Part 5 (1/2)
=The Fulness of his Knowledge of the Sea and s.h.i.+ps.=--Both England and Holland, the two greatest sea nations, agree that Willem van de Velde was the greatest marine painter up to his time. In fact, no one had so well observed the motion of the waters, their breaking, or their repose; and no one knew so well the habits of sailors, the rigging of boats, their behavior and their variety. He knew how to make them picturesque, whether isolated between the sky and the water in the most beautiful lines, or in cleverly foreshortening them while they gently rock on the waves singly, or in picturesque groups. n.o.body has better understood the profound calm of the ocean, or better expressed the emotion produced by an infinite horizon.
=The Van de Velde Family.=--The family was talented. Willem the Elder, born at Leyden in 1611, was a magnificent draughtsman, and taught his sons, Willem and Adriaen, drawing. Willem, however, became a pupil of Simon de Vlieger, and the pictures that he sent to his father, then in the service of the English king, astonished the Court. James II. sent for the young man and offered him a pension. In England he frequently colored his father's drawings; and on the Thames from Greenwich to London he had a great opportunity for the study of s.h.i.+pping.
=The Simplicity of W. van de Velde's Pictures.=--With very simple details, Willem van de Velde produces marvellous effects. He paints the ocean from the sh.o.r.e to the distant horizon; and this straight line is in beautiful contrast to the rounded clouds, while the severity of the tall masts is relieved by the curves of the puffing sails. Sometimes a group of fishermen on the beach or the end of a wharf of piles is seen in the foreground; but he more frequently begins his picture in the middle distance and gives the foreground up to waves slightly agitated or with a buoy tossing in the rising tide, in such a way as to suggest that the picture was painted not from the sh.o.r.e but from a vessel at anchor.
=W. van de Velde compared with other Painters.=--Sir Joshua Reynolds said: ”Another Raphael might be born; but there could never be a second Willem van de Velde”; and Havard calls him ”not only the greatest marine painter of the Dutch school, but also one of the greatest in the whole world.” Blanc draws the following distinction between Van de Velde and Backhuysen: ”Backhuysen makes us fear the sea, whilst Van de Velde makes us love it.”
=Backhuysen, a Painter of s.h.i.+ps and s.h.i.+pping.=--Backhuysen (1631-1708) probably owed his darker moods to his master Allart van Everdingen, who was a pupil of Pieter Molijn (1600-54), whose works are now so rare, and who was also one of the founders of Dutch landscape-painting. Backhuysen was a painter of s.h.i.+ps and s.h.i.+pping, as well as of the sea, and had a practical knowledge of nautical matters.
=Examples showing his Style.=--Three pictures in The Hague Gallery afford good examples for study of his style. One, Entrance to a Dutch Port, dated 1693, shows an agitated sea, very remarkable for the happy distribution of sunlight and shadows of clouds upon the water, and broad yet delicate treatment; another is a View of the Wharf Belonging to the Dutch East India Company, and is dated 1696; and the third has for its subject The Landing of William III. of England in the Oranje Polder in 1692.
=Imitators of Backhuysen.=--Pictures by Jan van de Capelle and Jan Dubbels often pa.s.s for Backhuysen's; and another imitator is Abraham Storck, who is greatly inferior in elegance of touch. Good examples of Storck's style--a Marine and a Sh.o.r.e--hang in The Hague Gallery. Storck was much influenced by Lingelbach. The latter was also quite successful with his harbors and quays, with their s.h.i.+pping and human figures.
=Simon de Vlieger as a Painter of the Ocean.=--A greater painter, however, is Simon de Vlieger (1601-59), who is supposed to have studied under Jan van Goyen, and painted landscapes in the style of that master; he is famous for his marines. He frequently painted sea pieces which included the coast. He was the first to represent the ocean in its varying moods. His execution is free and soft, and his aerial perspective very fine. Like the majority of the Dutch painters he loved to paint Scheveningen. His Beach at Scheveningen, signed and dated 1643, is a fine example of his work.
