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diff --git a/old/64570-0.txt b/old/64570-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 9ba4b93..0000000 --- a/old/64570-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,2991 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of Dutch Etchers of the Seventeenth Century, by -Laurence Binyon - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: Dutch Etchers of the Seventeenth Century - -Author: Laurence Binyon - -Release Date: February 16, 2021 [eBook #64570] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at - http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images - available at The Internet Archive) - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUTCH ETCHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH -CENTURY *** - - - [Illustration] - - - - - DUTCH ETCHERS - - _OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY_ - - _By_ - - LAURENCE BINYON - - _Of the Department of Prints and Drawings, British Museum_ - - [Illustration] - - LONDON - SEELEY AND CO. LIMITED, ESSEX STREET, STRAND - NEW YORK, MACMILLAN AND CO. - 1895 - - - - -LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - - -_PLATES_ - - PAGE - -The Two Plough Horses. -From the etching by Paul Potter. B. 12 _Frontispiece_ - -The Wife Spinning. -From the etching by A. Van Ostade. B. 31 _to face_28 - -Sea Piece. -From the etching by L. Backhuysen. B. 4 ” ” 52 - -Ox and Sheep. -From the etching by A. Van de Velde. B. 12 ” ” 74 - - -_ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT_ - -FIG. - -1. The Spectacle Seller. By Ostade. B. 29 8 - -2. Peasant with a Pointed Cap. By Ostade. B. 3 10 - -3. Game of Backgammon. From a drawing by Ostade. British Museum 12 - -4. The Child and the Doll. By Ostade. B. 16 14 - -5. Man and Woman Conversing. By Ostade. B. 37 16 - -6. The Barn. By Ostade. B. 23 19 - -7. The Humpbacked Fiddler. By Ostade. B. 44 22 - -8. Peasant paying his Reckoning. By Ostade. B. 42 25 - -9. Saying Grace. By Ostade. B. 34 27 - -10. The Angler. By Ostade. B. 26 29 - -11. The Tavern. By Bega. B. 32 33 - -12. Tobias and the Angel. By H. Seghers. M. 236 36 - -13. The Flight into Egypt. By Rembrandt. M. 236 39 - -14. Three Men under a Tree. By Everdingen. B. 5 42 - -15. Landscape in Norway. By Everdingen. B. 75 43 - -16. Drinking the Waters at Spa. By Everdingen. B. 96 45 - -17. The Cornfield. By J. Ruisdael. B. 5 49 - -18. The Burnt House on the Canal. By Van der Heyden 51 - -19. Fishing Boats. By R. Zeeman. B. 38 54 - -20. Road, with Trees and Figures. By Breenbergh. B. 17 56 - -21. Landscape. By Both. B. 3 59 - -22. A Ram. By Berchem. B. 51 61 - -23. Title Piece. By Berchem. B. 35 64 - -24. The Bull. By Paul Potter. B. 1 66 - -25. Studies of a Dog. By Paul Potter. British Museum 69 - -26. The Cow. By Paul Potter. B. 3 72 - -27. Mules. By K. Du Jardin. B. 2 73 - -28. Pigs. By K. Du Jardin. B. 15 76 - -29. A Goat. By A. Van de Velde. B. 16 78 - - - - -DUTCH ETCHERS -OF -THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY - - - - -INTRODUCTION - - -I - -When, towards the close of the last century, Adam Bartsch began that -monument of his industry and patience, _Le Peintre Graveur_, he devoted -the first volumes of his twenty-one, not to the early engravers of -Germany or Italy, but to the Dutch etchers of the seventeenth century. -These were, in fact, the idols of the amateur of that day; and the -indiscriminate praises which Bartsch lavishes on mediocre artists, like -Waterloo or Le Ducq, sufficiently show how uncontested was their rank, -and how fashionable their reputation. - -Since then their vogue has considerably declined. Rembrandt, of whom -Bartsch treated in a separate work, is perhaps more admired, more -studied than he ever was. His etchings, reproduced in more or less -accurate forms, are not only familiar to artists and to students, but, -to a certain extent, reach even the general public. But Rembrandt’s -glory has obscured the fame of his countrymen and contemporaries. Like -Shakespeare by the side of the lesser Elizabethans, he stands forth -alone and dazzling, and, though they enjoy a titular renown, they suffer -a comparative neglect. - -Yet, if Rembrandt is by far the greatest, others are great also. The -following pages are designed to serve as a sort of introduction to the -more notable among these etchers, in the same way that Mr. Hamerton’s -monograph, the first of the present series of the _Portfolio_, was -intended as an introduction to the etched work of Rembrandt. - -And first, let us warn the reader who is familiar perhaps with -masterpieces like the _Christ Healing the Sick_ and _Rembrandt Drawing -at a Window_, _Clement de Jonghe_, or _The Three Trees_, but who is not -yet acquainted with the etchings of Ostade and Paul Potter, not to -expect too much. Few of these lesser masters approach Rembrandt in the -specific qualities of the etcher: he is beyond them all in -draughtsmanship, far beyond them in the intensity of his imagination. -Yet the best of them must rank high. - -It is his immensity of range which marks off Rembrandt, more even than -his transcendent powers, from the rest of the Dutch etchers. Not only -did his production exceed by far the most prolific among them, but he -touched on almost every side of life. Yet he was not the school in -epitome, as a hasty enthusiasm might affirm. With all his breadth of -sympathy, his insatiable curiosity, he was not quite universal. The life -of animals, the growth and beauty of trees, the motion of the -sea-waves--none of these attracted Rembrandt deeply. And here, to -supplement him, we have the work of men like Potter, Backhuysen, -Ruisdael, each developing his peculiar vein. - -All of these etchers whom we have to consider are, however, independent -of Rembrandt and his influence. The Rembrandt school has been expressly -excluded from the present monograph. For, interesting as some of those -artists are, the first thought suggested by their work is that it -recalls Rembrandt: the second thought, that it is not Rembrandt. It is -their relation to their master that interests us rather than any -intrinsic excellence of their own. - -Only the independent masters, therefore, are exhibited here; and from -these groups of etchers several of the greatest names in Dutch art are -absent. Frans Hals, Jan Steen, Vermeer of Delft, Hobbema, De Hooch--none -of these, so far as we know, has left a single plate. Adriaen Brouwer -etched a few; but they afford only the slightest indications of his -genius. And Albert Cuyp, who is the author of half a dozen small -etchings, showed in this line but little of his skill, and did not -apparently pursue it farther. - -Yet the quantity of etched plates produced during this period in Holland -is immense, and most of the best work was published within the same two -or three decades. To take a single year, 1652, Potter’s studies of -horses, a set of cattle by Berchem, several plates by Du Jardin, one of -the finest pieces of Ostade, _La Fileuse_, appeared in it; while the -year following saw the publication of Adriaen van de Velde’s largest -etching, and Ruisdael’s _Three Oaks_ had been issued but three years -earlier. Rembrandt’s _Tobit Blind_ is dated 1651, and the _Three -Crosses_ 1653. This great fecundity has been necessarily a source of -some embarrassment to the writer; and though a number of minor men have -been omitted, several etchers have been included, whom for the sake of -completeness it was necessary to give some account of, but whom it is -hard to make interesting, and about whom enthusiasm is impossible. - - -II - -Treating, as it does, of so considerable a number of masters, the -present monograph aims at indicating, as far as space would allow, -something of the relations between them, and at tracing the -interdependence of the various schools. To have taken the etchers -separately and considered their work apart, would have meant the -compilation of a tediously crowded catalogue. - -But when once the masters are approached from the historical side, it is -impossible to treat them simply as etchers. It is as painters that they -influenced and were influenced. Consequently some account has had to be -taken of them as painters. And since some who produced little, and that -little not very remarkable, in etching, are yet of great significance as -artists, it has been impossible to treat each man simply on his merits -as an etcher. Hence, for instance, much more space has been devoted to -Ruisdael than the quality or the amount of his work on copper strictly -merits. - -The lives of most of these artists have, till recently, rested on a -somewhat shifting foundation. Dates of birth and death have fluctuated -in various authors with easy rapidity. Of some, even now, nothing -certain is known. - -But the researches of Dr. van der Willigen, Dr. Bredius, Dr. Hofstede de -Groot, and others in the archives of the Dutch cities have proved much, -disproved more, and set the whole subject in a clearer light. To Dr. -Bredius’ _Meisterwerke der königlichen Gemälde-Galerie im Haag_, and - -[Illustration: _Fig. 1.--The Spectacle Seller. By Ostade. B. 29._] - -still more to his _Meisterwerke des Rijks Museum zu Amsterdam_, the -writer is under special obligation, which he desires most gratefully to -acknowledge. - -But in spite of many readjustments of chronology, materials for the -lives of these artists are singularly meagre. Doubtless their lives were -in most cases extremely simple. Many never left their native town, or -exchanged it only for a home a few miles off: Haarlem for Amsterdam, or -Amsterdam for the Hague. Others made the journey to Italy, or spent some -years in France or Germany; but here the journey itself is sometimes -only a matter of inference from the painter’s works. Birth, marriage, -and death: there is little beyond these, and the dates of their -principal productions, to record about many of these men. - -Of the whole social life of the Holland of that day we know practically -nothing but what its paintings tell us. Had those paintings not -survived, what a blank would be left in our conceptions of this country -and its history! Most countries that have left us great art have left us -also great literature, and each is the complement of the other. The -marbles of the Parthenon have not only the enchantment of their -incomparable sculpture, but bring to our minds a thousand recollections, -gathered in the fields of literature. In a less degree, it is the same -with our enjoyment of Italian painting. It is one aspect of the -flowering time of the Renaissance, but not the only aspect, nor the only -material we have for investigating and realising that movement. - -There was, no doubt, a certain amount of literature produced in -seventeenth-century Holland; but it does not penetrate beyond Holland. -Besides the names of Spinoza and of Grotius, who are great but not in -literature proper, not a single author’s name is familiar, nor any book -eminent enough to become a classic in translations. And it is certainly -not for the sake of the literature that a foreigner learns Dutch. Hence -a certain remoteness in our ideas about Holland, although it lies so -near us: a remoteness emphasised in England by the general ignorance of -the language. - -When one looks at a picture by Watteau, one seems to be joining in the -conversation of those adorable ladies and their gallants; half -instinctively, one seems to divine the witty phrase, the happy -compliment that is on the speaker’s lips. But the conversations of Ter -Borch and of Metsu are mute and distant. We hear the jovial laughter of -Hals, but we cannot divine his jests and oaths. And Van de Velde’s merry -skating companies, and Ostade’s tavern-haunting peasants, and the family -groups in their gravely furnished rooms, rich with a sober opulence, of -De Hooch or of Jan Steen, all, in spite of their human touches and their -gaiety, affect us with a kind of haunting silence. - -Mr. Pater, in one of the most finished and charming of his Imaginary -Portraits, _Sebastian van Storck_, called up a picture of the social -life of these times, very suggestive and delightful; but it was -noteworthy, how much of it was merely a reconstruction, in words, of -impressions from the contemporary pictures. - -After all, however, our ignorance may not cost us much. We judge the -painters as painters, and by their works; we are not distracted by - -[Illustration: _Fig. 2.--Peasant with a Pointed Cap. By Ostade. B. 3._] - -other circumstances about them, and that is an advantage. They may have -had theories about painting, but fortunately we do not know them, except -by inference from their practice. - -And if seventeenth-century Holland has only expressed herself in -painting, she has known how to express herself with marvellous fulness. -Never before, and never perhaps since, has pictorial art been so -universally the speech of a nation; never has it been more various and -abundant. Instead of being the handmaid of religion or the adornment of -a court, it is now for the first time itself: full-blooded, active, -exuberant, scorning nothing, attempting everything. Modern with all the -added richness that the modern spirit allows in life and art, it -reflects the just pride and joy of a great nation arrived, through -incredible struggle and privation, at victory and peace. - -Yet more wonderful even than this abundance is the fine tact, the -instinctive judgment, which guided such profuse creation. - -For in all the great painters of Holland there is the same sure choice -of subjects proper to painting, the same sure avoidance of what does not -lend itself so much to painting as to some other expression of art. -Religious pictures in the old sense, pictures intended for churches, -were forbidden by the Protestant spirit. No court existed to patronise -the painters. Yet they seemed unconscious of being cut off from any -province. In the life around them they found overflowing material, and -their choice of subject was invariably simple, never a complex product -like the engravings of Dürer, half literary in their interest; never -anecdotic or moral. An excellent tradition was begun, which lasted -through the century. - -Nor was this tradition due to the creative impulse of one man. There was -nothing in Holland parallel to the renovation, the re-creation rather, -of Flemish art by Rubens. Rembrandt came near the beginning, but he did -not start the period. One cannot say precisely how this great tradition -began; it seems as if the flowering time came all at once throughout the -country, with the mysterious suddenness of spring. Till the seventeenth -century, it was Italy from which Dutch artists took their inspiration, -but henceforward it is a native impulse. Only men of lesser importance -went to paint at Rome, and even then they took there more than they -brought away. - - -III - -Considered as etchers, the Dutch masters range themselves somewhat -differently. - -Only a few, seemingly, realised the specific capacities and limitations -of etching: the rest regarded it merely as a method of reproducing their -drawings, as an easier kind of engraving. This was probably the -conception of those who first applied acid to metal for the purpose of -reproducing designs, at the beginning of the sixteenth century: the art -had been formerly employed only in the damascening of swords or armour. -Albert Dürer is an exception; for, though he did not develop the method -far, he saw that it required a different kind of handling from that -suitable for the burin; and in his few etched plates the work is freer -and more open than that of his line-engravings. - -The first men to use etching extensively were the Hopfer family of -Augsburg, who produced a great number of prints, chiefly decorative -designs. - -It was employed in landscape by Altdorfer, Hirschvogel, Lautensack, and -others among the Little Masters. But these did little more than - -[Illustration: _Fig. 3.