DUTCH ART 



2739 



DUTCH ART 



DUTCH ART: SURVEY AND APPRECIATION 



C. Lewis Hind, Author of Lives of Rembrandt, Velasquez, etc. 



The art of most of the countries of the world is described under the 



country, e.g. France ; Germany ; Italy ; but this is an exception. 



Further information is given in the biographies of the great masters, 



Hals and others. See also Art ; Greece: Art ; Rome: Art, etc. 



In the 15th and 16th centuries a 

 few great painters arose in the 

 Netherlands, who are ranked to-day 

 with some of the best Italian 

 masters. The pre-eminence of such 

 early Netherlandish artists as Dirk 

 Bouts, Gerard of Haarlem, and 

 " Peasant " Brueghel is unques- 

 tioned ; but it is not easy to say 

 which of these masters are Hol- 

 landers and which are Flemings. 

 The modern kingdom of Holland, 

 as a monarchical state, dates from 

 1814, and by then the flowering 

 time of Dutch art was over. 



The great period began with the 

 17th century, and extended through 

 it, masters following one another 

 in bewildering profusion. Not all 

 were great painters, but the ma- 

 | jority were extremely competent 

 craftsmen, and were quite content 

 to practise their art modestly, and 

 for small remuneration. No Dutch 

 painter fraternised with princes, as 

 Titian, Raphael, and Leonardo did. 

 Hobbema, whose A venue at Middle- 

 harnis is in the National Gallery, 

 London, was the last of the Dutch 

 17th century masters, and, like 

 many of the others, he died a 

 pauper. 



The 18th century did not pro- 

 duce one Dutch painter of emi- 

 nence ; but in the 19th the genius 

 of Holland again flowered forth. 

 In Jacob Maris (1837-99) land- 

 scape painti ig reached a height of 

 sensitiveness and beauty that has 

 never been excelled. Holland has 

 rightly been called Landscape Land, 

 and no one has interpreted the 

 pearly light and moist atmosphere 

 better than Jacob Maris. 



The Star of Fians Hals 



In the history of art certain 

 nations have taken the lead in turn. 

 | Italy was the pioneer, and her great 

 masters are still unapproachable ; 

 but when the star of Frans Hals, 

 the first great light of that wonder- 

 ful 17th century in Holland, rose, 

 Italian art had quite spent itself. 

 Raphael had been dead 60 years 

 when Frans Hals was born in 1580. 



Dutch art derived nothing from 

 Italy. The materials of painting 

 were similar, but the outlook was 

 entirely different. In Italy art was 

 the handmaid of the church and 

 of the wealthy noble. In Holland 

 art served the people, and min- 

 istered to the pride of the bour- 

 geois in his country, his houses and 

 possessions. Art was a family 

 affair. The homely Dutchman 

 painted his home, was quite in- 



different to ideal subjects ; he 

 never attempted mythological, 

 heroic, or religious themes. Dirk 

 Bouts, Gerard of Haarlem, and 

 Gerard David in the 15th century 

 had painted religious pictures ; but 

 in the 17th hardly a Dutch painter 

 ever thought of choosing a religious 

 subject. Rembrandt was the excep- 

 tion, but his pictures dealing with 

 sacred themes were spiritual rather 

 than religious. Such masterpieces as 

 S. Matthew Inspired by an Angel, 

 and The Pilgrims at Emmaus, were 

 painted from his heart. They 

 taught no dogma. They were the 

 personal expression of his spiritual 

 emotion, not, as in Italy, a state- 

 ment commissioned by the Church. 

 The same may be said of his etch- 

 ings and drawings of religious 

 subjects. 



