Part 4 (2/2)
=His Skill as a Colorist.=--”The paintings of this artist have an additional attraction in their rich and harmonious coloring, the fineness of the tone, and the peculiar tender manipulation of the pigments, which have such a soothing artistic effect.
”Some pictures painted in his last years have suffered by the sinking in and change of color (notably the increase of blue in the green leaf.a.ge), by which some of their effect has been lost. The Landscape with Cattle has not sunk in; but it has, nevertheless, lost some of its original color in the green of the trees. The idyllic landscape with its joyous, bright sunlight and its peaceful animal life, is a good specimen of this style of Van de Velde's work. The picture is signed 'A. V. Velde, 1663.'”[5]
=His Sea Pieces.=--The second picture of this artist in this gallery, A Dutch Strand (1665) with numerous figures, is more important. Two similar views of the seash.o.r.e by him are at Ca.s.sel and in the Six collection; and all these examples show that great and simple representation of the sea, in which he is also remarkable for his fine poetic feeling, equalling that in similar works by his brother Willem.
=Wouwermans's Delight in painting Horses.=--Philips Wouwermans's (1619-68) half century of life was industriously spent in producing about eight hundred pictures. Although his preference for the representation of the horse is evident in almost all his works, there is great variety in the treatment. Wouwermans is at the same time a striking landscape-painter. In many of his pictures the landscape is astonis.h.i.+ngly often foreign and sometimes even Italian in subject, and the figures are merely lay-figures. The Country Riding-School plainly exhibits the artist's delight in horses. How beautifully painted are the grays on the right! He draws a brown horse so often that it must have been in particular favor. Some of his pictures must certainly have cost the painter a great deal of time, especially when numerous figures occur in them; as, for instance, in his horse-fairs and battle pictures.
=The Fruits of his Great Industry.=--It would appear that Wouwermans was well paid, for he was able to give his daughter, who married the flower-painter, De Fromantiou, a handsome dower,--Houbraken says 20,000 gulden! He was buried with pomp in Haarlem, on May 23, 1668, having bequeathed to his widow, who was destined not to survive him two years, a very good estate; and to us such a treasury of his art that we can enjoy it all over the world, in almost every important public and private collection.
=The Variety and Abundance of his Works.=--Whether he shows us the horse wildly rearing in the battle or quietly watering at the river, or being trained by an expert hand, or returning home to a well-cared-for stall after a long ride, we always admire again the rich variety of the master, who, an eminent horseman of knowledge and enthusiasm, never wearies us as such. Many of his pictures are a true reproduction of the farm life, or of the warfare of his day; and, on that account, have, moreover, a historical value. Dresden alone possesses sixty-two, and St.
Petersburg fifty, of his pictures. The Hague Gallery has to be content with nine. These are a Battle; the Hunt with Falcon; Arrival and Departure from an Inn; A Country House; The Hay-Wagon; the Hunters'
Halt, a charming example of his earliest period; A Landscape with Horses; and a Camp. In all these the horse plays an important part.
=Description of The Hay-Wagon.=--The Hay-Wagon is a popular work representing a large ca.n.a.l and a large hay-wagon drawn by two horses, and a man on horseback with a woman behind him on a pillion; farther away are seen men loading boats with the hay. In the foreground on the right are a woman with a little boy, a chariot drawn by a horse which is led by a peasant.
[Ill.u.s.tration: P. WOUWERMANS The Hay Wain]
=The Arrival at an Inn.=--The beautiful Arrival at an Inn represents an inn and a barn. On the one side a coach is arriving, and on the left a mounted lady and cavalier. Others are getting booted and spurred and saddling mettlesome steeds prefatory for departure. In the left foreground, a dwarf, a charlatan, and a monkey, eating a simple meal, regardless of the bustle around them, give a touch of the life of the travelling mountebank. A handsome castle closes the view on the left.
[Ill.u.s.tration: P. WOUWERMANS The Arrival at the Inn]
=Crowe's Appreciation of Wouwermans.=--”Wouwermans's authentic works are distinguished by great spirit and animation, and are infinitely varied and full of incident, though dealing recurrently with cavalry battle pieces, military encampments, scenes of cavalcades, and hunting and hawking parties. He is equally excellent in his vivacious treatment of figures, in his skilful animal painting, and in his admirable and appropriate introduction of landscape backgrounds. Three different styles have been observed as characteristic of the various periods of his art. His earlier works are marked by the prevalence of a foxy brown coloring, and by a tendency to an angular form in the draughtsmans.h.i.+p; the productions of his middle period have greater purity and brilliancy, and his latest and greatest pictures possess more of force and breadth, and are full of a delicate silvery gray tone.”[6]
=Reynolds on Wouwermans's Three Different Manners.=--On his visit to the Royal Collection in 1781, Sir Joshua Reynolds was greatly impressed with the pictures of this artist, and said:
”Here are many of the best works of Wouwermans whose pictures are well worthy the attention and close examination of a painter. One of the most remarkable of them is known by the name of The Hay-Cart; another, in which there is a coach and horses, is equally excellent. There are three pictures hanging close together in his three different manners: his middle manner is by much the best; the first and last have not that liquid softness which characterizes his best works. Besides his great skill in coloring, his horses are correctly drawn, very spirited, of a beautiful form, and always in unison with their ground.