--Game of Backgammon. From a drawing by Ostade. -British Museum._] - -carry on the Nürnberg tradition of engraving, through another medium. -They had little or no influence on the Dutchmen. - -A new and powerful stimulus, however, was to be given to etching with -the beginning of the seventeenth century, by the prolific and famous -French artist, Jacques Callot. Born in 1592, Callot produced a great -mass of work before his death in 1638, and his etchings, by which alone -he is known, had a great popularity in his lifetime. In 1624 he was -invited to Brussels by the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia, and was -commissioned by her to commemorate the Siege of Breda, an event which -also occasioned a masterpiece to Velasquez, the famous _Lances_ of -Madrid. Callot undoubtedly brought the art into prominence and favour in -the Netherlands. Yet of direct influence over either Flemings or -Dutchmen, Callot had little or none. His spirit was too essentially -French, his method too individual, for him to be imitated by men of such -different race and temperament. - -In 1627, however, Callot met, at Nancy, Claude Lorraine, and probably -instructed him in etching. Claude left Nancy for Italy in the same year, -and in the following year etched his first plates. Between 1630 and -1663, he published a considerable number, among them some of exquisite -delicacy and beauty. And from these etchings many of the Dutchmen derive -their inspiration; and Claude is said to have employed men like -Swaneveldt, Andries Both, and Jan Miel for inserting figures in his -landscapes. - -Another foreign master who exercised a widespread influence over the -Dutch etchers was the German, Adam Elsheimer. Traces of this influence -pervade the history of Dutch art, as Dr. Bode in his _Studien zur -Geschichte der hollädndischen Malerei_ has very fully demonstrated. - -Elsheimer etched a few plates; but, with all deference to Dr. Bode’s -authority, we find it difficult to attach to them the importance which -he gives them. Through the etchings and engravings made from his -pictures Elsheimer was undoubtedly a source of inspiration to the -Dutchmen, but scarcely through the rare and by no means remarkable -plates which he etched himself. - -The real importance of Elsheimer, and the secret of his fascination over -his contemporaries, lie in his fresh treatment of light and shade. -Problems of lighting occupied his contemporaries, Caravaggio and -Honthorst, but these devoted their skill chiefly to effects of double -lighting and strong contrast; it was the rendering of luminous shadow -and subtle tones of twilight that Elsheimer was the first to attack. In -this he is a forerunner of Rembrandt, who undoubtedly took suggestions -from him, and was helped by him in his own development of chiaroscuro. -Rembrandt cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of what -Elsheimer had done before him. - -But Rembrandt was by no means the only Dutch master who profited by the -German’s art. The whole of the Italianised Dutch school at Rome, men -like Poelenburg for instance, felt his influence more or less strongly. -Nor was he without followers in the native school of landscape painters -and etchers in Holland, as we shall see when we come to them. - -Elsheimer, in fine, though by no means a great painter, is of -considerable historical importance, and the admiration which he excited -in his - -[Illustration: _Fig. 4.--The Child and the Doll. By Ostade. B. 16._] - -own day can hardly be over-estimated. So great a man as Rubens admired -him so much that he had three of his landscapes on his walls, and made -copies from his paintings and designs. - -This is the more remarkable, because Rubens rarely occupied himself with -the problems that fascinated Elsheimer. And while these problems were -of a kind to appeal to etchers, it was not on etching but on -line-engraving, an art admitting little scope for subtlety of -chiaroscuro, that Rubens cast his potent influence. Without using the -burin himself, he employed a number of brilliant engravers to reproduce -his designs, just as Raphael had employed Marc Antonio for the like -purpose. Even in our day, when public picture-galleries are numerous and -the distances between various capitals have so immensely shrunk, the -fame of the great painters rests still to a large extent on photographs -and engravings from their works; it is easy, therefore, to comprehend of -what capital importance it was for masters of the sixteenth and -seventeenth centuries to secure competent interpreters. - -Line-engraving was admirably suited for the reproduction of pictures -like those of Rubens, with their large design and flowing sweep. And so -potent was Rubens’s example, that etching found in Belgium only a few -isolated, and with the single exception of Vandyck, unimportant -followers. - -In Holland it was just the reverse. Perhaps it was the result of some -vital difference in temperament between the Flemings and the Dutchmen, -such as caused the one country to embrace the severer, soberer religion -of Protestantism, while the other clung to the more ancient creed of -Rome, with its strong appeal to the senses; at any rate, it seems -characteristic that line-engraving, with its capacity for reproducing -qualities of splendour and spacious action, should have found in Antwerp -its most effective, various, and brilliant exposition, while the -plainer, more self-contained, more intense spirit of the great Dutchmen -developed the more personal, intimate, subtle art of etching, as it had -never been developed before. - -But Dutchmen, no less than Flemings, felt the need for reproducing their -designs, and here arose a difficulty. For etching is not, in spite of -modern successes, so well adapted to reproduction as line-engraving is. - -As we have said, it was only a certain number of the Dutchmen who -divined this. Rembrandt, of course, perceived it; and though he spread -his fame by working steadily on copper as well as on canvas, he made his -etched work independent of his painting and never a simple reproduction -of pictures. Lesser men had not the intelligence to do as he did; and -many of the artists of whom we shall treat, though they produced fine -work on copper, cannot be esteemed true etchers. - -We will begin our studies with one who was, beyond dispute, a born -etcher, Ostade. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 5.--Man and Woman Conversing. By Ostade. B. 37._] - - - - -OSTADE AND HIS SCHOOL - - -I - -Adriaen van Ostade was born in Haarlem, at the end of 1610. The -researches of Dr. Van der Willigen have placed this fact beyond doubt, -and the old tradition of his having been born at Lübeck must therefore -be set aside. In the baptismal register for December 10, 1610, there is -entered the name of Adriaen, son of Jan Hendricx, of Eyndhoven, and of -Janneke Hendriksen. On the 2nd of June, 1621, the birth of Isack, son of -the same parents, is recorded. - -These dates have always been associated with the births of the brothers -Ostade, and there are other grounds for identifying them with the -Adriaen and Isack just mentioned. - -Jan Hendricx was a weaver, and in consequence of the religious -persecutions of the time, left his native Eyndhoven, a village in North -Brabant, for Haarlem. This was some time before 1605, for in that year, -already a burgess of the town, he married. He had several children; and -in a document of 1650, two of them are mentioned as brother and sister -to Adriaen and Isack, who are thus proved to have been his sons. The -name of Ostade was taken from a hamlet close to Eyndhoven. Adriaen is -first mentioned with this surname as a member of the civic guard, in -1636. - -Haarlem, M. Vosmaer has said, is in two things like Florence. It is a -city of flowers and a city of artists. Its archives show that from an -early time the arts flourished and were fostered there. Money was never -grudged for fine work in every branch of skilful industry, no less than -for good painting and good sculpture. The goldsmith, the potter, the -leather-worker, the stone-cutter, could find employment for their powers -and remuneration worth their skill. Haarlem was, in fact, a type of -those busy and prosperous cities where it seems that art thrives best; -for though art and commerce are often supposed to have a natural -disagreement, history shows them to have been the most apt companions. - -But the city of Dierick Bouts, of Albert van Ouwater, of Jan Scorel, was -at the time of Ostade’s birth, in a condition even more favourable for -the production of fine work than it had been in the fifteenth and -following centuries. In 1573 occurred the famous siege by the Spaniards. -Those who had borne the burden of those terrible days were now growing -old; but the young generation received and handed on their heroic -memories, unembittered by thoughts of loss, suffering, or defeat. And -when, in 1609, peace came, and the United Provinces, acknowledged by -Spain, turned to enjoy their victorious repose, there was added the -sense of triumph to that of trials endured. It was the great time for -Holland. Her soldiers were famed as the finest in Europe. Her navy was -the most powerful, the best-manned. Her cities grew, and wealth poured -into them. A universal well-being pervaded the country, and a spirit of -joy and of expansion, like the glow of health, diffused itself in the -citizens. - -It was natural that art, too, should feel this new influence. And in -Haarlem, where the siege had destroyed so much of the old town, and -modern buildings of warm red brick had sprung round the vast surviving -monument of the middle ages, the Groote Kerk of St. Bavon; in Haarlem -especially, a new spirit, intensely modern, began to possess the rising -painters. From art which lavished its parade of dexterity on the old -mythological fables, handled without heart or meaning, from the smooth -and pallid conventionalities of Cornelis Corneliszoon, and the -extravagant cleverness of Goltzius, these men turned to the life that -was around them. Among them were artists like Jan de Bray, Esaias van de -Velde, Dirk and Frans Hals. It was in the studio of Frans Hals that the -young Ostade learnt to paint. Already in 1616, Hals had painted his -superb group of the civic guard, and was now in the fulness of his -extraordinary power. The exuberant joy and energy, the confident -sincerity, the swift and certain touch, intimate with realities, that -marked Hals, were typical of the country and the time. Life--that is -the - -[Illustration: _Fig. 6.--The Barn. By Ostade. B. 23._] - -absolute necessity for such an artist: for him everything that has life -is a possible subject, a possible realm to conquer. A subject that he -cannot feel, as well as conceive, his instinct rejects at once. A great -pride of life is what characterises Hals’ pictures human life in all its -fulness he accepts: unhindered by the shrinkings of more fastidious -natures, he enjoys with a robust enjoyment. - -It is the same also with Ostade; but the pupil was too individual an -artist to repeat his master. Ostade felt, perhaps, that he could never -rival those magnificent portrait-groups, and his own preferences, his -own gifts, led him to a different choice of subject. - -Perhaps some who have seen Ostade’s pictures and found them coarse and -ignoble, have imagined the painter of them to be equally coarse and -ignoble-looking as his boors. His portrait shows him a man of somewhat -severe, keen countenance, in plain attire; a grave man, one would say, -with humour lurking in his gravity, as often happens; it is a portrait -that might be taken for that of an Englishman of the Commonwealth. -Ostade was, in fact, a well-to-do citizen of the middle class. His -collection of pictures, sold at his death in 1685, was, as we know from -the _Haarlem Gazette_, extensive; and the fact that it contained two -hundred of his own paintings, proves that he was, unlike so many of his -compeers, far removed from want. - -Of Ostade’s life, apart from his production, we know almost nothing. He -was a member of the _Oude Schuts_, the ancient and honourable Company of -Arquebusiers. He was married twice; first, in 1636, to Machtelgen -Pietersen, who died in 1642; and again to a second wife, whose name is -not known, by whom he had a girl, Johanna Maria. This daughter married a -surgeon, Dirk van der Stoel, into whose hands Ostade’s etched plates and -proofs passed at his death. - -In 1647 and 1661 Ostade is mentioned as a member of the government of -the Guild. In 1662, he was dean of the Guild. An incident of his earlier -years is of interest, as showing his liberal spirit. In 1642 he joined -Salomon Ruysdael, at a meeting of the Guild, in protesting against the -policy of protection, which inspired Haarlem Guild, like many others, to -oppose the importation of works of art from other towns or their sale in -Haarlem. - -Ostade seems never to have travelled, like many of his countrymen, -beyond the borders of Holland, nor ever to have changed his home, except -from one street of Haarlem to another. - -He died in 1685. - -On an early afternoon of May his body was carried from his house in the -Kuis-straat to the Groote Kerk, a little company of his friends -following. - - -II - -With most of the Dutch artists, etching was a subordinate -accomplishment, and their work on copper is but a less interesting -reflection of their work on canvas. This cannot be said of Ostade. As -with Rembrandt, his etched work is the complement, rather than a -supplement merely, of his painting. To the present writer, indeed, his -etchings have more interest than his pictures. The latter are numerous; -they may be seen in almost all galleries of importance, and the reader -is doubtless familiar with their characteristics. Delightful as they -often are, they do not rival those of Adriaen Brouwer, who was by four -years Ostade’s senior, and who, though born a Fleming, worked mostly in -Holland, and entered Hals’ studio at the same time. There are a few -plates attributed to Brouwer; but, if genuine, these show that he never -thoroughly mastered the technique of etching; none of them approaches -the least successful plates of Ostade. Brouwer as a painter, on the -other hand, surpasses beyond question all the painters of peasant life, -whether of Holland or of Flanders. - -Ostade does not manage paint with the freedom of a great master, but his -drawing is always superb. The drawing reproduced (Fig. 3) is a -characteristic specimen. It is the end of a game of backgammon. The game -is won, but the defeated player refuses to accept his defeat without a -careful scrutiny. In the attitudes, the gestures of players and -onlookers, everything is vital; the moment is admirably caught. - -There is an etching also of a game of backgammon, but it does not -directly illustrate the drawing. - -Ostade did, however, make use of sketches for his etchings. There is in -the British Museum a sketch for _The Father of a Family_ (B. 33). A -comparison of this with the etched plate is interesting. There is a -certain affinity to Rembrandt in the manner of drawing; less summary and -swift, but masterful and free. And, like Rembrandt, Ostade does not use -his sketch as a finished thing, and copy it faithfully and minutely. His - -[Illustration: _Fig. 7.