273 



VANDERVELDE, WILLIAM. 



VANDYCK, SIR ANTONY. 



274 



have thought fitt to allow the salary of one hundred pounds pet annum 

 unto William Vandevelde the elder, for taking and making draughts 

 of sea-fights ; and the like salary of one hundred pounds per annum 

 unto William Vandevelde the younger, for putting the said draughts 

 into colours for our particular use ; our will and pleasure is, and wee 

 do Lcreby authorise and require you to issue your orders for the 

 present and future establishment of the said salaries to the aforesaid 

 William Vandevelde the elder, and William Vandevelde the younger, 

 to be paid unto them and either of them during our pleasure ; and for 

 so doing these our letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge. 

 Given under our privy-seal at our pallacc of Westminster, the 20th day 

 of February, in the 26th year of our reign." After the death of Charles, 

 James continued the pension. 



Vandevelde witnessed many of the fights that he drew : he attended 

 the engagement at Solebay in a small vessel by order of the Duke of 

 York. He died in London, and was buried in St. James's Churchyard ; 

 the following inscription was engraved on his tombstone : "Mr. William 

 Vandevelde, senior, late painter of sea-fights to their majesties king 

 Charles II. and king James, dyed 1693." 



VANDERVELDE or VANDEVELDE, WILLIAM, the Younger, 

 was greatly superior to his father, and is accounted by connoisseurs 

 the best mrine-painter that ever lived ; but in representing the gran- 

 deur of a stormy ocean he is very far inferior to Turner, and in truth 

 of colour and transparency be is inferior also to Stanfield. William 

 Vandervelde was born at Amsterdam in 1C33, and was taught by his 

 father until he came to England, when he was placed with Simon de 

 Vlieger, a clever ship-painter. Young Vandervelde came early to this 

 country, and lived probably with his father at Greenwich : he died in 

 London in 1707. The works of the younger Vandervelde are very 

 valuable : the best of them are in England. His calms and his storm- 

 pieces are equally excellent, and they are all remarkable for their 

 delicacy of drawing and transparency of colouring. Walpole says of 

 him, " William Vandevelde, the son, was the greatest man that has 

 appeared in this branch of painting ; the palm ia not less disputed 

 with Raffaelle for history, than with Vandevelde for sea-pieces." Two 

 of the younger Vandervelde's pictures are in the National Gallery, 

 ' A Calm at Sea,' and ' A Fresh Gale at Sea ; ' but they are of small 

 size nnd little importance. The collection of the Earl of Ellesmere 

 at Bridgwater-House is very rich in Vauderveldes, containing ' The 

 Entrance to the Brill;' 'A Calm;' 'A Fresh Breeze;' two 'Naval 

 Battles ; ' a ' View of the Texel ; ' and the famous ' Rising of the 

 Gale,' in competition with which and as a companion to it Turner 

 painted his ' Gale at Sea,' which now hangs in the same gallery. 



The younger Vandervelde left a son of the same name, who also 

 painted sea-pieces, and made good copies of the works of his father. 

 He died in Holland. Both the Vanderveldes sat to Sir Godfrey 

 Kneller. 



VANDER WERFF, ADRIAN. This celebrated painter was born 

 of a good family at Kralinger Ambacht near Rotterdam, in 1659. He 

 studied 6rst with Cornelius Picolett, a good portrait painter, but at 

 the age of thirteen was placed with Eglon Vander Neer, with whom 

 he remained four years, and made such progress as to render his 

 master great assistance in his works. At the early age of seventeen 

 Vander Werff set up for himself as a portrait painter at Rotterdam. 

 He painted small portraits in oil, in the style of Netscher : he how- 

 ever soon got tired of this branch, and took to historical painting ; 

 and he was remarkably successful in disposing of his first pictures. 

 Perhaps no painter ever rose more steadily to fortune than Vander 

 Werff; every year added to his wealth and to his reputation. He 

 painted a picture for an East India merchant of the name of Steen at 

 Amsterdam, where he had been with his master Vander Neer, which 

 was apparently the making of his fortune. It attracted the attention 

 of and was purchased by the Elector John William of the Pfalz, when 

 passing through Amsterdam ; and when that prince was at Rotterdam 

 in 1696, he visited Vander Werff, and ordered two pictures of him : 

 his own portrait, for the grand-duke of Tuscany, and a Judgment of 

 Solomon, which pictures he requested Vander Werff to bring to him 

 in person to Diisseldorf, in the following year. Vander Werff took 

 the pictures, and the elector was so well satisfied with them, that he 

 wished to take the painter into his service, and offered him a noble 

 salary : Vander Werff however consented to give up only six months 

 in the year to the elector, and was allowed a salary of 4000 florins, 

 but it was raised to 6000 upon his afterwards consenting to devote 

 nine months in the year to the prince, who presented him with bis 

 portrait set in diamonds, and honoured him with knighthood for him 

 and his heirs. He purchased also at a high price the works which 

 Vander Werff executed during the remaining three months of the year. 



Vander Werff received very high prices for his pictures. After 

 the death of the elector in 1716, he was at liberty to dispose of them 

 to whom he pleased ; and in the following year, 1717, he sold three 

 to one nobleman for 10,000 florins, a Judgment of Paris for 5500 

 florins, a Holy Family for 2500 florins, aud a Magdalen for 2000 

 florins. In the year after he sold another Judgment of Paris for 

 5000 florins, and a Flight into Egypt for 4000 florins: shortly after- 

 wards he sold to an English gentleman ten pictures for 33,000 florins ; 

 and after his death, a painting of the Prodigal Son was sold for 5500 

 florins. He died in 1722. 