=The Diversity of his Subjects.=--”De Vlieger often paints birds of the farmyard, which, both in truth and delicacy, are equal to anything produced either by Hondecoeter or Flamen. His horses, hares, and sheep may certainly pair with those of Van der Hecke, Jouckeer, or Jean Leducq; his pigs are observed differently from those of Karel Dujardin, but perhaps they are more true to nature because he has not put any malice or irony into his representation of them. The diversity of his subjects, the talent he displays in grouping figures and animals in an extensive landscape, or in a boat pa.s.sing along a ca.n.a.l, or on the beach of Scheveningen where, in The Hague picture, we see them huddling together as if the ocean had just cast them ash.o.r.e with its sh.e.l.ls and fishes; the art of lighting them so as to delight the eyes without too greatly distracting the mind from the spectacle of vast nature and the infinite ocean--all that makes Simon de Vlieger one of the most remarkable Dutch masters.”[9]
De Vlieger was as eminent in interiors, ruins, and processions as in marines and landscapes. He loved to frame familiar and rustic scenes in beautiful landscapes; and he had no need to call upon others, such as Barent Gael, Sch.e.l.linkx or Van de Velde, for his figures, as so many of his contemporaries did.
=Painters of Architectural Pictures: De Vries.=--Pictures in which architecture forms the chief interest had their beginning with Jan Vriedeman de Vries, who devoted himself to the study of Vitruvius and Serlio. His works were very successful, though in the mannered taste of his time.
=Hendrik van Steenwyck and his Son.=--A scholar of his, Hendrik van Steenwyck (1550-1604), who became a master in Antwerp in 1577, painted chiefly interiors of Gothic churches of fine perspective, both lineal and aerial, and was the first to represent the light of torches and tapers on architectural forms. One of the very numerous Francken family usually added the human figures. His son Hendrik van Steenwyck was his pupil and follower, though he painted in a cooler tone and was inferior in all respects.
=Pieter Neeffs and his Son.=--Pieter Neeffs (1620-75), however, was the elder Steenwyck's best pupil. He followed him in style but excelled him in warmth of tone, power, and truthfulness in expressing torchlight effects. Many of his pictures contain figures by Frans Francken the younger, Jan Breughel, and David Teniers the elder. In the Mauritshuis we find a good example of Pieter Neeffs,--The Interior of a Church, with figures by Frans Francken III.
His son of the same name was his pupil and follower, but produced pictures of inferior merit. To this group belongs Bartholomew van Ba.s.sen, who painted interiors of the Renaissance churches and halls.
=Van der Heyden's Architectural Paintings.=--Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712) is ”the Gerrit Dou of architectural painters.” His subjects chiefly are well-known buildings, palaces, churches, etc., in Holland and Belgium, ca.n.a.ls in Dutch towns with houses on their banks, fine perspective, the views selected with great taste. The trees are rather minute in foliage. The figures in many of his works were supplied by A.
van de Velde, and after his death by Eglon van der Neer and Lingelbach.
A View of the Church of the Jesuits at Dusseldorf, signed and dated 1667, is a valuable work. The figures are by A. van de Velde. ”The warm, clear chiaroscuro in which the whole foreground is kept is admirable, while the sunlight falling on the middle distance has a peculiar charm.”[10] He is also represented in The Hague Gallery by a still life.
=Other Architectural Painters.=--Other architectural painters are Gerrit Berckheyde, who painted exteriors of buildings in his own country, and occasionally interiors of churches; Jacob van der Ulft (1627-90), whose large picture in the Mauritshuis of troops marching has already been mentioned; Pieter Saenredam, whose works form a transition from the earliest architectural painters like Pieter Neeffs to the maturest expression of this cla.s.s; Dirck van Deelen, a pupil of Frans Hals, who has a view of the Binnenhof with the last great Meeting of the States General; Emanuel de Witte, who, strange to say, was a pupil of Evert van Aelst, the painter of dead game and still life; Hendrik van Vliet, pupil of his father, Willem, who has an interior of part of the Old Church at Delft in the Mauritshuis, of peculiar warmth, brilliancy of effect, and delicate treatment of reflected lights; and last of all, Gerard Houckgeest (?-1655), who is represented by the Interior of the New Church at Delft and Tomb of William I. in the New Church at Delft.
