Part 22 (2/2)
Sometimes it is a _roemer_, a cylindrical vase of Bohemian gla.s.s mounted in silver, a precious utensil transmitted from generation to generation. This is a picture that transports us to the intimate life of these domestic Dutchmen, attentive to all the delicacies of interior comfort.”
Jan's son, Cornelis, has also a piece called Flowers and Fruits in the same style.
=Seghers's Flowers.=--The striking picture of Flowers, by David Seghers, shows a stone cartouche with a little bust of Ceres framed in a garland of red and white roses, tulips, and many small flowers, around which hover numerous b.u.t.terflies.
=W. C. Heda, an Early Still-life Painter.=--Willem Claes Heda (1594-1668) was one of the earliest Dutchmen who devoted themselves exclusively to the painting of still life. Heda was the contemporary and companion of Dirk Hals, with whom he had in common pictorial touch and technical execution. But Heda was more careful and finished than Hals, and showed considerable skill and not a little taste in arranging and coloring chased cups and beakers and tankards of precious and inferior metals. Nothing is so appetizing as his Luncheon, with rare comestibles set out upon rich plate, oysters,--seldom without the cut lemon,--bread, champagne, olives, and pastry. Even the commoner Refection is also not without charm, as it comprises a cut ham, bread, walnuts, and beer.
=Van Gelder and Gillemans, Famous Painters of Still Life.=--N. van Gelder (d. 1660) painted birds, animals, and flowers with great finish and delicacy. His Poultry consists of a dead c.o.c.k on a black marble plinth, partly suspended by one of its feet from an iron hook fixed behind a partly open green curtain. To the left are two shot pigeons, a green velvet game-bag, and a fowling-piece.
Jan Paul Gillemans (1618-?) was famous for his still life. This gallery possesses one of his fruit pieces, in which grapes, oranges, lemons, plums, and apricots are temptingly displayed.
=Ykens, Painter of Flowers.=--Franchois Ykens (or Ikens) (1601-93), a painter of flowers and pupil of his uncle, Osias Beest, has a picture here that was formerly attributed to Francois Seghers. A stone cartouche, surrounded with a garland of roses, tulips, pinks, honeysuckle, clematis, etc., and bearing a representation of the mystic marriage of St. Catherine, is called simply Flowers.
=W. van Aelst and his Famous Pupil, Rachel Ruysch.=--Willem van Aelst delights us with his Flowers. On a brown marble slab in a niche stands an elegant vase containing roses, poppies, a pink, and other blossoms, around which a b.u.t.terfly is fluttering. A snail is crawling in the niche. On a brown table-cloth with gold fringe, to the right, is an open gold watch with a green ribbon attached. The picture is signed and dated 1662. Willem's famous pupil, Rachel Ruysch, may be seen here by a charming flower piece. A tree-trunk surrounded by red and white roses, poppies, convolvuluses, etc., and upon the stony ground, covered with moss and mushrooms, innumerable lizards, toads, snails, and various insects swarm. b.u.t.terflies hover over the flowers. Rachel Ruysch painted this picture in 1685, and gave it as a present to the famous painter, Ludolf Bakhuysen.
=Pieter Boel's Dead Game.=--Her contemporary, Pieter Boel, shows the influence of his master, F. Snyders, in Dead Game. A dead swan hangs by its foot to a tree. In the foreground, near a pedestal, are arranged two partridges and some other game, with a gun and a bra.s.s hunting-horn. On the left is a hound; and, in the background to the right, an owl on a cage with a little dead bird in front of it.
=Ma.r.s.eus, Painter of Lowly Animal Life.=--Another follower of Snyders was Otto Ma.r.s.eus van Schrieck. He excelled in the loving rendering of lowly animal life. His Nest is of natural size, with eggs lying on the moss near some thistles, wild mulberries, and red mushrooms. Around it flutter some b.u.t.terflies; on the right is a lizard, and on the left a Mayfly.
=A. Breughel's Still-life Pictures.=--His pupil, Abraham Breughel (1631-?), went to Rome; but little is known about him except that his favorite subject was still life. Like so many others, his flowers and fruits are painted natural size. The princ.i.p.al objects in his picture are a silver dish with figs, a silver bowl containing roses and gladioluses at the foot of a column, and black and white grapes, apples, etc., in the foreground.
=A. Cuijp, a Painter Catholic in his Tastes.=--Aelbert Cuijp was very catholic in his tastes. He occupied a country house near Dordrecht, called Dordwijck, where he painted everything that struck his fancy,--men, animals, fruits, flowers, and landscape. The poultry yard is noticed in a c.o.c.k and Hen scratching in the straw, with a broom and some blocks of red stone conspicuously placed. A hare, two pigeons, and other birds on a stone pillar compose his Dead Game. A painting called Fruits represents peaches on a blue plate on a table, and, beside the plate, white grapes, cherries, and green gooseberries. On the left is also a b.u.t.terfly. A charming jumble of peaches, black and white grapes, and various sh.e.l.ls make the picture, Fruits and Sh.e.l.ls, in which three b.u.t.terflies and a housefly are also prominent.