The pictures, or the greater part of them, painted by Vander 



BIOQ. DIV. VOL. VI. 



Werff for the elector John William, which formed part of the Diissel- 

 dorf collection, are now in the Pinakotbek at Munich, where there are 

 twenty-nine paintings by Vander Werff, including the Fifteen Mys- 

 teries of the Roman Church, and many of hia best pieces. The Ecce 

 Homo, containing many small figures, painted in 1698; Abraham with 

 Sarah and Hagar, painted in 1699 ; and a Magdalen in the Wilderness, 

 painted in 1707 ; are remarkable works, equally excellent in compo- 

 sition, drawing, colouring and execution, and are perhaps almost 

 unequalled for their delicate and elaborate finish; yet through an 

 artificial chiaroscuro they have a cold and inanimate effect, which 

 greatly detracts from the gratification the spectator might be expected 

 to experience in contemplating such exquisite works of art. Sir 

 Joshua Reynolds saw most of these works at Diisseldorf before the 

 collection at that place was purchased by the late king of Bavaria, 

 and in his 'Journey to Flanders and Holland' he has made some 

 remarks on these pictures, which define admirably the beauties and 

 defects of this painter. He says : " His pictures, whether great or 

 small, certainly afford but little pleasure. Of their want of effect it 

 is worth a painter's while to inquire into the cause. One of the prin- 

 cipal causes appears to me, his having entertained an opinion that the 

 light of a picture ought to be thrown solely on the figures, and little 

 or none on the ground or sky. This gives great coldness to the effect, 

 and is so contrary to nature and the practice of those painters with 

 whose works ho was surrounded, that we cannot help wondering how 

 he fell into this mistake. In describing Vanderwerf's manner, were 

 I to say that all the parts everywhere melt into each other, it might 

 naturally be supposed that the effect would be a high degree of toft- 

 ness ; but it is notoriously the contrary, and I think for the reason 

 that has been given ; his flesh has the appearance of ivory or plaster, 

 or some other hard substance. What contributes likewise to give 

 this hardness, is a want of transparency in his colouring, from his 

 admitting little or no reflection of light. He h'as also the defect which 

 is often found in Rembrandt, that of making his light only a single 

 spot. However to do him justice, his figures and his heads are gene- 

 rally well drawn, and his drapery is excellent; perhaps there are in 

 his pictures as perfect examples of drapery as are to be found in any 

 other painter's works whatever." 



(Houbraken, Oroote Schouburgh der Nederlantsche Konstschilders, &c.) 

 VANDER WEYDE, ROGER, a celebrated old painter of Bruss- Is, 

 was born in the latter part of the 15th century. He was, according 

 to Van Mander, one of the first to reform the style of design of 

 the Flemish painters ; he divested it considerably of its Gothic 

 manner, was correct in his proportions, and was very successful in 

 expression. He painted portrait and history : there are, or were, four 

 very celebrated pictures by him in the town-hall of Brussels, illustra- 

 ting remarkable acts of justice. One represents a father on his death- 

 bed putting to death his guilty son ; another account describes it as 

 Archambald, prince of Brabant, putting his nephew and heir to death, 

 for having violated a maid of that country : the expression of sorrow 

 in the face of the old man is said to be excellent. There was also ia 

 a church of the Virgin at Louvaiue a Descent from the Cross, by 

 Vander Weyde, which was highly valued. It was sent to Spain by 

 command of the king of Spain, and a copy of it, by Michael Cocxis, 

 put up in its place at Louvaine. Vander Weyde died in 1529, in the 

 prime of life, of an epidemic disease which carried off many people. 

 Van Mander says that he amassed considerable wealth, and spent 

 much on the poor. Two heads, on gold grounds, in the gallery of the 

 Louvre, one of Christ and the other of the Virgin Mary, numbered 515 

 and 516, and said in the catalogue to be by an unknown artist, are, 

 according to Dr. Waagen, by the hand of Vander Weyde. He praises the 

 expression and the colouring. (Van Mander, Het Leven der Schilders ; 

 Waagen, Kunstwerke und Kiinstler in England und Paris.) 



VANDYCK, SIR ANTONY. This great painter was born at 

 Antwerp, March 22nd 1599. His father was a glass-painter of Herto- 

 genbasch (Bois-le-Duc), and gave his son his earliest instruction in 

 drawing ; he was instructed also by his mother, who painted land- 

 scapes, and was very skilful in embroidery. Before he became the 

 scholar of Rubens, Vandyck is said to have been placed with Van 

 Balen. With Rubens he made such progress as to be soon intrusted 

 with the execution of some of his master's sketches, and, according to 

 a common but probably incorrect report, to excite his jealousy. 

 Rubens has had the credit of having been actuated by jealousy when 

 he advised Vandyck to confine himself to portrait painting, aud to 

 visit Italy for the purpose of studying the works of Titian and other 

 great Italian masters. Walpole entertained a more rational view : he 

 supposes that Vandyck felt the hopelessness of surpassing or even 

 equalling his great master in his own line, and that he voluntarily 

 devoted his chief attention to portrait. If Rubens recommended 

 Vandyck to visit Italy, it was clearly for Vandyck's benefit, and his 

 following that advice clearly shows that he saw fully the advantages 

 to be derived from such a visit, of which Rubens himself was an 

 excellent example. The immediate cause of Rubens's reputed jealousy 

 of his scholar is accounted for by a variously told anecdote. Diepen- 

 beck, another of Rubens's scholars, is said to have been pus-hed by 

 one of his companions against the great picture of the Descent from 

 the Cross, upon a part that was still wet, and to have done it consi- 

 derable damage, which was however so well repaired by Vandyck, that 

 Rubens is reported to have been at first better pleased with that pert 



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