=The Excellence of Houckgeest's two Paintings.=--”This almost unknown artist is a new proof of the astonis.h.i.+ng efflorescence of excellent painters in Holland about the middle of the seventeenth century. Two views of the Interior of the New Church at Delft, in The Hague Museum, are on a level with the highest development of the school. It would be difficult to render the brilliancy and transparency of full sunlight more completely than in the one which contains the monuments of the Princes of the House of Orange. The other picture also, inscribed with the master's monogram, and 1631, is in every respect, and especially in the soft and full treatment, of the utmost excellence.”[11]
=Dou, Founder of the Leyden School.=--The founder of the Leyden school of painters, Gerrit Dou (1613-75), is represented in the Mauritshuis by a masterpiece of the first rank, which is considered one of the gems of the gallery. It is known as The Good Housekeeper, The Household, and The Young Mother.
=Description of The Good Housekeeper.=--In a large room that serves as hall, dining-room, and sitting-room, as well as kitchen, is seated a lady, handsomely dressed in a morning costume. She has evidently just returned from market; for there is a plucked fowl in a basket on the window seat and an unplucked bird on the table, where a cabbage also lies. A hare hangs on the wall above, and below the table one notes a fish on a platter, and near a pot a bunch of carrots. A lantern has fallen on the floor in the foreground. The lady is sewing, with a basket beside her and a sewing-pillow on her knee; while a little servant watches the baby in its basket cradle. The pillar that supports the roof is carved, the bra.s.s chandelier is of splendid design, the draperies are heavy, and a coat-of-arms is painted on the windows. Everything betokens wealth and comfort.
The young mother looks at us in a very friendly way with her attractive little face. Our attention is first attracted to the group in the foreground; but gradually we admire the complete representation of all the little things around; the wonderful, finely expressed chiaroscuro, the beautiful stream of light, and the boldness of the shadowed yet plainly visible group in the background. The picture belongs to the artist's middle period and is dated 1658; and although it has darkened, it is still full of rich color.
[Ill.u.s.tration: GERRIT DOU The Good Housekeeper]
=The Good Housekeeper presented to Charles II.=--When Charles II. left Holland for his Restoration in England, the directors of the East India Company could think of no finer present to offer him than a picture by Gerrit Dou, which they bought for 4,000 florins from M. de Bie. It was this very picture of The Good Housekeeper, which was afterwards brought back to Holland by William III. and hung in his castle at Loo.
=Dou's Style imitated by his Pupils.=--It is by such pictures that we test the numerous works of his pupils, which are now, and have been from the end of the seventeenth century, offered for sale as Dou's. Very early in life Dou made use of magnifying gla.s.ses, and with great care he ground his own colors. Sandart relates that he once went with Pieter de Laer to pay a visit to Dou, who was painting a broomstick ”which was slightly longer than a finger-nail.” When Sandart praised his great industry, he answered that he ”had to work about three days longer on it.”
=His Devotedness to his Work.=--When the weather was not fine, he stopped his work. He devoted his whole life to work. His palette, colors, and brushes he carefully protected from dust, which gave him much trouble; he put them away with the utmost care, and when he sat down to paint he would wait a long time until the dust had entirely settled. His studio was a large one with high lights, facing the north and looking out on the still waters of the ca.n.a.l.
=His Fondness for Domestic Subjects.=--He almost always depicts a view of the interior of a burgher's dwelling. He is the painter of nice, quiet domesticity, and his people almost invariably look gay and happy.