Part 24 (1/2)
=Pencz's Savant in his Cabinet.=--George Pencz (d. 1550) was a pupil of Albert Durer, who also went to Rome and studied under Raphael. He painted therefore much the same cla.s.s of subjects and in the same style as Van Orley. His Savant in his Cabinet is an interesting interior. The savant is seated at a table covered with a green carpet, his head rests on his right hand, and his left is extended toward a death's head. He is dressed in red and wears a red cap. Behind the table is a desk on which are an open book and a copper chandelier with an extinguished candle.
Through an open window in the background a landscape is visible.
=The Drinker, by D. Ryckaert.=--Another good study is The Drinker, by David Ryckaert (1612-77), a pupil of his father, Maerten Ryckaert, and who formed himself on Teniers, Brouwer, and Ostade. The man in a brown coat with red sleeves and a red cap is seated at a table with a pewter mug in one hand and a pipe in the other. A pewter plate and an earthenware jug stand on the table.
=Pictures containing Human Figures, by Muys.=--Nicholas Muys (1740-1808) has three scenes in _grisaille_ from plays, A Study in Light, two Interiors, and a Landscape with Figures. The last shows a monument in the shadow of an oak, and before it a gentleman, lady, and little child in the costume of the end of the eighteenth century. A beggar and his family sue for charity. Near the monument are three other persons. Two ducks are being pursued by dogs in the foreground, a hut is seen among the trees in the distance, and a village lies on the horizon.
One of the Interiors represents an apartment of the eighteenth century, where a lady dressed in a green robe is showing a little picture to two gentlemen. The other Interior is a richly carved vestibule, in which stands a lady in a violet silk dress and a blue hat; by her side on the floor are a dead heron, a partridge, a hare, and some rabbits, and the live greyhound that helped to catch them. Through a door in the centre is seen the kitchen, where the huntsman and his wife are preparing the vegetables; and there are two other persons, one of whom is hanging a cage from the ceiling.
In A Study in Light the painter has grouped a number of objects,--a bust of Homer on a white marble table, a guitar, music-books, and a chair with a violin on it,--and lighted them from a candle in a silver chandelier. In the background a lady is standing before an open clavecin with a sheet of music in her hand.
=An Interior, by J. B. Scheffer.=--Johan Baptist Scheffer, who died in Amsterdam in 1809, has here An Interior, showing a room in which a young peasant woman is sitting at a table preparing vegetables. Beside her stands a pedler who has placed his right hand on her shoulder, while his left dangles a gold chain before her eyes. On the left, a little girl is amusing herself by scaring a cat with her dog; in the background an open door gives a view through the next room into the street.
=Ary Scheffer's Training.=--Scheffer's more famous son, Arie (1795-1858), inherited talent also from his mother, Cornelia Lamme, a very distinguished miniature-painter. He received his first instruction from his father and in Paris studied under Pierre Guerin. Gericault and Eugene Delacroix joined him in striking into a new path of art.
=His Two Paintings of Ulrich of Wurtemburg.=--Here Arie Scheffer has two sketches--Heads of Two Children, and A Shepherd Under a Stormy Sky, and two large canvases on Uhland's ballad representing Ulrich, son of Count Eberhard of Wurtemburg. He first represents the young warrior who, having lost the Battle of Reutlingen, returns to Stuttgart and finds his father at the table alone. He has a cold welcome; and Count Eberhard without greeting him takes a knife and cuts the table-cloth in halves.
In Scheffer's picture Ulrich is standing by the table on the right, and the angry father is cutting the table-cloth. Exasperated by this insult, Ulrich returned to the army and, throwing himself into the thickest of the fray at Doffingen, was killed. The old count spent the night weeping over the body of his only son. The companion picture, called The Weeper, represents the bereaved father with clasped hands seated by Ulrich's body, which still is in armor and lying on a bearskin in the tent.
=Hendrik Scheffer's The First Child.=--Arie's younger brother, Hendrik Scheffer (1798-1862), also a pupil of Guerin, was a capable painter whose work, The First Child, hangs in this gallery. A young mother in bed receives a visit from her husband, who is kissing her hand. On the right the nurse is seen with the child in her arms.
=A Similar Picture by Cornelis Troost.=--Another similar picture is by Cornelis Troost. The lady is lying in bed eating her breakfast. Near her are a cradle, a nurse with the baby, and a little girl. The wall is hung with portraits, and a clock and a painted screen are seen.
=Brakenburg's Malade Imaginaire and Interior.=--Richard Brakenburg (1650-1702), a pupil of Ostade, has a _Malade Imaginaire_, in which a young woman in blue rests languidly on her pillow, attended by a physician, who is feeling her pulse. A little dog plays by her side, and several persons are variously grouped and laughing. A parrot cage hangs from the ceiling. This picture is dated 1696. A different phase of life appears in his Interior, showing a large room full of peasants, including women and children. They are laughing at an owl on a perch, because a man dressed in a black satin doublet is giving it a piece of cake on the point of a knife. A bird-cage hangs from the ceiling.