--The Humpbacked Fiddler. By Ostade. B. 44._] - -interest in the subject has not died out; he is alert for a new posture, -a fresh touch, a livelier handling of some part of his design, that may -improve the whole. In this case the drawing, which is of a different -shape from the print and much broader, contains at the left the figure -of a man seated and cutting a loaf of bread on his knees. Ostade felt -that this figure disturbed the unity of the piece no less than the sense -of home seclusion, and he omitted it from his work on the copper. This -reveals the born etcher: one who works with directness, swiftness, -passion; whose needle takes the impulse of his thought immediately, who -never works in cold blood. - - -III - -Let us now consider the etchings themselves. There are just fifty in -all, and nine or perhaps ten of the number are dated. The earliest date -is 1647, the latest 1678. Arranging the dated plates in order of time, -we get the following table. The references are to the numbers in -Bartsch, _Peintre-Graveur_, Vol. I.:-- - -1647. - -The Hurdy-Gurdy Player. B. 8. -The Barn. B. 23. -The Family. B. 46. - - -1648. - -The Father of the Family. B. 33. - - -1652. - -The Wife Spinning. B. 31. - - -1653. - -The Tavern Brawl. B. 18. -Saying Grace. B. 34. - - -1671. - -The Cobbler. B. 27. - - -1678.[1] - -The Child and the Doll. B. 16. - -To this may possibly be added _The Humpbacked Fiddler_ (B. 44). Neither -Bartsch nor Dutuit appears to have noticed a date on this plate; but it -seems clear that it is there, following the signature, though obscured -by lines. The writer inclines to decipher it as 1631 or 1651; but it is -impossible to be positive on the point. These data would doubtless serve -many critics with material for constructing a chronological list of the -whole of the etchings. But this amusement shall be left to the reader. -The etchings, as a matter of fact, do not present any marked variety of -treatment. Ostade was not, like Rembrandt, a master of many styles; nor -did he develop any particular style by continually surpassing his own -successes. We can only say that he seems to have attained his greatest -mastery in a middle period, about 1650. _The Wife Spinning_ of 1652 is -not followed by any dated piece that at all rivals it. _The Cobbler_ of -1671, for instance, which was a failure in the first biting, betrays -also a certain languor of handling, very different from the -inexhaustible care and skill bestowed on the earlier plate. - -This inference is confirmed by what we know of Ostade’s work on canvas. -His first period dates from 1630 to 1635; then follows a middle period -in which, influenced by Rembrandt, he adopted a warmer scheme of colour; -lastly, in a third period, he began to repeat himself and decline. - -Beyond such general deductions it does not seem worth while to go. In -Rembrandt’s case the question of chronology is of extreme interest and -significance, but in Ostade there is no development to speak of, and to -labour after exhibiting it would be waste of time. - -Next, as to the various states of the etchings. The reverence for first -states and rare states, common to collectors, has from their point of -view its own justification; but they are apt perhaps sometimes to -confuse the æsthetic value of a print with its market value. Artists, on -the other hand, are sometimes prone to dismiss the whole question of -states as tedious and absurd. It is, however, of great importance that -the etcher should be judged on his own merits and not on the merits, or -demerits, of other people. Ostade undoubtedly made alterations in his -plates during printing and thus created “states”; but many more states -were created after his death by other hands re-working the worn copper. - -It is reasonable to suppose that the last state touched by the artist is -the one that he would wish to be taken as typical of his perfect work. - -But the question arises: Which is the last state touched by the artist? - -The work of later hands, added to a plate after the artist’s death, does -not concern us; but the development of the etching up to that state when -the artist leaves it as a finished thing, must interest us greatly. How -are we to decide? - -In the case of Ostade, we are helped a little by external data. As we - -[Illustration: _Fig. 8.--Peasant paying his Reckoning. By Ostade. B. -42._] - -have seen, the plates were sold at his death in 1685. We know also that -they were sold again by their new possessor, Dirk van der Stoel, -Ostade’s son-in-law, in 1686; and eight years later again, in 1694. What -state they were in then we can only conjecture: but we may infer -something from what we know to have been their state in 1710 or a little -later. - -In the year just mentioned a French engraver, Bernard Picart, arrived in -Holland; and some time after his arrival he published a collection of -the etched work of Ostade and of his pupil Bega. The book of Ostade’s -etchings was bought, perhaps on its publication, by Hans Sloane: and -through him it has passed into the possession of the British Museum. -Whoever examines it will notice at once the inequality of the plates: -some are worn and harshly retouched, some are passable, a few are even -good. Something of this is due to the delicately-worked plates, giving -out sooner than those more coarsely etched. Probably also some were more -in demand than others. Thus, to take a few examples: while _The Painter -in His Studio_ (B. 32) is in the tenth and last state, and _Peasant -Paying His Reckoning_ (B. 42) is in the seventh or last but one, _The -Dance in the Tavern_ (B. 49) is in the fourth out of seven states in -all, and _The Empty Jug_ (B. 15) in the fourth out of eight states in -all. And several of the smaller plates are still in the second state. - -In determining therefore the extent to which later hands have worked on -the etchings, each must be considered separately. Only in a few cases, -probably, are those in Picart’s edition still in the condition left by -the master himself; and most seem to have been retouched more than once. -Every one will judge for himself the precise point at which new work -comes in: and opinion will always differ on such questions. As Ostade -was not always successful in his first biting, the second state is -generally the most representative. _Peasant Paying His Reckoning_ is a -very different thing in Picart’s edition from the brilliant second state -of the same etching. - -The student of Ostade will find Dutuit’s book[2] indispensable: it -contains all that was known of the etchings and their different -impressions up to the year of its publication. And the author’s own -collection was perhaps unrivalled. Nevertheless, it is not perfect. The -states are described with an extraordinary superfluity of detail, and -the one or two differentiating circumstances are buried in a mass of -irrelevant description. Verification is therefore a matter of time and -labour. - -There are also a few states still undescribed. Still, for those who have -an appetite for “states,” Dutuit is very satisfying. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 9--Saying Grace. By Ostade. B. 34._] - - -IV - -Ostade’s etched work is, considered as etching, unequal. Sometimes, as -for instance in _The Cobbler_ (B. 27), the first biting was not a -success; at other times, as in the _Man Laughing_ (B. 4), the _Saying -Grace_ (B. 34), or the _Fiddlers_ (B. 45), the plate has been -over-bitten. The plate which Bartsch calls _La Fileuse_ (_The Wife -Spinning_. B. 31) [Plate I.], is one which represents very fully some of -Ostade’s characteristic excellences as an etcher. It is a fine example -of his success in bathing his subject in atmosphere. One feels the quiet -afternoon warmth upon the cottage-front, as the woman who spins feels -it, as the child feels it, as the two basking pigs feel it. That -softness of air, which in our northern climate gives even to the near -trees a kind of impalpable look, and which seems to clothe things with -itself--that is what Ostade has sought to render with mere etched lines; -and he has triumphed over immense difficulties. His figures detach -themselves with a wonderful reality, with no hard brilliancy, no -superfluous shadows. There is a fine absence of cleverness in such quiet -mastery of means. - -More remarkable still is the little plate (B. 42) which is reproduced in -Fig. 8. The amount of knowledge, of feeling for light and shadow, of -subtle and sure draughtsmanship in this small etching is astonishing. -The problem of painting daylight as it is diffused in a room through the -window, which, of all painters in the world, Jan Vermeer and Pieter de -Hooch, and, in a different way, Rembrandt and Ostade himself, have most -fully mastered, is here attacked in etching, and with extraordinary -success. What seems strange is that a problem so fascinating, one which -had evidently a strong seduction for Ostade in his painting, should have -been attempted by him so rarely in his etchings. _The Painter in his -Studio_ (B. 32) is another success in the same line, while the _Players -at Backgammon_ (B. 39) is partly a failure, through the biting having -gone wrong. But, as a rule, Ostade prefers out-of-door effects. - -None of the etchings quite rivals, in the writer’s judgment at least, -this little plate, _Peasant Paying his Reckoning_. But there are several -typical small pieces which have a great charm. The _Spectacle-seller_ -(B. 22, Fig. 1), for instance, is an admirable composition, and the - -[Illustration] - -etching rich. The _Humpbacked Fiddler_ (B. 44, Fig. 7), and the _Man and -Woman Conversing_ (B. 25, Fig. 5), though the needle has been used -somewhat differently in each, have similar merit. - -But the plates that interest, perhaps, most, are not always those which -are etched the best. The chief glory of Ostade is his imaginative -draughtsmanship, and akin to this are his vivid human sympathy and his -humour. These are not so manifest in the plates we have mentioned as in -some others. - -But before passing to those pieces which show these qualities at their - -[Illustration: _Fig. 10.--The Angler. By Ostade. B. 26._] - -best, let us notice one which is unlike any of the others. This is _The -Barn_ (B. 28, Fig. 6). Had the execution of this plate matched the -feeling it evinces, it would have been a fine achievement. Who does not -know the strange, vague impression which such a barn as this produces on -the mind? The cool dimness, the mysterious shadow among the rafters, -penetrated here and there by soft rays, the atmosphere of the farm, -scent of hay, cries of fowls, mingling in a sense of imperturbable -antiquity--all exhale an intangible emotion impossible to express in -language, but which a painting or an etching could well convey. Ostade -has conceived his subject finely; but the acid and the needle have -imperfectly seconded his design. Rembrandt would have given us out of -such material a memorable plate indeed. But let us not deny Ostade his -due. Much in the piece is admirable: note especially the softness with -which the light comes through the chinks on to the hay. - -In _The Angler_ (B. 26, Fig. 10) the difficulties attempted are less -great, and there seems little wanting to entire success. Here Ostade’s -human interest is engaged, and whenever this is so, he is great. The -stationary posture, the muscular habit of the angler, with lax body but -firm wrist, is perfectly given; as is the slackening of the line, the -indolent gaze of the boy leaning on the rail, and the sleepy impression -of a still summer day without breezes. - -It is in such expressive drawing of the human body that Ostade shows -himself a master. The delighted eagerness of the baby in Fig. 4; the -jerk of its short limbs and crowing of its lips; or in _The Music Party_ -(B. 30), the boisterous, maudlin pleasure of the man who sits in the -chair, beating time with his hand to the laborious scraping of the -fiddler, catching what he can of the score, with what humour and -expression are these portrayed! One hears the terrible discord and the -cheerful thump of the peasant’s fist accompanying it. - -Another piece of imaginative drawing is _The Brawl_ (B. 18). The loose, -ineffectual, lurching stroke of the drunken man, the startled effort of -the fat man as he springs up from his barrel, the terror of the woman -clasping her baby closer, the mingled fear, anger, and surprise of the -little man who has provoked the quarrel and prepares to defend -himself--all are excellent. - -The same qualities pervade Ostade’s largest plate, the _Dance in the -Tavern_ (B. 49), which also shows his extraordinary art in composition -at its best. - -There are people, and perhaps always will be, who find in work such as -Ostade’s nothing but vulgarity. And some, who cannot help enjoying his -fine drawing, find themselves repelled by his choice of subjects. - -It seems difficult to understand this repulsion. For in his etchings, at -any rate, Ostade shows no exclusive preference for the coarse and -sordid. Mr. Hamerton has accused him of deadness of heart and apathy of -intellect, and declares him to be insensitive to all that is best among -the poor. But is this quite true? - -An accomplished lady some time ago wrote an essay in condemnation of the -“vulgarity” of John Leech and Charles Keene in certain of their drawings -for _Punch_. Such criticism seems to argue an excessive delicacy or a -deficiency of humour. Ostade’s range was limited, compared with that of -those two great artists, but as a draughtsman he is in the same order -with them; and in the writer’s judgment he is equally free from that -dulness which has no sense for the fine or rare in men and things, that -acceptance of the common price, the common standard, which are the -attributes of real vulgarity. - -Look, for instance, at the etching reproduced (Fig. 9). The subject has -been the theme of many painters and engravers. It is a subject easily -spoiled; a little too much of sentimental piety, a little too much of -satirical mockery, and the theme is made trivial or obvious. But -Ostade’s feeling is just right. There is no drawing of a trite moral, -as, for instance, in the treatment of the same subject by a later -engraver, Nicholas van Haeften. Nor is there a hint of mockery at the -discrepancy between the “good things” for which Heaven is thanked and -the humble pottage on the table. But is there not, besides the wonderful -sensitiveness of drawing in the figures, which makes one feel how the -toil-hardened, clumsy hands tremble awkwardly as they are clasped, and -how the boy, though his back is turned, is shutting his eyes resolutely -tight--is there not also a tenderness, a dignity in the whole? - -Again, in the little plate, _The Child and Doll_, is there not true -feeling, expressed with a fine reticence, in the mother’s face and in -the child’s? The careful fondness of the mother is even better expressed -in another etching, where she hands a baby down to the eager arms of its -elder sister, a child of six or seven, who receives it with joyful -pride. The drawing reminds one of some of the exquisitely humorous and -exquisitely tender sketches of Leech. - - -V - -It is when we come to the work of his pupils, Bega and Dusart, that we -realise best Ostade’s finer qualities. - -Cornelis Pietersz Bega was born at Haarlem in 1620, and died there of -the plague in 1664, fully twenty years before his master. - -According to Houbraken’s story, his real name was Begyn, which he -changed to Bega after being turned out of his father’s house for his -youthful escapades. The story is not incredible of such a youth as he -appears in his portrait, gay and somewhat vain-looking, with long -curling locks. - -Bega’s etchings are thirty-eight in number, and have a very distinctive -air. Certain characteristics seem to indicate that his original bent was -towards a decorative treatment of his subject. His drawings show a care -for the happy disposition of drapery, remarkable in this school. He has -a feeling for large design, combined with great indifference to human -character. But such treatment was alien to the Dutch school in general; -nor did Dutch peasants lend themselves at all willingly, so it seems, to -passive decoration. Certainly a pupil of Ostade’s would have no -encouraging influences to help him forward on such lines. So, though -Bega adopts in part the themes and general handling of his teacher, the -rather flat design which he affects, his frankly artificial chiaroscuro, -his use of light and shadow as masses of black and white rather than as -opportunities of mystery, contrast strongly with Ostade’s solid -modelling, his pervading atmosphere, and his pre-occupying human -interest. One perceives that the master’s influence could not altogether -swamp the pupil’s natural impulse: but neither wins the day, and the -result is an unsatisfying compromise. - -_The Tavern_ (Fig. 11) is a very characteristic plate. It is very -brilliant, and makes a powerful impression at first sight. But it does -not bear close study. There is a want of subtlety in it, and a want of -feeling; a certain hardness, combined with a certain cleverness, that -repels. - -Bega’s two other large plates, also of tavern scenes, reveal just the -same qualities, and need not be further particularised. - -In technical character, these etchings recall the Spanish etcher Goya, -who was also fond of producing a sharp, vivid, emphatic effect by a -similar artificial manner of lighting. Not improbably Bega’s etchings -may have been known to Goya, and given him a suggestion. - -Bega had apparently no tenderness, and little or no interest in - -[Illustration: _Fig. 11.