Part 17

As his name denotes, Rembrandt Harmensz van Rijn (1606-1669) was born on the banks of the Rhine, his father being a miller at Leyden. When fourteen years of age he entered the university of his native town and had a classical education, which stood him in good stead through his long and troubled career. Although he was at first placed as a pupil of Jacob van Swanenburgh, he at an early age removed to Amsterdam. There he worked under Pieter Lastman (1583-1633), whose _Abraham’s Sacrificing Jacob_ (No. 2443A) of 1616 is hung opposite the works of his illustrious pupil. The independent spirit of Rembrandt soon asserted itself, and as early as 1627 he placed his name on pictures which still exist, notably in the Berlin and Stuttgart museums. His earliest picture in the Louvre is the _Old Man Reading_ (No. 2541A), which is signed and dated 1630, and was presented by M. Kaempfen, a former Director of this gallery, on his retirement. Three years later came the two small and very similar versions (No. 2540 and No. 2541) of the _Philosopher in Meditation_, the former of which is signed and dated; in 1633 was painted the _Portrait of the Artist_ (No. 2552), while another oval picture of the same subject (No. 2553) is inscribed 1634. In this early period the artist was in the habit of portraying members of his own family, who were naturally his most accessible models.

At this moment of his career Rembrandt had to measure himself with many rivals in Amsterdam, notably with Thomas de Keyser (1596?-1667), whose _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 2438A) was formerly in the Rodolphe Kann collection, while a half-length _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 2438B), also by de Keyser, was formerly at Versailles. From the trammels and restrictions which the art of de Keyser would have been likely to impose on a less gifted and original mind, Rembrandt readily set himself free; and he must have had great hopes for the future when, in 1634, he took to wife the wealthy Saskia van Uylenborch. However, the oval _Portrait of Himself wearing a black cap_ (No. 2554), dated 1637, is of marked inferiority to the dignified and deeply religious panel, _The Archangel Raphael leaving Tobias and his Father Tobit_ (No. 2536), of the same year. A year later he must have painted the _Portrait of an Old Man_ (No. 2544), and his first pure landscape.

The influence of domestic bereavements on Rembrandt’s art is clearly reflected in the choice of his subjects, in their more intimate setting, and in the deep feeling which evidently inspired them. No better example of this side of his character and his art could be found than the _Holy Family in the Carpenter’s Shop_ (No. 2542), which he painted in 1640. In that year his mother died, an event which followed rapidly on the death of his two infant daughters and his son, and his wife’s frequent illness. He, however, still went on painting such varied compositions as the _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 2546), of 1645, and the _Woman Bathing_ (No. 2550), which he achieved two years later.

The famous _Night-Watch_, in the Amsterdam Gallery, testifies to his inventive faculty in 1642, the year in which the death of his beloved Saskia caused him intense grief. From this he never really recovered, as we see from the frequency with which during the remainder of his life he painted pathetic subjects. What artist in the whole history of painting has been able to impart to his rendering of the _Good Samaritan_ the kindly solicitude of the principal character in this parable, and the feeling of complete collapse seen in the body of the wounded man, as Rembrandt has done in his superb canvas (No. 2537) of 1648 in this gallery? No less poignant is the grief depicted on the face of the barefooted Man of Sorrows in the _Christ and the Pilgrims at Emmaus_ (No. 2539, Plate XXIX.) of the same year. Here we see convincing proof of the dexterous use that the Dutch “magician-painter” could make of chiaroscuro, which he has handled with such masterly effect in the _Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels_ (No. 2547, Plate XXX.). All these paintings belong to the same period as the soul-moving _Polish Rider_, which in 1910 passed from the collection of Count Tarnowski at Dzikow in Galicia into that of Mr. H. C. Frick in New York for £60,000. The _Portrait of a Man holding a Bâton_ (No. 2551), in the La Caze collection in this gallery, was painted three years later than the _Bathsheba_, or _Woman Bathing_ (No. 2549), of 1654. The wonderfully realistic and in no way repellent _Carcase of an Ox_ in this gallery (No. 2548), like the picture of the same subject at Glasgow, is an achievement of a very different kind, and belongs to the year 1655.

The Louvre authorities have been well advised in recent years in hanging all the pictures by Rembrandt in this collection in one Bay of the Long Gallery. Here now we may study the _Portrait of a Young Man_ (No. 2545), the wonderful and rather later _Portrait of the Artist at his Easel at the age of Fifty-four_ (No. 2555), and the striking _St. Matthew_ (No. 2538) of 1661. Before these three works were painted, the great Dutch master had been declared bankrupt, the sale of his most treasured possessions realising a ridiculously small sum in the winter of 1657.

