4]

=Reynolds's Estimate of him as a Landscape-Painter.=--Four very fine examples of Jacob van Ruisdael are owned by the Mauritshuis: a Cascade, a Strand, View of Haarlem, and View of the Vijver at The Hague.

After a study of these beautiful works, Sir Joshua Reynolds's estimate of the painter will not seem excessive: "The landscapes of Ruisdael," he says, "have not only great force, but have a freshness which is seen in scarce any other painter."

=His Character seen in his Paintings.=--Ruisdael is considered by many critics the greatest of the Dutch landscape-painters. His execution is always masterly, and his works always express a poetic sentiment.

Ruisdael delights in portraying sombre forests, rushing cascades, trees bent by the wind, gathering storm-clouds, and all the dark mysteries of the woodlands. His misfortunes probably had much to do with increasing his natural melancholy, to the great gain of his artistic development.

As a rule, the paintings of his mature period have greatly blackened because he loved to paint sombre backgrounds, and always used a very dark green for his foliage and other verdure. His earlier works have remained brighter in tint; for at the beginning of his career he painted the dunes and meadows, woods and roads near Haarlem, bathed in light from sunny skies half veiled with clouds.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUISDAEL Distant View of Haarlem]

=His Picture of Haarlem.=--The View of Haarlem, taken from the dunes of Overveen, shows a bird's-eye view of an immense stretch of country. In the foreground is shown a level meadow on which strips of white linen are being bleached; and on the left are the houses of the washerwomen.

Beyond, a vast stretch of country almost dest.i.tute of trees or dwellings, reaches to the horizon line, where the town of Haarlem, with its bell-tower, is discerned.

"All these miles of country," exclaims Burger, "are represented on a little canvas only one foot eight inches high!"

This picture is regarded as one of the gems of The Hague Gallery.

The Cascade is noted for its warm lighting and careful execution; and the beautiful Beach at Scheveningen for its heavy gathering clouds and dim and broken light upon the water and shipping.

=Ruisdael's Sea Pieces.=--Ruisdael's sea-pieces are few; and, unlike Willem van de Velde, he never represents the ocean in repose; his sea is always stormy and sometimes raging, and the sky is full of heavy, angry clouds. The waves are always fluid and full of motion.

=Some of his Notable Works.=--The Mauritshuis has the rare luck to possess three pictures by Ruisdael, which are splendidly preserved, and each of which exemplifies a separate style of the master. A fourth one, bought more recently, is also exceedingly interesting in its way, because it gives a view of the Vijverberg in The Hague; but the rest of this picture is of such dubious art, and the color so sunken, that it cannot hold its own beside the others in the collection. The Strand and the View of Haarlem belong to the artist's middle period (between 1660 and 1670) as well as the Cascade. Bredius says:

"The still, heavy impasto and the clearness of the color make me think it is one of the first waterfalls that Ruisdael painted. We never, or hardly ever, find pictures of the painter's earliest period (covering the years 1646 to 1655) in the Dutch galleries.

"A fine, strong, cleverly painted little picture of Ruisdael's, painted in 1653, was sent to the Amsterdam Gallery with the Dupper Collection. Another very clear, lovely, and beautifully worked study of the Dunes, with a Grove, similar to the picture in the Louvre, is owned by Madame van Vollenhoven in Amsterdam. A somewhat dark but strong and spirited study, the Hut in the Dunes, also of his early period, was lately acquired by the Haarlem Gallery, which hitherto had owned nothing of Ruisdael's. These early pictures, of which, for instance, the Leipzig Exhibition in the Autumn of 1889 was able to show very important examples (the figures are often supplied by Berchem), are very highly esteemed by connoisseurs."