--The Tavern. By Bega. B. 32._] - -humanity. This deficiency, in one of the Dutch school, and trained in -the Dutch tradition, is notable. One has only to turn from his mother -and baby sitting by the window (B. 21) to Ostade’s _Child and Doll_, to -feel what a difference lies between the two. - -Cornelis Dusart was a much later scholar. At Bega’s death he was only a -child of four, and he survived Ostade many years, living on till 1704. -When Ostade died, he finished his master’s uncompleted pictures, but -kept them till his death in his own possession. - -Some of Dusart’s etchings, as for instance _The Village Fête_ (B. 16) -have a pleasing effect, with well-managed light and shade; but they -cannot be compared with the similar pieces by Ostade, whose method is -here carried on, but in an inferior manner. Yet he has a vein of his -own, a gross, riotous, extravagant vein, with a great fondness for -violent action. In the plate called by Bartsch _Le Violon Assis_ (B. -15), which was too large to be reproduced here, his specific qualities -appear to great advantage. - -One seems to hear an hilarious din merely from looking at it. The -fiddler plays with a wild fantastic energy; one peasant accompanies him -with crashing tankard and roaring chorus; another sits bent and sullen -with his head on his hands. The landlord, with huge frame and round -paunch, looks on with twinkling eyes. A woman by the great chimney, on -which hangs the notice of a sale of tulips and hyacinths, “Tulpaan en -Hyacinthen,” calls a child to her. The roomy background with its beams -and rafters, is drawn and lighted with extraordinary skill. As a page of -daily life, fresh and vivid, this etching deserves the fullest praise. - -Dusart in his later years devoted himself to mezzotint, and produced a -great deal in this manner. These engravings, some of which represent in -Dusart’s extravagant way, the joy in Holland at the taking of Namur in -1695 by William III., are more interesting historically than -artistically. It was not till the middle of next century that mezzotint, -the invention of which does not date from much earlier than Dusart’s -birth, reached its perfection in the hands of the English engravers. - - - - -THE ETCHERS OF LANDSCAPE - - -I - -The seventeenth century, which inaugurated so much that is -characteristic in modern art, permitted for the first time the -recognition of landscape as a subject worthy for its own sake of -painting. And feeling for landscape seems to be almost entirely a modern -thing. - -Drawings of landscape by Titian and Campagnola among the Italians, and -by Dürer among the Germans, had indicated the first beginnings of a -preference; and there are a certain number of landscape subjects among -the engraved work of the Little Masters. But these are occasional -efforts by men whose chief work lay in other lines. In painting no one -ventured as yet to concentrate his interest on the landscape, and though -men like the Flemish Joachim Patinir evidently cared more for their -backgrounds of mountain and river than for the human incidents which -relieve them, they had not the courage to cast away compromise and brave -authority by omitting the traditional foreground. - -Rubens is the first great Northern master who paints landscape with -entire and frank abandonment to the subject. The broad prospects and -swelling undulations of Flemish country are painted by him with a kind -of glory that reflects his large and joyous mind. Lodowyck de Vadder and -Lucas van Uden, his contemporaries, etched landscape for the first time -in Flanders. But it was in Holland that this line was most abundantly -developed. To tranquil, observant natures, such as seem typical of the -nation, there was in landscape a strong appeal, a permanent delight. The -majority of the Dutch etchers found here their chief material. - - -II - -Earliest, perhaps, of all Dutch landscape painters, and almost certainly -earliest among Dutch landscape etchers, is a little known artist, -Hercules Seghers. A mystery hangs over him; for though there is -documentary evidence in an inventory of 1625 or thereabouts, that he -painted a considerable number of landscapes, these pictures have nearly -all disappeared. Some, doubtless, may be lurking under other names; one, -called a Rembrandt, was discovered some time ago at Florence; one is at -Berlin; but this can hardly account for all. We can only guess what they -were like from the etchings, which are usually either views - -[Illustration: _Fig. 12.--Tobias and the Angel. By H. Seghers. M. 236._] - -of Holland with vast horizons, or strange visions of wild and -mountainous country. Seghers was born in 1589,[3] and died in 1650. A -scholar of Gillis van Connincxloo, he was producing work as early as -1607, and from that date to 1630 seems to have been his chief period of -activity.[4] His life, like that of several of the Dutch masters, was a -long and hopeless struggle against poverty. He is said to have become a -drunkard, and to have died from the effects of a fall. Dr. Bredius, -judging apparently from his work, thinks that he must have visited the -Alps, travelled into Italy, and found a stimulus in the art of Adam -Elsheimer. Certainly the rocky landscapes which appear in the etchings -could have no archetypes in Holland. But there is so strong a vein of -the fantastic in them, that it is difficult to believe they were done -from nature, especially when one observes how precise a pencil Seghers -uses when he sketches his native country. However, truth to mountain -formation is anything but an easy thing to seize; only by incessant -training and close observation does the eye acquire it; and to draw -rocks imaginatively, that is, with vivid realisation of their essential -forms, is scarcely possible to one who has not the work of predecessors -to learn from and to surpass, and whose eye has not dwelt upon them from -childhood. One may imagine, therefore, that the efforts of a lowlander, -to whom mountains must have had something visionary and strange in their -aspect, would be halting, laborious, and confused in grappling with such -unfamiliar material. The rocks painted by Patinir are a case in point. -This may well explain the singular shortcomings of Seghers’ rendering of -rocks and mountains. In his attempts to represent floating clouds on the -mountain sides he is simply grotesque. - -If, then, it was actual scenery that Seghers etched, where is that -scenery to be found? It is certainly not the Alps, and though one or two -plates suggest the Tyrol, the landscape is most like in character to the -Karst district on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. One of the -etchings might almost stand for the rock-surrounded plain of Cettinjé, -in Montenegro, though to infer that Seghers travelled to so remote a -country would be a wild conjecture. - -There can be no doubt, on the other hand, of the influence of Elsheimer -over Seghers, and through him, over Rembrandt. - -In the National Gallery there is a picture by Elsheimer representing -_Tobias and the Angel_, in a wooded landscape. This was engraved by -Elsheimer’s friend, Count de Goudt, and either from the picture or the -engraving,[5] Seghers borrowed the main features of one of his etchings -(Fig. 12). The two chief figures have been retained almost unaltered; -but their being placed higher up in the picture makes a considerable -change in the composition, they have more dignity and significance. The -elimination, also, of some rather trivial details, such as the great -flowers in the foreground, and the passing figures in the middle -distance, make for the same effect. A kind of mystery and solemnity have -been added to the landscape, and in fact the impression of the whole is -deepened and enlarged. The subject has been fused in Seghers’ mind and -has become his own. - -At his death, Seghers’ effects, including his etched plates, were sold. -Among the buyers of these latter were, apparently, Antoni Waterloo and -Rembrandt. Waterloo published some of Seghers’ landscapes with his own, -and it has been assumed by Dutuit that these impressions were from the -earlier artist’s plates, re-worked. Comparison of one of the original -etchings, however, with that published by Waterloo of the same subject, -leads the writer to doubt this. The work is entirely different. - -Rembrandt, we know from the inventory of his effects taken in 1656, -bought six of Seghers’ landscapes, and he also bought the copper on -which had been etched the _Tobias and the Angel_. It was re-worked by -Rembrandt, and it now appears in Rembrandt’s work as a _Flight into -Egypt_.[6] (See Fig. 13.) - -The dark wooded landscape remains unaltered, and though the Holy Family -and a group of trees now occupy the right hand of the scene, the great -wing of the angel is still distinctly to be seen above them, and -Tobias’s legs have not been perfectly erased. - -Rembrandt, we may be sure, would never have taken another man’s work -unless he had found in it a strong appeal to his own nature. And Seghers -seems to have been his prototype in landscape. On the one hand, the -mysterious, darkly wooded, mountainous visions of Seghers suggest the -type of landscape in which Rembrandt set, for instance, his own _Tobias -and the Angel_,[7] a type which he was fond of reproducing. On the other -hand, Seghers’ love for the vast distances of Holland, crowded plains -with broad rivers winding into an infinite horizon, appears again in -some of Rembrandt’s etchings, and more notably still in those spacious -prospects, “escapes for the mind” as Mr. Pater has called them, of -Rembrandt’s pupil, the most truly Dutch and perhaps the greatest, of all -the landscape painters of Holland--Philip de Koninck. - -To return to Seghers’ etchings. There is something about them which -arrests the eye at once, and this is partly due to their peculiar -printing. Seghers was a born maker of experiments, and in nearly all his -plates sought to get an effect of colour. In fact, it is usually -asserted - -[Illustration: _Fig. 13.--The Flight into Egypt. By Rembrandt. M. 236._] - -that he anticipated, by a hundred years, the coloured engravings of -Leblond. - -Printing in colour from two or more blocks had been practised by -wood-engravers long before this time. Burgkmair and Cranach in Germany, -Ugo da Carpi and Andrea Andreani in Italy, had produced a number of -these “chiaroscuros,” as they are called, with charming effect. This was -about the beginning of the sixteenth century. And almost in Seghers’ own -time, Hendrik Goltzius, of Haarlem, published some of his best work from -coloured wood-blocks. - -But in all of these cases, at least two, and often three separate blocks -were used, and the colours superimposed on each other. This was also the -procedure of Leblond, though he used metal plates and mezzotint. - -Seghers, however, employed a single plate only, and his effects are not -due to what is usually understood as colour printing. He first prepared -his paper with a coat of paint, which formed the ground; in some cases -this was a greenish tint. He then etched his subject and printed it in -an indigo ink; and in order to procure shading of the same colour, he -lightly scratched the parts to be shaded with the dry-point, so that the -copper held the ink on its surface. By this simple means he produced an -apparently complex effect.[8] - -The green tint and dark-blue ink are, of course, only taken as a -specimen, for Seghers used various colours. Sometimes the impressions -are printed on linen. In one case the etching is printed in white on a -brown ground. - -Besides views of Dutch plains and of mountain scenery, Seghers also -etched trees; not with great success, but with a striving after truth of -foliage very rare in his day. Now and then, too, he attempted buildings, -and with a real feeling for the romantic, for picturesque beauty, in -architecture. - -On the whole, we must allow an important place in the history of Dutch -landscape to Hercules Seghers. But that must not prevent us from -perceiving that it is an historical importance only. Seghers opened up -the road, but he achieved no eminent triumph himself. Nor, in spite of -his suggestiveness for Rembrandt and De Koninck, does he seem to have -exercised any great influence on the landscape etchers who immediately -succeeded him. - -He has no affinity with the men whose work we must now consider. - - -III - -The two diverging tendencies of Dutch art, that which fed on the Italian -tradition and that which clung to the native soil, are both to some -extent represented in Seghers. - -Leaving for a time the Italianised masters, let us follow the main -development of Dutch landscape art, the painters and etchers whom -Holland alone inspired. - -The first names of note are those of Esaias and Jan van de Velde. Jan -was born in 1596, Esaias a few years earlier. Of the former we shall say -something later on. He produced a great deal of work, the most -remarkable part of which is a number of plates engraved and etched in -the manner of Elsheimer. It is by these plates that he is best known, -and through them he ranks as one of the Italianised school. As, however, -he etched a certain number of purely Dutch landscapes, after the designs -probably of his brother, he must also be mentioned here. These -landscapes are mostly sets of traditional subjects, such as the -sixteenth century loved: _The Four Elements_, _The Four Seasons_, _The -Twelve Months_. Always strongly overworked with the burin, these -etchings have a somewhat harsh and dry effect. The harshness is -especially noticeable in the treatment of foliage. It is as if the -artist were striving to reproduce with the etching-needle the manner of -line-engraving as employed by the Goltzius school. Failing to secure -this he has recourse to the burin to supplement his incomplete success -in etching. - -Esaias uses the acid in a much franker fashion. A plate of his, which we -may take as representative, depicts a whale cast on the shores of -Holland, perhaps at Scheveningen, in 1614. A great crowd has assembled -on the beach staring at the stranded monster, examining and measuring -its vast proportions. The dunes recede in the distance; boats are at -anchor in the surf. - -The scene is treated with the plainness and sincerity characteristic of -Dutch art. And the etching, with its firmly and rather coarsely bitten -lines, unsophisticated by the burin, has a solidity and simplicity not -without attraction. - -Regarded as etching, this is primitive work. Still it is genuine -etching, and by one who has perceived that needle and acid demand an -employment and an aim different in kind from that of the graver. It is -interesting, therefore, to compare this plate with the line-engraving of -a similar subject, representing another whale stranded, a few years -before, in 1598, by Jacob Matham, the pupil of Goltzius. - -With the Van de Veldes it is natural to associate two contemporaries, -who with them helped to inaugurate the great age of Dutch art; Pieter - -[Illustration: _Fig. 14.