Although Rembrandt’s own standard of morality offended his neighbours, and his relations with Hendrickje Stoffels seem to have caused much scandal in Amsterdam, we are not concerned with the morals of one of the greatest and most esteemed of the world’s painters, but only with his _œuvre_, a high place in which must be accorded to the _Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels and her Child as Venus and Cupid_ (No. 2543), which was painted in 1662, the year that the large _Syndics_, now in the Amsterdam Gallery, was completed.

He is also to be credited with the alternative version of the _Pilgrims at Emmaus_ (No. 2555A), a painting of the same date, which for many years was at Compiègne, where, however, it passed only as a school picture. This profoundly creative painter, who learnt as time went on to handle his chiaroscuro with increased effect, was also an etcher of the highest order.

We may here note that the art of Jan Lievens (1607-1674), a fellow-pupil with Rembrandt under Pieter Lastman, is seen in the large but far from imposing _Visitation_ (No. 2444).

THE PUPILS OF REMBRANDT

That Govaert Flinck (1615-1660) was a pupil of Rembrandt, is evident from his _Announcement to the Shepherds_ (No. 2372) rather than from his _Portrait of a Young Lady_ (No. 2373), a signed work of 1641. Ferdinand Bol (1617-1680) was a pupil and imitator of the great Dutch master, and his _Portrait of a Mathematician_ (No. 2330) is one of his best paintings; but his _Philosopher in Meditation_ (No. 2328) compares most unfavourably with Rembrandt’s two early pictures of the same subject which hang opposite it.

The ineffectual productions of Jan Victoors (1620-1670) include the _Portrait of a Young Lady_ (No. 2371), a typical example of the “niche” portrait which became so popular, and a large _Isaac blessing Jacob_ (No. 2370), which vividly recalls his small canvas in the Dulwich College Gallery that in less critical days passed as a Rembrandt.

G. van den Eeckhout (1621-1674) in his picture (No. 2364) shows his dependence on Rembrandt; and Cornells Drost’s repulsive _Bathsheba_ (No. 2359A) has no claim to be regarded as a “_fort bonne peinture_,” as a French critic has thought fit to term it.

VAN DER HELST

Bartholomeus van der Heist (1612-1670), a native of Haarlem, who painted under the early Dutch master, Nicholas Elias, surnamed Pickenoy, and subsequently worked at Amsterdam, has fully signed his _Shooting Prize_ (No. 2394, Plate XXXI.), which is dated 1653. It has been regarded as a replica on a very reduced scale of _The Officers of the Brotherhood of St. Sebastian at Amsterdam_, in the Amsterdam Gallery, which, curiously enough, bears the date 1657, and is also signed on a slate.

Pieter van der Faes, who is better known as Sir Peter Lely (1618-1680), after painting at Haarlem in the school of Pieter de Grebber, went to England in 1641. He there succeeded Van Dyck as Court painter, and at the Restoration became the favourite Royal painter. The affectation and mannerism of his _Windsor Beauties_, now at Hampton Court, is well known. He had a certain facility in painting

“The sleepy eye that spoke the melting soul.”

Three pictures (Nos. 2367-2369) are placed to his credit here, but

“The bugle eyeball and the cheek of cream”

have done their magic now.

The name of H. van Vliet (1611?-1675) is, doubtless, correctly connected with two portraits on canvas (Nos. 2605 and 2605A), while his contemporaries, Cornelis Saftleven (1606-1681) and D. van Santvoort (1610-1680), are represented by _The Artist’s Portrait_ (No. 2562) and the _Pilgrims at Emmaus_ (No. 2564) respectively. Jakob van Loo (1614-1670), who became a naturalised Frenchman, may be judged by his diploma picture (No. 2451) and a very poor _Nude Female_ (No. 2452).

Such mediocre producers of uninspired and unconvincing panels as Dirk Hals (1591-1656), the brother and pupil of Frans Hals, whose _Festive Repast_ (No. 2389) hangs in Room XXIII.; Cornelis van Poelenburg (1586-1667), whose art is here admirably illustrated (Nos. 2518-2523); Hendrick Pot (1585-1657), who evidently derived some satisfaction from the elaborate inscription he has placed on his quite ineffectual, but fortunately diminutive, _Portrait of Charles I._ (No. 2525); and the little-known and less-esteemed L. F. Zustris (1526-1600), whose absurd _Venus and Love_ (No. 2640) shows what a waste of time it was for him to study under Titian in Italy—these and many more worked as “business artists” for undiscriminating patrons. In the same category come Adriaen van de Venne (No. 2601), Pieter Codde (No. 2339A), Jacob Duck (No. 2360-2361), and A. Palamedesz (No. 2515A).