=One of Jan Weenix's Many Dead Swans.=--No Dutch gallery would be complete without a Dead Swan by Jan Weenix. Sir Joshua Reynolds admitted that he had seen no less than twenty during his visit to Holland. The dead swan is here suspended by the foot from a stone pedestal; on one side lie a peac.o.c.k, a partridge, and a thrush; and near them a branch from a rosebush and a basket of fruit. In the background is seen a park with a lake, statues, fountains, and large trees.
=Two of Mignon's Best Pictures.=--Abraham Mignon appears at his best in two pictures in this gallery called Flowers and Fruits. In the former we admire a vase on a stone table, filled with red and white roses, tulips, blue irises, poppies, pinks, convolvuluses, and ears of wheat; on the left on the table a mouse, snails, b.u.t.terflies, beetles, and other insects are painted with rare delicacy and truth. Insects and snails also occur in the second picture, in which the fruits are placed in a niche, and consist of a bunch of black grapes, a peach, a melon, an apricot, and some plums decorated with a vine leaf, wheat, and small flowers.
=A Still Life by Van Beyeren.=--Abraham Hendricksz van Beyeren was especially fond of painting flowers and marine life. His Sea Fish is an evidence of his excellence in this line. On a table is a basket containing whiting and a slice of salmon; in front of the basket are a crab, some soles, some slices of cod, and a knife.
=Van den Broeck's Flowers.=--Elias van den Broeck (1653-1711), a pupil of Jan de Heem, delighted to immortalize on canvas the flowers he cultivated in his beautiful garden. A stone plinth with roses and Indian cress; and, in front, chrysanthemums and creepers, a lizard, two snails, and b.u.t.terflies are the chief features of his Flowers.
=Van Os, Another Good Flower-painter.=--Georgius Jacobus Johannes van Os (1782-1861) was a worthy successor of the seventeenth-century masters of this school. Flowers and Flowers and Fruits are artistically composed and lovingly painted. The former consists of an Etruscan vase filled with roses, blue irises, tulips, and anemones, standing on a marble table. The second picture represents, on a marble plinth in a niche, a melon, a pear, and a bunch of black grapes with roses, convolvuluses, poppies, and other flowers.
=His Pupil, Hendrik Reekers.=--His pupil, Hendrik Reekers (1815-54), has here Fruits, Vegetables, and Game, arranged on a marble table. A basket is full of white and black grapes, a cut lemon, and some oranges, plums, peaches, and an artichoke, mingled with flowers. Above these hang a partridge and a grouse.
=Flowers, by Steenbergen.=--Flowers, by Albertus Steenbergen (1814- ), consists of roses, poppies, lilacs, convolvuluses, nasturtiums, etc., arranged in a vase that stands on a marble plinth. On the right flutters a b.u.t.terfly.
=Still Life, by Maria Vos.=--Still Life by Maria Vos (b. 1824) consists of a stone plinth partly covered with a piece of matting on which stand a white c.o.c.k and a black hen, an overturned basket of oranges and lemons, a copper dish, and a porcelain bowl; and on the wall a stone jug with a pewter top.
=Flowers, by Margaretha Roosenboom.=--In Flowers, by Margaretha Roosenboom (1843), we have a silver vase filled with roses, standing on a table with a green cover. In the background, a green curtain is half drawn.
=Two Excellent Hunting Scenes by Hondius.=--Abraham Hondius (1638-91), who excelled in painting the different breeds of dogs and other animals, and hunting scenes, with much fire and action, has two pictures here. A Boar Defending Itself Against Dogs shows the furious beast at bay, with four dying or dead dogs under him in the foreground. On the left three more dogs are rus.h.i.+ng to the attack. The features of the landscape are three trees, with a mountainous background. The other picture, of exactly the same size, depicts a Bear Attacked by Dogs. The bear is standing on his hind legs with a dog under him, and throwing another into the air, while he hugs the life out of another. On the right and left, more dogs are rus.h.i.+ng to attack. There is a dying dog in the left foreground. On the right, in the middle distance, there are two trees near a rock, and a cascade, and the background is mountainous. Both pictures are signed and dated 1672.
=Bird Pictures by the Hondecoeters, Father and Son.=--Gijsbert de Hondecoeter shows his loving study of the gallinaceous tribe in c.o.c.k and Hens. In the foreground is a black hen with a white comb; and behind her are a sitting yellow hen and a standing white one; still farther back are three more hens, one perched on the branch of a tree. To the left sits a brown hen with a black comb, with a yellow-brown c.o.c.k behind. The ground is strewed with oyster sh.e.l.ls and straw. Three hens are in the background. The picture is signed and dated 1652.
Melchior de Hondecoeter, who surpa.s.sed his father as a painter of birds alive and dead, enriches this collection with his Dead Game. In a grotto at the foot of some ruins a dead bittern and two partridges are hanging.
In front are two gulls; and on the right are a hunting-horn, tied with a red ta.s.selled cord, a green velvet bag, a kingfisher, and two finches.
In the middle distance is a fowling-piece with a shoulder belt and net.
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