--Three Men under a Tree. By Everdingen. B. 5._] - -Molyn, the elder, and Jan van Goyen, the latter born in the same year -with Jan van de Velde. - -Molyn, who was born in London, but was working in Haarlem before 1616, -is an artist of real independence. A set of etchings, published in 1626, -shows the same qualities that appear in his drawings--firm -draughtsmanship, openness and freedom of design, and a fine economy of -means. Heaths and moors, a climbing country road with plodding waggon, a -wayside inn, such were the simple elements which he translated into -always distinguished work. Doubtless to Molyn’s teaching must be -attributed something of that fine manner which imparts so much charm to -the pictures of Gerard Ter Borch, his pupil. - -Dying in 1656, Molyn survived by a few years one who, though not a -pupil, came certainly under his influence; Van Goyen. Till lately Van -Goyen, perhaps because his works are better known, was supposed to have -been Molyn’s teacher, or at least to have given a stimulus to his art. -Van Goyen shows more power in his drawings than in his paintings, which -are sometimes but little removed from sepia monochromes; and it is a -surprise to come, here and there, upon a picture of his which is bright -and fresh. The few etchings which he published are undated, but belong, -according to Dr. Lippman, to his middle life, 1625-30. They - -[Illustration: _Fig. 15.--Landscape in Norway. By Everdingen. B. 75._] - -have not the character of Molyn’s plates, and are far less good as -etchings. - -Simon de Vlieger, who ranks in date as a younger contemporary of the Van -de Veldes and of Molyn, is more successful as an etcher in the few -plates which he produced, than any of the early landscape artists. -Unhampered by the traditions of the line-engraver, he aims at an effect -at once delicate and free. As a painter, he is known almost entirely by -sea-pieces, silvery in tone, from which Jan van de Cappelle drew -something of his mastery over still effects at sea, mornings of sleepy -mist through which the sun breaks palely on the sails of anchored -vessels. Like most of the Dutch painters, de Vlieger changed his home -several times. Born at Rotterdam in 1600, he was at Delft from 1634 to -1640, and from then till his death, nineteen years later, at Amsterdam. -It seems probable that here he gave lessons to the young Willem van de -Velde, who was afterwards to be famous as the greatest of Dutch -sea-painters, and who died at Greenwich, a Court painter to Charles II. - -In his etchings, which are undated, de Vlieger does not attempt the sea; -though one (B. 10), a fine piece in its way, is a scene on the -sea-beach, with fishermen and their haul. The best of the plates are two -Sylvan pieces, _The Wood by the Canal_ (B. 6), and the _Grassy Hill_ (B. -7). The foliage is more sensitively treated than it commonly is by Dutch -etchers, and with more approach to delicate truth. There is also a set -of animals and poultry; possibly one of the earliest sets of subjects of -this kind, which the middle of the century found so popular. - - -IV - -With Allardt van Everdingen (1621-1675) we reach a new element in Dutch -landscape. Working under Pieter Molyn at Haarlem, he began by painting -marine subjects; and with a view to increasing his knowledge of the sea, -took ship on the Baltic. But a storm drove him to Norway; and there for -some time, taking advantage of misfortune, he lingered travelling and -sketching. - -Before 1645, however--that is before he was twenty-five, Everdingen was -back in Haarlem. He now began to paint pictures from his Norwegian -sketches: and to the Dutch public this northern scenery disclosed a -novel charm. Used to wide pastures and ample skies, they found a -romantic strangeness in tumbling streams among rocks and pine-forests, -where the sky was shut off by mountain slopes. - -In 1652 Everdingen removed to Amsterdam, where he remained till his -death. Probably his fame had preceded him: at any rate his popularity -soon grew great there also, and his canvases were much sought after. - -Besides numerous pictures, the Norwegian sketches provided the artist -with material for a long series of etchings. Fig. 15 is a very -characteristic specimen of them. Without any extraordinary qualities, -they have often a genuine charm. The Norwegian landscape is treated -with insight into its peculiar features, and though Everdingen fails -entirely to suggest the rush and foam of torrents, he makes fine use of -the log cabins, rafts, and palings, and etches pines with truth and -spirit. - -Of a probably later date are the four views of a watering-place, -possibly Spa, one of which is here reproduced (Fig. 16). The subject is - -[Illustration: _Fig. 16.--Drinking the Waters at Spa. By Everdingen. B. -96._] - -interesting, and the handling of the buildings and the groups of people -is excellent. - -Everdingen was not without humour, which is shown in the long series of -illustrations to _Reynard the Fox_. But most readers will probably find -the chief interest of the artist to lie in his relations with a greater -man, Ruisdael. - - -V - -Though a native of Haarlem, Jacob van Ruisdael produced most of his -life’s work at Amsterdam. He is conjectured to have been born about -1625; the precise year has not been discovered. His father Isaak, a -frame-maker, had him trained as a surgeon; and it was not till after he -had passed a course of surgery that he abandoned the profession for -painting, in which he had early shown his gift. - -Ruisdael’s first pictures are dated 1646, and his works from that year -to 1655, his “early period,” are nearly all views of Haarlem and its -neighbourhood. Thoroughly Dutch in character, they have little of that -gloomy tone so frequent in the artist’s later time. The beautiful _View -of Haarlem_ at the Hague, with its massed clouds and ray of sunshine -gliding over the plain, is a perfect example of this early manner. - -With Ruisdael’s removal from Haarlem, a great change comes over his art. -There seems no doubt that his early Dutch landscapes were not popular. -They were perhaps too original. He came to Amsterdam poor and without -much reputation, and he found there, established in fame and popularity, -Allardt van Everdingen, returned from Norway and now attracting the -world of buyers by his pictures of that wild and romantic country. It -was in 1652, as we have seen, that Everdingen settled in the city, and -three or four years later Ruisdael arrived. He did not become a burgess -till 1659, but had probably been already some years in residence before -the formal inscription of his name. - -From this period dates the lamentable change in Ruisdael’s art. The -master, whose native independence is so marked that one is at a loss to -name his probable teacher, of his own will and in sheer mortification of -spirit at his want of success, forces himself from the meadows and dunes -of his delight, and invents, to win the patronage of the rich men of -Amsterdam, a Norway of his own. A visit to North Germany, of which there -is some evidence, helped his invention. Now begins the long series of -waterfalls and pines and torrents so familiar in the picture galleries. -It is not on these that Ruisdael’s fame rests; on this ground -Everdingen, in spite of his inferior merits as a painter, remains his -master. But as the pictures of this period are the most common, the -public is apt to identify him with this acquired style in which the -true Ruisdael is obscured. For this reason it was a fortunate choice -which secured for the National Gallery, two years ago, so exquisite a -specimen of the painter at his best as the _Shore at Scheveningen_, No. -1390. The chilly ending of an afternoon, with clouds blowing up and the -rain beginning, the vexed movement of shallow water as the rising wind -breaks it into short waves, the wetness of the spray-laden atmosphere, -are painted with a sensitive subtlety that more modern landscape, with -all its triumphs, has not excelled. The mood of feeling here expressed -is intimately Ruisdael’s own. Without the brooding melancholy which -became oppressively habitual later, which found such grandiose -expression in pictures like the famous _Jews’ Burying-place_ at Dresden, -there is here a latent sadness that seems to have been bred in the fibre -of the man. It seems a kind of expectation of sorrow; the mood that -poetry with greater intensity has expressed in some lines of Browning -which suggest themselves: - - The rain set early in to-night; - The sullen wind was soon awake: - It tore the elm-tops down for spite, - And did its worst to vex the lake. - I listened, with heart fit to break.... - -For such a nature who would predict happiness? Fortune satisfied that -inborn melancholy to the full. The years brought increasing poverty, and -the cares of providing for himself and for his father wore the artist -down. The autumn of 1681 found him ill and helpless; so helpless that -the religious community to which he belonged, the sect of Mennonites, -procured admission for him to their almshouse at Haarlem. There he -lingered till the next spring. In March he was buried in St. Bavon’s. - - -VI - -Ruisdael’s etchings are but twelve, or perhaps thirteen, in number; only -seven being catalogued by Bartsch. Their fewness shows, what their -technical qualities confirm, that the artist neither had great aptitude -for this method of expression nor cared to pursue his experiments in it -far. They all belong to his earliest period. One, the _Three Oaks_ (B. -6), is dated 1649, and it is difficult to assign any of the others, -except possibly the _Cornfield_, to a later date. - -Of the four large plates, the one which Bartsch calls _Les Voyageurs_ -(B. 4), is decidedly the most interesting. It is a forest scene, wild -and intricate, with water running or standing in pools among the great -roots of the oak which occupies the centre and of the beech which fills -the left. The two figures are passing in the middle distance, where the -wood is clearer. It is a remnant, perhaps, of that vast forest which at -one time covered the whole of Holland. Ruisdael’s strong feeling for old -trees, for the solitude of forests, densely branching and mysterious, -inspires him here; and one has only to turn to the facile etchers of -sylvan scenery, Waterloo or Swanevelt, or Van der Cabel, to realise the -difference between the man who feels what he cannot perfectly master and -the man who has perfect mastery of a facile formula. Ruisdael never -succeeded in finding a quite satisfactory convention for foliage in -etched line; but his continual feeling after truth of rendering, his -sensitiveness, to which the forms of branch and leaf are always fresh -and wonderful, make his work always interesting. - -The three other large plates (B. 1-3) are less successful handlings of -the same kind of subject. Though the first, _The Little Bridge_, is not -a forest scene, and represents a decayed old farm-building, it is -penetrated with the same feeling for picturesque, moss-grown antiquity -and neglected solitude. The _Three Oaks_ are etched with truth and -strength, but they do not rival the grandeur of the oak in the larger -plate. The _Cornfield_ (Fig. 17) is sunny and pleasant. - -There are two states of the four large plates, and many of the _Three -Oaks_ and the _Cornfield_. As the later states are by far the more -common, it is well to be warned that the plates have been retouched, -and, in the writer’s opinion, certainly not by Ruisdael. In the first -three a pudding-shaped cloud, with hard, bulging edges (what a satire on -this consummate master of clouds!) has been inserted, and in all there -is fresh work, sometimes adding to the effect of the plate, but still -suggesting an alien hand. - -Ruisdael’s etching is little more than an illustration of his painting; -criticism, therefore, of the one must deal to a certain extent with the -other. - -Ruisdael’s great fame rests, perhaps, as much on his historical -importance as on his actual merit. With Hobbema he prepared the way for -Crome and Constable, and through them for Rousseau and the landscape of -modern France. But, taken on his own merits, he is a considerable -figure. Were it not for the fatiguing series of unpersuasive waterfalls, -which too often represent him, his real qualities would have more chance -of making themselves felt. When on his own ground he is - -[Illustration: _Fig. 17.--The Cornfield. By J. Ruisdael. B. 5._] - -more various, more subtle, altogether finer than Hobbema, except when -Hobbema is at his very best, as in the severely charming _Avenue of -Middleharnis_. Hobbema often fails to convince, because he has not -sufficiently felt his subject; and so he will paint a grand sky with the -wind moving great clouds across it, but when he comes to the trees of -his foreground he forgets his sky, and paints the branches in a -breathlessly stiff atmosphere, without the suggestion of a wind. The -resulting effect is a perplexing heaviness. Ruisdael betrays the same -defect in his later pictures; what else could one expect from one -condemned to produce unrealities for a market? But in his good period he -always shows an impressible imagination, and his materials are fused by -the feeling in which he steeps them. His sense for the beauty of trees -is profound, though rather limited in its range. He was lacking in the -consummate style of Crome, and would never have achieved the largeness -and reticent power of a picture like the English master’s _Avenue at -Chapel Fields_. But for skies, for clouds, he has an eye more true, a -love more comprehensive, than those of any who had gone before him, than -those of many who were to follow him. He piles his clouds in mountainous -glory, “trailing” their shadows over the wide country, till the level -pastures of Holland grow in “visionary majesties” like the grandest -mountains of Norway. This gives us all the more reason to deplore the -absence of any attempt to deal with clouds in the etchings, still more -the presence of those inflated shapes inserted by a stupid publisher. - - -VII - -Though an important figure in the history of landscape painting, -Ruisdael did not strongly influence the contemporary etchers of -landscape. Hobbema, his famous scholar, did not, so far as we know, etch -at all. A few etchers, however, felt Ruisdael’s stimulus more or less: -Van Beresteyn, who was working at Haarlem in 1644, and produced some -etchings somewhat in the manner of Ruisdael’s _Cornfield_, but with a -mannered treatment of trees: H. Naiwincx, who handled a delicate point, -and etched a set of graceful plates of woodland and river: and Adriaen -Verboom, who in his two or three etchings is perhaps more successful in -treatment of trees than any of the Dutchmen. - -But more celebrated than any of these is Antoni Waterloo. - -His etchings, to which alone he owes his reputation, are considerably -over a hundred in number; and as the subjects are monotonous, they soon -become tedious. Groups of trees by a roadside, or a fringe of wood alone -occupy Waterloo’s needle. Now and then, as in B. 28, the touch is light -and the effect pleasant: but having once found a formula, Waterloo is -content to repeat it. His foliage is hard and heavy. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 18.--The Burnt House on the Canal. By Van der -Heyden._] - -Roelant Roghman (1597-1686), though most of his plates are nominally -topographical, shows more feeling, if less skill. One set of plates by -him illustrates the Dutch postal system between the mother country and -the East Indies, and has therefore an historical interest. - -But Roghman’s chief claim on our concern is that he was the faithful and -beloved friend of Rembrandt. His etchings, however, show no trace of -Rembrandt’s influence; and he was by ten years the elder man. - -Like Seghers and like Ruisdael, Roghman was neglected and miserable in -his life, and died in an almshouse. One of his landscapes is in the -National Gallery. - - -VIII - -The illustration on page 51 (Fig. 18) is from an etching which -represents a certain province of Dutch art, handled by several of the -painters with much success, but scarcely touched by the etchers. - -Of this group, to whom architecture, whether in the spacious and austere -interiors of the Dutch churches, or the squares and ruddy brick -house-fronts of the towns, was the chief preoccupation, Jan van der -Heyden is the most famous and the best. He is also the one among them -who has etched. The illustration, though much reduced, gives a fairly -good idea of his work. Master of a precise and patient pencil, Van der -Heyden is not content till he has drawn in every brick, every stone. And -the marvel is, that in spite of his method, he contrives to convey a -certain spirit of largeness into his design. In fact, though so minute -in detail, he seems always to have kept his eye on the whole. A pleasant -temperate warmth of colour pervades his pictures, the kind of light -which on certain days suffuses old brick walls, as if dyed in the -sunshine of many summers: and that exquisite order, the almost -extravagant cleanliness of Dutch households, makes itself felt in these -glimpses of tree-bordered canals, and of trim house-fronts with their -well-proportioned windows. - -Much of this colour persists even in the black and white of an etching -like that reproduced. It is the day after a fire, and a little crowd of -neighbours is gathered to look on the burnt remnant of the house. How - -[Illustration: _Sea Piece. From an etching by L. Backhuysen._] - -excellently are the groups and figures depicted! This is not true -etcher’s work; but it is very skilful work, very good work, of its kind. - -Neither Van der Heyden, nor any of the Dutch painters of architecture, -realised the capacity of outlines in stone or brick, attended by their -circumstance of light and shadow, to impress the imagination, to stir -emotion, as Méryon was to do later. But their work, by its soberness and -firm simplicity, wins us. In its own way, and in its own degree, it will -always give pleasure. - - -IX - -From Holland, the first naval power in Europe of the seventeenth -century, a love of the sea and an expression of it in art were naturally -to be expected: and among the several fine painters who now for the -first time made the sea their subject, two at least, Reynier Zeeman and -Ludolph Backhuysen, have left some admirable etchings. Simon de Vlieger -painted, but did not etch marine subjects; of Jan van de Capelle only -three indifferent plates are known; and Willem van de Velde did not etch -at all. - -Zeeman’s real name was Nooms; but his love of the sea procured him early -the name which he adopts on all his plates. He travelled much, but -worked chiefly at Amsterdam, where probably he was born in 1623. - -Zeeman’s etchings are nearly all in sets, representing views of -Amsterdam, different kinds of Dutch shipping, and naval battles. They -passed through the hands of several publishers, who, we may conjecture, -commissioned him to do them: and they were evidently popular. Such work, -nominally and primarily intended to serve a literary rather than a -pictorial purpose, suffers in consequence. The artist has had to choose -his subjects with a view to those whose interest was not in the etcher -as etcher, but in his knowledge of ships and skill in depicting them. - -Yet Zeeman has managed to serve art as well as history. Ships, with -their ordered intricacy of rigging and their mysterious beauty, have an -endless fascination for him: for it is shipping, rather than the sea -itself, which he loves. And his ships are etched with an admirable -feeling, a simple and effective handling of the bitten lines. His men of -war move with royal stateliness; and the battle-pieces have something -of the magnificence one imagines in the old sea-fights. Equally good in -their way are plates like the fishing boats (Fig. 19) setting out at -morning over the still sea, bathed in a wash of limpid air and sunshine. -Only in his clouds does Zeeman completely fail. Historically, too, these -prints are interesting. Here, with patriotic pride, Zeeman is fond of -showing the English ship of the line or frigate, with her sails riddled, -conquered at last, and with the Dutch tricolour hoisted over the St. -George’s Cross. Nothing could more - -[Illustration: _Fig. 19.--Fishing Boats. By R. Zeeman. B. 38._] - -vividly bring home to Englishmen the powerful position of Holland at the -time. - -Backhuysen’s etchings are later than Zeeman’s, being all produced in -1701, when the artist was seventy years old,[9] and seven years before -his death at Amsterdam. A pupil of Everdingen, he had soon risen to fame -and was employed or sought after by many foreign princes, including the -Tsar Peter the Great; and from over much production his work suffered. - -The etchings, however, though produced so late in life, are neither -languid nor feeble. In freshness and vivacity they excel Backhuysen’s -drawings. It is the same with Zeeman: probably because the -etching-needle has so much more capacity for giving the crispness of -foam and the sharp lights of running waves, than pencil and sepia. No -one, till Turner came, succeeded at all in painting the mass and weight -of water as the tides move it in deep seas; but the easily agitated, -breezy motion of the shallow Dutch waters is often suggested with a -pleasant freshness by Backhuysen. The best of the etchings is that of -the ship under sail, crushing the water under her bows into foam. - - -X - -So far, we have considered only the native school of landscape artists, -who took their subjects from Holland and its borders. But towards the -end of the sixteenth century there was established in Rome a group of -painters from the Netherlands, to which each succeeding generation added -new members, whether they settled there for life or stayed only for a -few years. - -Belonging to this group are a certain number of etchers, deriving -originally, in more or less degree, from Elsheimer, and receiving a -second and more powerful stimulus from the art of Claude. - -Jan van de Velde,[10] it seems probable, spent some years of his manhood -in Italy, and perhaps worked under Elsheimer himself. At any rate, a -number of his plates are entirely in Elsheimer’s manner. These are so -heavily overworked with the burin that they must count rather as -line-engravings than as etchings. The burin plays, indeed, a more or -less important part in all Jan van de Velde’s prints. - -One set, illustrating the story of Tobias, was etched from designs by -Moses van Uytenbroeck, an artist who also published a number of plates -of his own. Here again is an instance of the traditional chronology -being at fault. Uytenbroeck’s birth is usually given as 1600. But Bode -has pointed out that there are engravings after his work by an artist -who died in 1612. The date must therefore be put back several years. -Uytenbroeck is perhaps the nearest to Elsheimer of all his followers. -The relation of the figures to the landscape, the curious human types, -with their rather stolid, plain faces and heavy gestures, the treatment -of Italian landscape, all are intimately akin to the German master’s -art. - -Elsheimer’s influence still persists strongly in Cornelis Poelenburg, -one of the most popular of the Dutch artists in Rome, whose small, -smoothly glowing pictures of grottoes and bathing nymphs are familiar in -every - -[Illustration: _Fig. 20.--Road, with Trees and Figures. By Breenbergh. -B. 17._] - -gallery. Poelenburg did not etch himself, but his friend Jan Gerritz -Bronchorst etched from his paintings and in his style, though with less -grace and elegance. We find here the beginnings of that school of -landscape, “Arcadian” as Bode calls it, which so soon received its -fullest and most perfect expression in the large and tranquil art of -Claude. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 21.--Landscape. By Both. B. 3._] - -Pieter de Laer, of whose etchings of animals we shall say something in -the next chapter, etched one landscape at least in the delicate soft -manner of that master. And with him maybe associated Bartolomeus -Breenbergh, who lived in Rome from his twenty-first to his twenty-eighth -year, 1620-1627. He was married at Amsterdam in 1633 and died there in -1659 or earlier; but was at Rome again in the interval, during which he -published (1640) a set of very attractive little prints. Fig. 20 is an -example of his work. - -The same delicate, fine needle, and the same preference for the -picturesque, characterise the earlier etchings of Thomas Wyck. Later he -adopted a freer, broader style, and worked on a larger scale, but with -less success. - -But the most conspicuous and important of this group is Jan Both. Like -Poelenburg, he was a man of Utrecht, where he was born in 1610 and where -he died in 1652. His portrait, taken in his later days at home, is that -of a stout, grave burgher. Quite young he left the studio of his master -Bloemart and travelled through France to Rome. There the soft sunshine -of Claude fascinated him and he began to follow in the footsteps of that -famous painter. - -Every one knows the landscapes of Both, their smooth, rather insipid -grace, their premeditated balance of composition, their elegant -monotony. It is certain that they were popular in Holland, whither they -were brought in ships from Italy to adorn the walls of wealthy buyers. -Probably in that day such painting of placid sunshine was a new thing; -what we perceive to be a surface acquaintance with Nature savoured -almost of intimacy; and doubtless Both’s pretty and monotonous -conventions had then a permanent charm. - -In his etchings, Both’s weaknesses do not appear so strongly. And, -wisely, he did not produce many. Had there been more they would, beyond -doubt, have been precisely similar to what we have; and from mere -fatigue at their monotony one would have rated them below their worth. - -As it is, the ten landscapes after his own designs are more than enough -to reveal Both’s great limitations. Yet they are few enough for us to -enjoy them. For, after all, they are attractive and accomplished -etchings. From Claude, Both had learned how to produce, with a nice -management of the acid, an exquisite softness in his distances. The -atmosphere is limpid and bathed in sunshine, and the foregrounds are -suggested with that light touch and selection of detail which are first -requisites in an etching. - -Here, again, it is only fair to the artist to judge him by the early -states of his work. The ruled lines defacing the sky which they are -meant to constitute, were added in the second state by the publisher. Of -that there can be little doubt. Unfortunately, Both’s first states are -extremely rare. - -Both’s pupil, Willem de Heusch, approaches if he does not rival his -master. He is not independent enough, however, to merit special notice. - -Herman van Swanevelt, another artist whose birth-date must be put -further back than the traditional 1620,[11] lived on to 1690, when he -died at Rome. His etchings are more considerable in number than in -merit. He began the school of reminiscences from Claude and Titian’s -landscapes which lingered on through paler and paler repetitions into -the eighteenth century, in the sad facility of Genoels and Van der Cabel -and Glauber. Never was art more bloodless and apathetic than in these -degenerate spoilers of a fine tradition. - - - - -THE ETCHERS OF PASTORAL - - -I - -While landscape thus occupied the talent of so many Dutch painters, a -certain number struck out a branch apart, choosing subjects that may -briefly be called pastoral. For these men the foreground of cattle, the -goatherd or the shepherd with his flock, was of greater interest than -the background of often quite conventional scenery. Sometimes two or -more painters collaborated, and one painted the landscape while another -put in the animals. - -And as in painting, so in etching. A certain group of men etched nothing -but animals, with now and then a landscape. Of these the chief are Paul -Potter, Claes Berchem, Adriaen van de Velde, Karel du Jardin. - -This love of the domestic animals for their own sake in art seems native -and almost peculiar to Holland. - -Many painters before this time had shown a remarkable love of animals. -From Benozzo Gozzoli to Bassano, individuals among the Italian masters -had introduced their favourites, wherever opportunity offered, into -sacred and historical compositions. And among the elder contemporaries -of the Dutchmen, Rubens, Snyders, and Velasquez had painted dogs and -horses as only they could paint them. But it is mainly in hunting -pieces, as servants or companions of man, that these painters introduce -animals; cattle and sheep do not interest them. - -It is the same with the great engravers who preceded the -seventeenth-century etchers. Dürer was undoubtedly very fond of animals -and engraved them frequently. And that singular master of the fifteenth -century, whose name we do not know, but who is generally called the -Master of the Amsterdam Cabinet from the fact that by far the fullest -collection of his prints is at Amsterdam, engraved dogs and horses with -a freedom and a vivacity which Dürer never attained, and which were in -that period of Northern art unique. This master was long thought a -Dutchman, but the type of his faces, among other considerations, marks -him as a Swabian artist. - -Yet in none of these men appears anything like the peculiar feeling -which in Potter, for instance, strikes so strong a note. The glory and - -[Illustration: _Fig. 22.