GENRE PAINTERS

This rough sketch must suffice for our study of the History and Portrait Painters of Holland. Although, of course, portraiture played a most important part throughout the whole range of Dutch art, we must now deal with those of their contemporaries and successors who are classed as painters of genre subjects, Interiors, Conversation-pieces, and Rustic Scenes. The compositions of these men at first show high technical excellence, and a refined feeling for light and shade; they depict simple scenes and homely incidents which make a wide appeal in any age. By the end of the seventeenth century their scenes become festive, and eventually boisterous, and so degenerate into unimaginative renderings of far-fetched incidents which are treated with a parade of mere imitative skill. In the last phase of their art the subjects become even more uninviting, the panels are smoothly painted, and all originality disappears.

ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE

Adriaen van Ostade (1610-1685), as a pupil of Frans Hals at Haarlem, occupies an important position in his school. He is seen to very great advantage at the Louvre. From his early _Interior of a Cabaret_ (No. 2506), which is signed on a form

“A. V. OSTADE 1641,”

we see the direction his life’s work was to take; and his _Interior of a Cottage_ (No. 2498) of the following year, strengthens that view. Although _Reading the Gazette_ (No. 2505), of 1653, is painted on a very small panel, it heightens our appreciation of this able and careful painter, who, a year later, must have spent a long time in the completion of a _Family Group_, which traditionally passes as the _Family of the Artist_ (No. 2495). The _Toper_ (No. 2401), of 1668, and the intensely realistic _Smoker_ (No. 2500), are highly characteristic, while the _Schoolmaster_ (No. 2496) shows great observation. The _Fish Market_ (No. 2497), the _Business Man in his Study_ (No. 2499), the _Man Drinking_ (No. 2502), the _Man Reading_ (No. 2503), the _Reading_ (No. 2504), and the _Interior of a School_ (No. 2507), are both in subject and handling good examples of his methods, which were affected by a study of Adriaen Brouwer and Rembrandt.

Adriaen van Ostade was the elder brother and the master of Isack van Ostade (1621-1649), who is equally well represented at the Louvre. Although he painted two _Interiors_ (Nos. 2512 and 2514), a _Toit à porcs_ (No. 2513), a _Halt_ (No. 2509), and an overcrowded _Travellers Halting_ (No. 2508), his best works, here as elsewhere, represent landscapes and frozen river scenes.

Adriaen van Ostade had also as pupils Cornelis Bega (1620-1664), by whom the Louvre possesses a very late _Rustic Interior_ (No. 2312), of 1662; and H. M. Sorgh, called Rokes (1611?-1670), three of whose panels (Nos. 2571-2573) are exhibited.

GERARD DOU

Gerard Dou (1613-1675) was in his day a highly popular and prosperous painter of petty tragedies. As a boy of fifteen he entered the studio of “the skilled and far-famed Mr. Rembrandt,” who was, however, his senior by only seven years. One is apt to tire of his irritating parade of cleverness in the manipulation of light and shade effects, and over-scrupulous and niggling treatment of detail. Yet it is these very qualities that brought him financial success when in later life Rembrandt was receiving scanty treatment at the hands of the art patrons of Holland. The _Dentist_ (No. 2355) is an early work. Dou’s _Portrait of an Old Lady_ (No. 2358) is now held to be a _Portrait of Rembrandt’s Mother_, and is regarded as the companion picture to the _Old Man Reading_ (No. 2567), by Dou’s pupil, Godfried Schalcken. The _Grocer’s Shop_ (No. 2350), which has been, with needless precision, “ranked about the seventh best of this master’s productions,” is signed in full on the slate, and dated 1647 on the mortar, while the _Cook with a Dead Cock_ (No. 2353) is signed on the window-sill, and dated 1650.

The _Trumpeter_ (No. 2351) is perhaps the pendant to the _Girl at a Window_, of 1657, now in the Rothschild collection at Waddesdon Manor. On the window-ledge in the _Trumpeter_ we see the same silver flagon and a dish that also appear in the _Dropsical Woman_ (No. 2348, Plate XXXII.), a world-famous, but not on that account a great, picture. It bears a somewhat enigmatical inscription:

“1663. G. DOV. OVT. 65 JAER”

on the edge of the book placed on the reading-desk. Dou in 1663, the year here given, was only fifty years of age, and the statement of age in the second half of the inscription may be a later addition, or capable of another interpretation. The light comes in from the window on the left. The woman who is dying of dropsy is receiving a dose of medicine, while her daughter in grief kneels and kisses her hand, and the doctor holds up to the light the vial, the contents of which he is carefully examining. The artist in this his largest picture is at much pains to show the dexterity with which he can paint the fabric of the dresses, the large tapestry hanging in folds on the right, and the reflection of light on the chandelier. This panel, which is Dou’s masterpiece and is in an excellent state of preservation, was originally contained in an ebony case, the outside of which (in two pieces) was formerly the still-life painting of a _Silver Ewer and Dish_ (No. 2349).