Upon the whole, he is one of the few painters whose excellence in his way is such as leaves nothing to be wished for.”
Johannes Lingelbach (1623-74), a native of Frankfort-on-the-Main, settled in Amsterdam on his return from Italy. He was frequently employed by Wijnants to insert figures and animals in his landscapes. He was a successful imitator of Wouwermans.
=Crowe's Estimate of Lingelbach's Powers.=--”Lingelbach's coloring, as was almost always the case with Wijnants's, and also with Wouwermans's in his latest manner, is characterized by a cool and often delicate silvery tone, which with him sometimes degenerates into coldness and want of harmony. In his flesh, especially, a cold red tone often prevails, added to which, neither in clearness nor impasto, does he equal the above-named masters. He ranks, however, high for skill in composition, good drawing, careful execution, to which is sometimes added a happy vein of humor. He may be studied under all his different aspects in the galleries of the Louvre, The Hague, and Amsterdam. Of the four pictures by him in the gallery of The Hague, the Italian Seaport, dated 1670, is remarkable for a power and warmth quite unusual in this painter.”[7]
=Examples showing the Variety of Lingelbach's Style.=--The variety of his style is well exhibited in The Hague Gallery by four pictures of different dates. These are the Italian Seaport, with large figures, signed and dated 1670; the Departure of Charles II. from Scheveningen for England in 1660, a very rich, luminous, and fine work; a small Cavalry March, in which the little figures are beautifully executed and are thoroughly original; and a Landscape with a Hay-Wagon, much in the manner of Philips Wouwermans.
=Weakness of the Mauritshuis in Marines.=--The Mauritshuis is weak in marines: two by Willem van de Velde; three by Backhuysen, two by Abraham Storck, a view of the Amstel at Amsterdam by Torenburg (1737-86), a few Italian Seaports, and a few Beaches at Scheveningen painted by the landscape artists are all that the gallery owns.
=Excellence of W. van de Velde's Marines.=--Willem van de Velde (1633-1707) stands very high in the ranks of the marine painters of the seventeenth century. In the last years of that century we have artists like Simon de Vlieger, Jan van de Capelle, Hendrik Dubbels, and Abraham van Beyerex (in his rare marines); but Van de Velde is a master in his sphere, especially when he represents the calm sea under bright sunlight.
In his View on the Y we obtain enjoyment from the fine aerial perspective, the correct drawing of the s.h.i.+ps, and the numerous little figures. The accuracy of the detail does not detract from the wonderful composition, the play of the sunlight on sail and water, and the beautiful sky, lightly flecked with clouds. Probably, the gaily decorated s.h.i.+p on the left is the yacht of the Princes of Orange; the boat which is being rowed away from it is bringing important visitors to sh.o.r.e, while the trumpeter on the s.h.i.+p loudly announces their departure.
Although not of the very first rank, this picture belongs to the best work of the master's middle period.
The other picture, of exactly the same size, is also identical in subject and treatment. Both are small. The other picture owned in the Mauritshuis is the Capture of the Royal Prince (June 18, 1666).
=His Greatness as a Marine Painter.=--”There is no question that Willem van de Velde the younger is the greatest marine painter of the whole Dutch school. His untiring study of nature of which his numerous sepia drawings are the best evidence, his perfect knowledge of lineal and aerial perspective and the incomparable technical process which he inherited from his school,--all these qualifications enabled him to represent the great element under every form, whether that of the raging storm, the gentlest crisping wind, or of the profoundest calm, with the utmost truth of form and color. Nor are his skies, with their transparent ether and light and airy clouds, less ent.i.tled to admiration than his seas; the surface of which he diversified, with the purest feeling for the picturesque, by various vessels, near and distant, which are drawn with a knowledge that extends to every rope.
Finally his various lightnings create the most charming effect of light and shade. With this combination of qualities, so calculated to please a seafaring nation, it is no wonder that he should have become the most popular painter with the Dutch and English.”[8]
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