--A Ram. By Berchem. B. 51._] - -excitement of the chase, so magnificently put on canvas by Rubens, the -relish of the boar’s savage fury as the hounds hurl themselves at him, -are absolutely alien to that brooding intentness, as alert to catch -every curve in the attitude of cattle rising or lying down, as subtle to -penetrate to their mysterious non-human existence, so distant and aloof, -pervading the Dutchman’s art. It is a mood which fuses the mind into the -life it watches, till the delight of cool running water to the cattle, -as they plunge in from the hot fields, is as intimately felt as the joy -of battle in their charging hounds, which is merely reflected human -feeling, is felt by the painters of the hunt. - -Thus, while in Flanders painters and etchers like Jan Fyt carried on in -their animal pieces the tradition of Rubens and Snyders, a totally -different mode of animal painting and etching was springing up in -Holland. - -“Pastoral,” it is most convenient to call it; but it is not pastoral in -the same sense that the word has come to have, as applied to certain -types of poetry, whether the _Idylls_ of Theocritus or the _Eclogues_ of -Virgil. There, as with the early painters of animals, the human interest -is the preoccupying interest; and the poet sings of the peasant’s life -in the fields, his industries, his pleasures, his loves and quarrels, -either from native love and knowledge of that life, or in a desire no -less genuine, if expressed through forms of more or less artificial -colouring and outline, for the real simplicity of the country. It is the -herdsman, not his herd, that is the pastoral poet’s theme. - -Now, for the first time, the artist disengages himself from the point of -view of man, and effaces himself before the dumb life he contemplates. - -Already, in the engravings of Lucas van Leyden, who, by his early -maturity and his early death, his gentle nature and his exquisite skill, -seems to stand as a prototype of Paul Potter--a kind of foreshadowing of -this attitude appears. But not till the seventeenth century does the -vein begin to be developed. Then, by rapid degrees, not through any -single influence, but communicated imperceptibly as if “in the air,” the -tradition grows. - - -II - -Moses van Uytenbroeck and Claes Moeyart, whose etchings in the style of -Elsheimer were mentioned earlier, both produced a certain number of -purely pastoral plates. Of Uytenbroeck, we have a set of groups of -animals with backgrounds of Campagna landscape, which seem to date from -early in the century. And in the later manner of Moeyart, dated 1638, is -a group of cattle, sheep, and goats, under shady trees, in a -conventional landscape but with an unidealised Dutch herdsman. Neither -of these men etched cattle with much knowledge or spirit, though -Moeyart was an artist of many-sided talent, and painted pictures that -are excellent in their way. - -Considerably better is an etching by Jan Gerritz Bleecker, also dated -1638. It is a group of cattle with a cowherd piping, conceived in the -pastoral vein of Potter’s _Shepherd_. Here, already, the interest of the -artist begins to centre on the animals. - -In Pieter de Laer this interest is still more frank. Born before 1613, -de Laer found early a home in Italy, where his pictures were widely -appreciated. In the same year that we have just mentioned, 1638, he, -too, published a set of etchings of animals, in which attitude and -action are caught with far more vivacity and truth than hitherto, while -the design--though coarsely bitten--is light and free, compared with -earlier work. Another set of horses, which probably followed this, is -the prototype of studies like those of Potter’s. - -De Laer seems to have been one of the first Dutchmen to import Dutch -realism and the Dutch method of painting into Italy. The Italians found -in such art something fresh and vigorous. De Laer soon gained immense -vogue in the south, and had a corresponding influence on his countrymen -who came to work there. - -Among these, probably, was Claes Pietersz Berchem. It is not known for -certain whether this artist visited Italy, but the internal evidence of -his pictures points strongly to the supposition that he did. At any -rate, Dr. Bredius is convinced of it, and for the present we may safely -accept the hypothesis on his authority. - -Berchem was born at Haarlem in 1620, but was working at Amsterdam before -1642, in which year his name occurs as member of the Haarlem Guild of -St. Luke. We also know that he was painted by Rembrandt in 1647.[12] Was -this before or after his journey to Italy, asks Bredius, and leaves the -question open. The etchings, however, help us towards an answer. 1644 is -the date on a set of cattle, with a milkmaid for title; also on the -_Return from the Fields_ (_L’Homme Monté sur l’Âne_) (B. 5). These are -etched with fine, delicate short strokes, in a manner afterwards -abandoned by Berchem. His most celebrated print, however, the so-called -“Diamond,” or _Joueur de Cornemuse_ (B. 4), and the _Fluting Shepherd_ -(B. 6), are in the delicate early manner, and must be assigned to the -same date. Now, these are all unmistakably Italian in character. If we -may assume from Berchem’s pictures that he had been to Italy, we can -assume it with equal safety from these etchings. We may infer, then, -that in 1647 he had already returned from Italy. Berchem had many -pupils, including Karel du Jardin, of whom we shall speak later. He was -evidently one of the popular artists of the day. It is curious to -compare the features of the man as they live in - -[Illustration: _Fig. 23.--Title Piece._ _By Berchem._ _B. 35._] - -Rembrandt’s magnificent portrait,[13] with the characteristics of his -art. It is a face in which, for all its obvious strength, there is a -want of gentleness, fineness, impressibility; a type of nature that -succeeds easier in life than in art: for the qualities which count for -strength in the world count often in art for weakness. And weak, in -truth, is Berchem the artist. - -With his paintings we are not now concerned. Through them he rivalled -Both in popularity, and for facility and complacency it is hard to say -which bears the palm. Berchem is quite content to paint the gnarled -trunk of an oak, the hairy leaf of a burdock, the moss on a stone and -the stone itself, grass and leaping water, as of the same polished, one -might almost say, “slimy” texture. So long as he has produced an -agreeable composition, he is content. - -In his etchings, this insensibility to the fine differences in the grain -and moulding of things, all that goes to give trees and rocks and plants -the charm and interest of character, is less obviously disclosed. At -first sight the plates have a pleasant look, they are touched by a -cunning hand which has attained no common skill in distributing light -and in grouping. But one has not to look at them long before wearying of -their emptiness. Berchem etches cows, and sheep, and goats, because they -make pretty groups in composition--they add to the effect of a pastoral -landscape; but in themselves he shows no real interest whatever. His -goats pose; his cows have a look of faded human sentiment; his very -sheep are foolishly self-conscious. Though they are drawn with a certain -spirit and with a “touch” that mediocre artists and their admirers -mistake for an evidence of genius, the main truths in the lines of these -animal forms escape him. - -In fine, Berchem was one of those men who have little of the artist in -them but skill of hand and facility in assimilation. Having invented or -concocted a recipe for producing a chosen class of subjects, he is -perfectly happy in repeating himself as long as the demand continues. -Berchem lived sixty-three years, and worked hard. - - -III - -Who that has seen it can forget the portrait of Paul Potter by his -friend Van der Helst? The most beautiful portrait of that accomplished -painter, it has also an impalpable attraction that comes wholly from the -sitter, and of the many choice pictures in that choice gallery of the -Hague, the Mauritzhuis, its charm is not the least enduring. - -The picture was painted in 1654, when Potter was already near death. A -certain drooping of the eyelids, a pallor of the face, indicate the -fatigue which was overmastering his powers. He was not yet thirty when -he died, but his production had been immense. And in him, as sometimes -happens, Nature, as if by a kind of anticipation, had brought the inborn -gift to early flower, a compensation in some sort to the world for its -early loss. - -It was at Enkhuisen, a village on the extreme point of jutting land - -[Illustration: _Fig. 24.--The Bull. By Paul Potter. B. 1._] - -that looks out upon the Zuider Zee, that Paul Potter was born, Nov. 20, -1625. But only his early boyhood was passed there, for in 1631 his -father Pieter, also a painter, removed to Amsterdam. From his father the -boy first learnt to draw, and perhaps from him also inherited the love -of animals which was so strong in him. M. van Westrheene, in his life of -Potter, conjectures that he was influenced by two artists, Aelbert -Klomp and Govert Camphuisen, who painted pictures of the kind that -Potter made famous. But these men appear to have begun painting too late -for this to have been possible. Dr. Bredius thinks Claes Moeyart was a -more likely source of influence. It is known also that at a certain -period, about 1642, Potter was in the studio of Jacob de Wet at Haarlem. -But whoever may have taught him, his early ripeness and the strong -sincerity of his nature assure us that Potter derived little from any -teacher. With vivid preferences, a habit of subtle observation, and an -extraordinary skill of hand, he would have been content to repeat no -master’s formulas, however popular. His first signed picture and his -first signed etching bear the same date, 1643. He was eighteen years -old. The etching (B. 14) shows already skill in grouping and a hitherto -unknown knowledge in etching of animal forms. Its fault is over-much -elaboration. Three years later Potter was at Delft, and there in 1647, -at the age of twenty-two, painted his most famous picture, _The Young -Bull_, now at the Hague. It was one of the pictures carried off by -Napoleon, and of all those masterpieces from all countries which were -restored by France in 1815, this was esteemed the second in value. Since -then its fame has fallen, but with all its obvious demerits it has -suffered more--to borrow an expression applied by Mr. Swinburne to -Byron’s Address to Ocean in _Childe Harold_--from praise than from -dispraise. In 1649 Potter removed to the Hague, and it was here that he -met his wife, Adriana Balcheneynde, daughter of an architect in that -town. They were married in the following year. His marriage did not stop -the artist’s ceaseless industry, but rather increased it by his desire -to provide for his household. Thinking perhaps to find more patrons -there than at the Hague, he was induced by Dr. Tulp, the professor of -anatomy, famous from Rembrandt’s picture, to come to Amsterdam. In a -letter by a Frenchman who was in Amsterdam at this time, looking for -pictures on behalf of Queen Christina of Sweden, we have a glimpse of -Potter in his studio, working with prodigious assiduity. The Frenchman -found Potter at work on a painting which had already cost him five -months of continuous toil. “Rien ne se peut voir plus curieusement -fait,” says the Frenchman. When we consider that the painter produced -considerably over one hundred pictures in his brief life, it is amazing -to realise his powers of work. He was only to live two years longer. - - -IV - -The etched work of Potter that has come down to us consists of eighteen -plates; not many, considering how prolific he was as a painter, but all -the plates are important. - -Taking them in chronological order, we have first the etching already -spoken of, done when the artist was only eighteen, _The Cowherd_ (B. -14). In 1649, six years after its original execution, the plate was -reduced in length by Potter and the new date affixed. A reedy hollow, -with a pool, was substituted for the group of three cows at the left; -and an alteration was also made in the feet of one of the cows -descending the hill on the right. The etching, we know, was popular. -For, after it had been cut down, it was issued by at least three -publishers in turn; by F. de Wit, by P. Schenk, and by an anonymous -publisher who effaced the two former names. Probably in the first -instance it was issued by Potter himself, as was the series of cattle -published in 1650. - -Full of skill in grouping and knowledge of form as this plate is, it is -certainly inferior to the later etchings. Already, by the next year, -Potter was able to produce a print, _The Shepherd_ (B. 15) which -surpasses it in every way, and which to more sound drawing adds a -pastoral atmosphere of lightness and sunshine and repose. - -Berchem, Potter’s senior by five years, was at Haarlem in 1642, when -Potter, as we know, was in De Wet’s studio. We may assume, therefore, -that the two met. Perhaps it was in emulation of Berchem’s set of -etchings, published in 1644, that Potter produced his _Cowherd_ and -_Shepherd_. If so, he succeeded in surpassing them. - -There now occurs an interval of some years in Potter’s etched work. His -next publication, so far as we know, was the series of eight plates (B. -1-8) representing cattle, and beginning with the fine _Bull_ (Fig. 24). -This title-piece is dated 1650, so that we may refer the production of -the plates to 1649, and possibly the year or two immediately preceding. -However, the fact that 1649 is the date of the revised _Cowherd_ seems -to point to Potter’s having resumed his interest in etching in that -year, and to his having executed the whole set after the re-publication -of that plate. - -[Illustration: _Fig. 25.--Studies of a Dog. By Paul Potter. British -Museum._] - -He would hardly issue an immature work, when he had by him much more -triumphant specimens of his skill. - -As studies of animals, these eight little plates are as good as they can -be. But they are not more than studies. As we saw, it had become a -fashion for artists to etch such studies, and so spread their fame among -those who could not buy their pictures. This at once suggests the reason -of Potter’s deficiency as an etcher. Strictly speaking, he was not an -etcher at all. He used etching because it was the favourite medium for -multiplying sketches of his time. But one feels that the burin would -have been the apter instrument for that sure and cunning hand. There is -a deliberation, a want of immediacy in these designs, that are not of -the born etcher. Between the treatment of cattle in these etchings and -their treatment in line-engraving by Lucas van Leyden there is no -essential difference. - -But we must take things as they are, and as specimens of subtle and -certain drawing, the plates are astonishing. The attitudes and movements -of oxen have never been better given. But it is not in mere correctness -of drawing that Potter excels his rivals. Berchem was only interested in -animals so far as they helped him in the composition of a landscape, but -with Potter they were the main interest, he loved them for themselves. -And in expressing that vague inarticulate soul that is in the look of -cattle, that mildness and acquiescence which are in their attitudes and -motions, he is a master, greater than any. - -There is something in Dutch landscape, so open, tranquil, large, which -seems to look for the presence of these peaceful creatures as its -natural complement; their spirit is so entirely in harmony with the -spirit of their pastures. Not accidental, perhaps, nor without its due -effect, was the Dutch strain of blood in the American poet who seems to -have first suggested in words what Potter expressed in art-- - - Oxen that rattle the yoke and chain, or halt in the leafy shade, - What is it that you express in your eyes? - It seems to me more than all the print I have read in my life.