The _Man weighing Gold_ (No. 2354) is signed in full, and dated 1664; elaborate care and much time have been expended, if not wasted, on every wrinkle in his face, and every hair in his white beard. It has points of analogy with Quentin Matsys’s _Banker and his Wife_ (No. 2029), which was painted in Flanders nearly a century and a half earlier. Dou’s meticulous art is also exemplified in the _Old Man Reading_ (No. 2357), _Reading the Bible_ (No. 2356), the _Dutch Cook_ (No. 2352), and the highly characteristic but quite negligible _Portrait of the Painter_ (No. 2359). In many respects this type of picture warns us that within a few years of Dou’s death, in 1675, the art of Holland passed into decadence.

DOU’S PUPILS

He had several pupils. Of these Quiryn van Brekelenkam (1620?-1668) holds a respectable place among the Small Masters of Holland, as we see from his _Consultation_ (No. 2337) in this collection rather than from his _Monk Writing_ (No. 2338). Herman van Swanevelt (1620-1655), who from his journeys south earned the name of Herman of Italy, gives us three _Landscapes_ (Nos. 2584-2586). Karel de Moor (1656-1738), a native of Leyden, who has signed his _Dutch Family_ (No. 2477), worked under both Dou and Frans van Mieris the Elder (1635-1681). The latter owes much of his technique and meticulous work to Dou, as is revealed by a hasty inspection of his _Tea Party_ (No. 2471), with two over-dressed women taking tea, and three other panels (Nos. 2469, 2470, and 2472). Ary de Vois (1632-1680) was a pupil of the German painter N. Knupfer and of his own countryman Abraham van den Tempel (1622-1672), who is here represented by a _Portrait of a Lady with an Apple_ (No. 2586A); but he also came under the influence of the painter of the _Dropsical Woman_ (Plate XXXII.), as is testified by his small interior _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 2606), his _Portrait of a Painter at his Easel_ (No. 2607), and his feeble _Woman cutting a Lemon_ (No. 2608). Traces of Dou’s art are seen in J. A. van Staveren’s (1624?-1668) _Philosopher in his Study_ (No. 2577); but P. C. van Slingelandt (1640-1691) was a direct pupil. His _Dutch Family_ (No. 2568) is said to have been bought by Louis XVI. from an English brewer, and the _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 2569) and _Kitchen Utensils_ (No. 2570) have long been in the collection. The _Magdalene_ (No. 2570A) and _St. Jerome_ (No. 2570B) were bequeathed to the Louvre.

GERARD TERBORCH

Gerard Terborch (1617-1681) was the creator of the “Conversation-piece,” and one of the earliest to portray the well born engaged in music lessons and similar occupations; he was one of the greatest of the Dutch “small-masters,” and in every way the superior of the uninspired Dou. Terborch invites us to join him in the fine decorum of a noble chamber where the appointments are carefully tended, while its occupants give themselves up to cultured, if not perhaps deeply intellectual, pursuits. We forget all about the carousing and bestial profligates who people the taverns of Jan Steen and much less accomplished painters, and watch the refined fingers stray over the keyboard of the open spinet or sweep the strings of a well-made mandoline, as in the _Concert_ (No. 2589, Plate XXXIII.). Equally fine are the two _Music Lessons_ (No. 2588 and No. 2591), the former being signed and dated 1660.

The _Military Galant_ (No. 2587) exhibits Terborch’s dexterity in the rendering of reflected light on a red tablecloth, although the subject has an innuendo which hardly adds to its charm. The _Ecclesiastical Assembly_ (No. 2590) is only a small sketch on panel, and affords but a feeble echo of this painter’s masterpiece, the _Ratification of the Peace of Münster_, in the National Gallery. Terborch was a pupil of his father, who had visited Italy, and he studied also under Pieter Molyn the Elder at Haarlem previous to visiting England in 1635. He travelled much more extensively than most of his contemporaries, and went to Spain during the best period of art in the Peninsula. He does not seem to have been dependent on his professional success for his living, which was passed in easy circumstances. Nor did he busy himself as a teacher, his only direct pupil being Caspar Netscher (1639-1684), who gives us a _Music Lesson_ (No. 2486), of the approved stamp, and a _Violoncello Lesson_ (No. 2487).

JAN STEEN