Dutch National Spirit 

 Holland produced an everyday 

 homely art, which attained, at its 

 best, such exquisite craftsmanship 

 that, in their particular metier 

 these Dutch pictures are un- 

 rivalled. There was good reason 

 for this love of country, and the 

 Dutchman's desire to laud it in 

 pictures. This unpretentious 

 patriotism began when the dis- 

 astrous war with Spain ended with 

 the truce of 1609, and the dogged, 

 strenuous citizens had time and 

 opportunity to realize their aspira- 

 tions after a national life. As 

 their churches were plain and un- 

 adorned, they lavished their pas- 

 sion for beautiful things upon their 

 homes, which was followed by a 

 desire to have pictures of those 

 prosperous interiors ; so arose the 

 genre or home picture. With the 

 demand came the supply from such 

 masters as Vermeer of Delft, Ter- 

 burg, de Hoogh, Metsu, Jan Steen,, 

 and numerous lesser masters. 

 These home pictures ranged from 

 such exquisite performances, where- 

 in light is the principal subject of 

 the picture, as Vermeer' s Young 

 Lady at a Spinet, and de Hoogh' s 

 Courtyard of a Dutch House, to 

 the village inn scenes of Jan Steen 

 and Brouwer, coarse according to 

 our standards. But Jan Steen 

 (1626-79) could also paint beau- 

 tiful and restrained interiors, as 

 in his Grace before Meat in the 

 National Gallery, London, and his 

 Sick Girl at Amsterdam. 



The burghers in their fine clothes 

 also desired portraits of them- 

 selves, and of their wives und 

 children. The Civic Guards and 



Companies of Archers were equally 

 eager to be commemorated ; so 

 arose the doelen pictures, groups of 

 men banqueting, or in conclave, 

 which may be seen in profusion in 

 the Ryks Museum at Amsterdam. 

 Rembrandt was among those who 

 were commissioned to paint doelen 

 pictures, and they were the initial 

 cause of his financial disaster. His 

 patrons wanted likenesses of them- 

 selves. He gave them a work of 

 art. So disputes arose, then the cold 

 shoulder, and Rembrandt, with- 

 drawing more and more into himself, 

 became Rembrandt the great artist. 

 There was the beautiful, placid 

 country which the Dutchman had 

 wrested with such labour from the 

 sea, and from the heel of the con- 

 queror. That also had to be por- 

 trayed ; hence arose the school of 

 Dutch landscape painters of which 

 the chief masters were Jacob Ruis- 

 dael, Cuyp, and Hobbema. 



Among this galaxy of 17th 

 century painters four stand out 

 pre-eminent Rembrandt (1607- 

 69), the greatest artist in paint 

 the world has known ; Frans Hals 

 (1580-1666), whose portraits and 

 doelen pictures have a vivacity and 

 mastery of technique which places 

 him in a class by himself ; Jacob 

 Ruisdael (1625-82), the most pro- 

 found of Dutch landscape paint- 

 ers ; and Vermeer of Delft (1632- 

 75), who, as a painter of the subtle- 

 ties of light in portraiture, genre, 

 and landscape, ranks among the 

 greatest craftsmen of the world. 



Frans Hals, the first purely 

 Dutch painter of eminence, is not 

 adequately represented in the Na- 

 tional Gallery of London ; a jour- 

 ney to Haarlem is necessary to see 

 him in his full power. His last 

 works, painted when he was an old 

 man, have a depth of vision and a 

 fluency of technique that are more 

 astonishing each time they are seen. 



Atmosphere and Landscape 

 The name of Hercules Segers has 

 lately come into prominence, due 

 mainly to the researches of Dr. 

 Bode, of Berlin. He was a leader in 

 landscape painting ; he originated 

 the " bird's-eye view," and Rem- 

 brandt, who missed nothing, learnt 

 from Segers, and acquired his pic- 

 tures. Van Goyen was an early 

 tone painter. Timidly but tenaci- 

 ously he introduced atmosphere 

 into landscape. Ter burg (1617-81) 

 is represented in the National 

 Gallery, London, by his beautiful 

 Guitar Lesson, and by his wonder- 

 ful little representation of The 

 Peace of Munster. Cuyp (1620-91) 

 has won the heart of the world by 

 the golden glow of his landscapes. 

 The skies of J. Van de Capelle (c. 

 1624-79) (see the pair of Capelles 

 in the National Gallery, London) 