[14] - -Like Whitman, Potter is possessed by the fascination of animals; he, -too, “stands and looks at them long and long.” And with a feeling so -reticent that its intensity escapes a superficial notice, he puts into -these etched lines the breath that moves their bodies, and the dumbness -that looks out of their eyes. - - -V - -Two years after the publication of the cattle series, appeared the five -larger plates of horses. These have less the air of being mere etched -studies for pictures; they seem to have been made for their own sake, -and make a kind of history, such as Tolstoi in the strange story of -Kohlstomir has written; a kind of Horse’s Progress. - -The fourth (B. 12), the _Two Plough Horses_, is reproduced on Plate III. -This and the _Horse Whinnying_ (B. 10) seem to the writer the finest of -the series, and the finest of all Potter’s etchings. The work is -entirely simple and unaffected: there is immense skill, but no apparent -consciousness of it, still less parade of it. Nothing adventitious is -brought in, no artifice is used of setting or surrounding: bathed in -light and air, on their own level pastures, the horses stand clearly -outlined. But what a feeling of morning freshness, of careless and free -joy, is in the breeze that tosses the mane of the whinnying horse, and -makes him tremble with felt vitality! It is a triumph of the untamed -energy of life. How different a picture from this of the two tired -creatures, set free from their heavy labour at the plough, but no longer -rejoicing in their freedom, except as a respite. By some magic of -sympathy Potter makes us feel the ache of their limbs, stiff with -fatigue, just as he expresses the patience in their eyes. Yet tender as -is the feeling of the drawing, it is so restrained that “pity” seems a -word out of place. It is rather the simple articulation by means of -sensitive portrayal, of an else inarticulate pathos. Such drawing as -this is in a true sense imaginative. - -The studies of dogs, reproduced in Fig. 25 are an admirable example of -Potter’s gift. It is interesting to compare them with a drawing by -Berchem, also in the British Museum, representing a hunting scene, with -the boar at bay and dogs springing at him or struggling in the leash. -Unfortunately, it has been impossible to find room for a reproduction -of it; but whoever looks at it will perceive at once a vital difference -between such drawing and that of Potter’s. Berchem sketches the scene in -a rapid, summary manner, using a few strokes only for each figure. It is -Rembrandt’s method; but what a difference in the result! There is a -sketch by Rembrandt of a lion springing at and seizing a man on -horseback. Only a few lines are used, but the whole action of each -figure is expressed perfectly. Berchem thinks to do the like, but his - -[Illustration: _Fig. 26.--The Cow. By Paul Potter. B. 3._] - -lines are all just beside the truth. His mind, which has not sufficient -love for things to brood upon their forms, is incapable of the swift act -of sympathy necessary to seize their movement in action; and its power -of reproduction, by nature probably a delicate and precise faculty, has -been warped and blunted by the man’s satisfaction in his own cleverness, -till it gives an inaccurate image. - -Berchem’s work is therefore false, and deserves to be called -unimaginative. It convinces only the incompetent spectator of things. - -Potter’s work is never false, and its imaginative quality is rather -obscured than absent in his poorer productions. The fact is that, having - -[Illustration: _Fig. 27.--Mules. By K. Du Jardin. B. 2._] - -given the vital image of an animal, he could not resist the temptation -of adding to it non-essential facts. He had not that transcendent -intelligence which instinctively practises the economy called “style.” -But it was on the side of intelligence, certainly not of tenderness or -sympathy, that he was lacking. He sat down to Nature’s feast, and the -delight of his eyes seduced him. - -Before leaving this plate of the _Two Plough Horses_, we may notice a -point which does not seem to have been remarked before, that there was -apparently a kind of tradition of subjects among the animal painters and -etchers. This plate was published, in the set of horses, in 1652. But in -a set of etchings published the year before, 1651, by the artist Dirk -Stoop, this identical subject appears. The horses stand towards the left -of the plate in precisely the position of Potter’s horses. - -Stoop, though as good as many of the Dutch etchers, was no consummate -draughtsman, and his horses are not to be compared with Potter’s. Yet -they do not look in the least like a copy, while the dates -discountenance such a supposition. If there be any direct relation -between the two etchings it must have been Potter who took a hint from -Stoop. But it seems equally likely to suppose that the subject, two -plough-horses released from labour, was a traditional one. The life of -cattle and horses does not offer more than a certain number of typical -pictures, and hence the tendency of painters and etchers to repeat the -same subject, always with an eye to improving on the best yet done; just -as earlier painters would choose a _Saint Sebastian_ as the typical -subject in which to display their power of painting the human figure. In -the same way Potter’s fifth etching of horses, where he depicts the -forlorn death that overcomes the worn-out beast, has its prototype in a -similar etching by Pieter de Laer, and the subject is repeated by Du -Jardin. - -The etcher mentioned above, Dirk Stoop, Jed a wandering life, went to -Lisbon, became painter to the Court there, and, being brought over to -England with the Infanta, worked also in London. His etchings of horses -and dogs are less good than those of the court _fêtes_, processions, and -spectacles at Lisbon, at Hampton Court, and at London. - - -VI - -If Potter did not produce many etchings himself, Marcus de Bye, who -etched in most cases after Potter’s designs, was comparatively prolific. -He produced over a hundred prints. Some of these, - -[Illustration: _Ox and Sheep. From an etching by A. Van de Velde._] - -purporting to be after drawings by Potter, are studies, not of cattle -and sheep or horses, but of wild animals--lions, tigers, and wolves. If -these could be taken as fairly representative of Potter’s work, we -should have to infer that Potter was far less fortunate in his drawing -of wild creatures than of tame. And it would be unlike Potter to have -made such studies except from the life. De Bye, however, lost a great -deal of the subtlety and life of his original in working from Potter’s -sketches. Karel du Jardin is a more independent artist. Born at -Amsterdam in 1622, he was trained in Berchem’s studio, but went to Italy -still young. There he found De Laer’s pictures in great esteem, and -developed a manner and a choice of subject very similar to his. Some -time before 1656 he returned to Holland, and remained at the Hague till -1659, when he removed to Amsterdam. There he painted some fine -portraits, quite unlike his ordinary pictures in style, being stirred to -emulation presumably by the superb Corporation pieces then produced -there. In 1675 he started again for Italy, but died three years later in -Venice. - -The British Museum possesses a red-chalk drawing of Du Jardin by -himself. It is an agreeable portrait, but the face does not suggest much -power. - -Though a pupil of Berchem, Du Jardin in his etchings follows Potter much -more than that artist. Dr. Lippmann, in fact, speaks of him as “Schuler -Potters,” but the expression must only mean a follower, not a pupil, of -Potter. - -Twenty-four of Du Jardin’s etchings are dated, the dates being 1652, -1653, 1655, 1656, 1658, 1659, 1660, and 1675. Only one piece belongs to -the last year, while the other years have two, three, four, and five -pieces each. So that, whenever the undated etchings were produced, the -bulk of Du Jardin’s work on copper may safely be assigned to the eight -years 1652-1660; that is to say, to the first years after his return to -Holland, and possibly to the last year or two of his first stay in -Italy. Most of the etchings are from sketches made in Italy. Fig. 27 is -an example, and is a good specimen of Du Jardin as an etcher. There is -nothing very original about such art, but its agreeable qualities will -always give pleasure. Du Jardin, in his drawing and in his painting, has -a light and happy touch; yet beyond such craftsman’s merits there is -little to be said for him. He seems to have painted and etched what was -the fashion with a facile grace and commendable skill, but without any -strong inborn love of the subjects he handled. - -As an etcher he is of the same order as Potter. A good many of the -prints are pastoral landscapes; these are less good than those in which -animals are the main subject. To turn from some of these small landscape - -[Illustration: _Fig. 28.--Pigs. By K. Du Jardin. B. 15._] - -studies of Du Jardin’s, in which nothing is seized strongly while -everything is made a little dull, to an etching of Rembrandt’s, say -_Six’s Bridge_, is to receive a most vivid impression of Rembrandt’s -immense superiority. Rembrandt’s light sketch is instinct with style; Du -Jardin, in these prints at any rate, has no style at all. Such etchings -as that of the pigs (Fig. 28) are of far higher quality. - -Another etcher from Amsterdam, Adriaen van de Velde, came strongly under -Potter’s influence. Born in 1635-36 Van de Velde, like Du Jardin, -studied with Berchem. It has sometimes been assumed that he, too, -followed up his studies with a journey to Italy, but Dr. Bredius decides -against this supposition. There is Italian scenery in many of Adriaen’s -pictures, but there were plenty of fellow artists to borrow materials -for such backgrounds from. And with him the landscape is never much more -than a background. His interest lay more in his cattle and his figures -than in their surrounding. It is known, indeed, that he inserted figures -for several of the landscape painters, including Ruisdael and Hobbema. - -Van de Velde’s etchings are nearly all of cattle, and here he sometimes -comes near Potter in drawing, while in management of the acid he is -decidedly Potter’s superior. His earliest dated etching of 1653 is a -large plate, which though not powerful has a real beauty. The cow which -forms the centre of the composition is almost identical with that in the -foreground of Potter’s _Cowherd_. Perhaps this was deliberate imitation, -and if so, is evidence of the recognition Potter’s knowledge of animal -form commanded, but it may equally well have been an accident. The whole -plate is bathed in drowsy sunshine, with which the man asleep by the -roadside, drawn with an admirable suggestion of repose, harmonises well. -This print is one of those which must be seen in the silvery earliest -state to be appreciated. - -The original design for this plate is in the British Museum. In the same -collection is also the design for _The Cow Lying Down_ (B. 2). On the -same sheet of paper is a study of part of the cow in a slightly altered -position, and this has been adopted in the etching. Except for this -insignificant change, the two etchings are copied from the pencil -studies with entire fidelity. And probably this was always Van de -Velde’s practice, as it was with Potter and Du Jardin. It is, therefore, -strictly speaking, incorrect to describe the drawings as being made for -the etchings. The studies were etched simply that they might be -multiplied. - -None of the studies of cattle, etched by the Dutch masters, surpasses -Van de Velde’s set of three, numbered 11, 12, and 13 in Bartsch. The -second is reproduced (Plate IV.). Potter never produced an effect so -delicate and so rich in colour as Van de Velde in these three etchings. -At the same time there is no ostentation of skill; rather there seems a - -[Illustration: _Fig. 29.--A Goat. By A. Van de Velde. B. 16._] - -kind of modesty in the workmanship that is winning. Equally excellent is -the charming little study of a goat (Fig. 29). - -Van de Velde, if not a great artist, was a true one, and his early death -at the age of thirty-seven was a loss to the art of Holland. - - - - -INDEX - - -Altdorfer, 12 - -Amsterdam Cabinet, Master of, 60 - - -Backhuysen, 53, 54, 55 - -Bartsch, 5, 23 - -Bassano, 60 - -Bega, 26, 31, 32 - -Berchem, 60, 63-65, 68, 71, 72 - -Beresteyn, C. van, 50 - -Bleecker, 63 - -Bode, 13, 55, 56 - -Both, A. 13 - -Both, J. 57, 58, 65 - -Bray, J. de, 18 - -Bredius, 8, 37, 63, 67, 77 - -Breenbergh, 57 - -Bronchorst, 56 - -Brouwer, 21 - -Bye, M. de, 74, 75 - - -Cabel, A. van der, 48, 58 - -Callot, 12, 13 - -Campagnola, 35 - -Camphuisen, 67 - -Capelle, J. van de, 43, 53 - -Caravaggio, 13 - -Claude, 13, 55, 56, 57 - -Constable, 49 - -Cornelis Cornelisz, 18 - -Crome, 49, 50 - - -Du Jardin, 60, 64, 74, 75 - -Dürer, 11, 35, 60 - -Dusart, 31, 34 - -Dutuit, 24, 26, 38 - - -Elsheimer, 13, 14, 37, 55 - -Everdingen, A. van, 44-46 - - -Fyt, J., 62 - - -Genoels, 58 - -Glauber, 58 - -Goltzius, 18, 39 - -Goudt, Count de, 37 - -Goya, 32 - -Goyen, J. van, 42, 43 - -Gozzoli, 60 - -Groot, Hofstede de, 8 - -Grotius, 9 - - -Haeften, N. van, 31 - -Hals, D., 18 - -Hals, F., 6, 18, 20 - -Hamerton, 6, 30 - -Helst, B. van der, 65 - -Heusch, W. de, 58 - -Heyden, J. van der, 52, 53 - -Hirschvogel, 12 - -Hobbema, 6, 49, 50, 77 - -Honthorst, 13 - -Hooch, P. de, 6, 9, 28 - -Hopfer, 12 - - -Keene, 31 - -Klomp, 66 - -Koehler, 40 - -Koninck, P. de, 39 - - -Laer, P. de, 57, 63, 74 - -Lautensack, 12 - -Leblond, 39, 40 - -Le Ducq, 5 - -Leech, 31 - -Leyden, Lucas van, 62, 70 - -Lippmann, 43, 75 - - -Matham, 42 - -Metsu, 9 - -Miel, 13 - -Moeyart, 62, 67 - -Molyn, P. de, 42, 43 - - -Naiwincx, 50 - - -Ostade, A. van, 6, 17-32 - - -Pater, Walter, 9, 38 - -Patinir, 35, 37 - -Picart, 25 - -Potter, 6, 60, 62, 63, 65-75, 77 - - -Rembrandt, 5, 6, 13, 15, 24, 28, 38, 63, 72, 76 - -Roghman, 50, 52 - -Rousseau, Th., 49 - -Rubens, 11, 14, 15, 35, 60, 61 - -Ruisdael, 6, 7, 46-50, 77 - - -Seghers, H., 36-40 - -Snyders, 60, 62 - -Spinoza, 9 - -Steen, 6, 9 - -Stoop, 74 - -Swanevelt, 13, 48, 58 - - -Terborch, 9, 42 - -Theocritus, 62 - -Titian, 35 - -Tolstoi, 71 - - -Uden, L. van, 35 - -Uytenbroeck, M. van, 55, 62 - - -Vadder, L. de, 35 - -Vandyck, 15 - -Velasquez, 13, 60 - -Velde, A. van de, 60, 77, 78 - -Velde, E. van de, 18, 41 - -Velde, J. van de, 41, 55 - -Velde, W. van de, 44, 53 - -Verboom, 50 - -Vermeer, 6, 28 - -Vlieger, S. de, 43, 53 - -Vosmaer, 17 - - -Waterloo, 5, 38, 48, 50 - -Watteau, 9 - -Westrheene, van, 66 - -Wet, J. de, 67, 68 - -Whitman, 70 - -Willigen, van der, 8, 17 - -Wyck, 57 - - -Zeeman, 53, 54 - - -FOOTNOTES: - -[1] The last figure is doubtful. It is 8 according to Bartsch and -Dutuit, but may also be 9. - -[2] _Manuel de l’Amateur d’Estampes_: par M. Eugene Dutuit. Vol. V. -Paris. 1882. - -[3] By all the older authorities the date is wrongly given as 1625. - -[4] The _Tobias and the Angel_ dates probably from about 1613, or a -little later, as this was the date of de Goudt’s print. - -[5] Probably the engraving, since Seghers’ print is a reverse copy from -this, but in the same sense as the picture. - -[6] No. 236 in Middleton’s Catalogue. - -[7] In the National Gallery. - -[8] Seghers has also been credited with the use of soft ground etching -or of aquatint. Examination of the prints shows, however, that the -effects in question were got either by using acid on the plate, or by -working in dotted lines, not with the roulette but with the simple -needle. In ascertaining these facts and in correcting some of his -first impressions the writer has profited by the knowledge and the -kind assistance of Mr. S. R. Koehler, Keeper of the Prints at Boston, -U.S.A., whose authority on such questions is well known. - -[9] This assumes him to have been born 1631. Another date given is 1633. - -[10] See _supra_: p. 41. - -[11] A drawing of his is dated _Paris, 1623_. And according to -Bertolotti he was in Rome by 1627. - -[12] Bredius gives the date as 1644. - -[13] Exhibited last winter (1895) at Burlington House by the Duke of -Westminster. - -[14] Compare also a little-known piece of Whitman’s “The Ox-Tamer,” in -_Autumn Rivulets_, which ends: - - Now I marvel what it can be he appears to them ... - I confess I envy only his fascination--my silent, illiterate friend, - Whom a hundred oxen love there in his life on farms, - In the northern county far, in the placid pastoral region. - - - - - -*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DUTCH ETCHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH -CENTURY *** - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will -be renamed. - -Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright -law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, -so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the -United States without permission and without paying copyright -royalties. 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