The Standard Galleries - Holland Part 24

=Pencz's Savant in his Cabinet.=--George Pencz (d. 1550) was a pupil of Albert Durer, who also went to Rome and studied under Raphael. He painted therefore much the same cla.s.s of subjects and in the same style as Van Orley. His Savant in his Cabinet is an interesting interior. The savant is seated at a table covered with a green carpet, his head rests on his right hand, and his left is extended toward a death's head. He is dressed in red and wears a red cap. Behind the table is a desk on which are an open book and a copper chandelier with an extinguished candle.

Through an open window in the background a landscape is visible.

=The Drinker, by D. Ryckaert.=--Another good study is The Drinker, by David Ryckaert (1612-77), a pupil of his father, Maerten Ryckaert, and who formed himself on Teniers, Brouwer, and Ostade. The man in a brown coat with red sleeves and a red cap is seated at a table with a pewter mug in one hand and a pipe in the other. A pewter plate and an earthenware jug stand on the table.

=Pictures containing Human Figures, by Muys.=--Nicholas Muys (1740-1808) has three scenes in _grisaille_ from plays, A Study in Light, two Interiors, and a Landscape with Figures. The last shows a monument in the shadow of an oak, and before it a gentleman, lady, and little child in the costume of the end of the eighteenth century. A beggar and his family sue for charity. Near the monument are three other persons. Two ducks are being pursued by dogs in the foreground, a hut is seen among the trees in the distance, and a village lies on the horizon.

One of the Interiors represents an apartment of the eighteenth century, where a lady dressed in a green robe is showing a little picture to two gentlemen. The other Interior is a richly carved vestibule, in which stands a lady in a violet silk dress and a blue hat; by her side on the floor are a dead heron, a partridge, a hare, and some rabbits, and the live greyhound that helped to catch them. Through a door in the centre is seen the kitchen, where the huntsman and his wife are preparing the vegetables; and there are two other persons, one of whom is hanging a cage from the ceiling.

In A Study in Light the painter has grouped a number of objects,--a bust of Homer on a white marble table, a guitar, music-books, and a chair with a violin on it,--and lighted them from a candle in a silver chandelier. In the background a lady is standing before an open clavecin with a sheet of music in her hand.

=An Interior, by J. B. Scheffer.=--Johan Baptist Scheffer, who died in Amsterdam in 1809, has here An Interior, showing a room in which a young peasant woman is sitting at a table preparing vegetables. Beside her stands a pedler who has placed his right hand on her shoulder, while his left dangles a gold chain before her eyes. On the left, a little girl is amusing herself by scaring a cat with her dog; in the background an open door gives a view through the next room into the street.

=Ary Scheffer's Training.=--Scheffer's more famous son, Arie (1795-1858), inherited talent also from his mother, Cornelia Lamme, a very distinguished miniature-painter. He received his first instruction from his father and in Paris studied under Pierre Guerin. Gericault and Eugene Delacroix joined him in striking into a new path of art.

=His Two Paintings of Ulrich of Wurtemburg.=--Here Arie Scheffer has two sketches--Heads of Two Children, and A Shepherd Under a Stormy Sky, and two large canvases on Uhland's ballad representing Ulrich, son of Count Eberhard of Wurtemburg. He first represents the young warrior who, having lost the Battle of Reutlingen, returns to Stuttgart and finds his father at the table alone. He has a cold welcome; and Count Eberhard without greeting him takes a knife and cuts the table-cloth in halves.

In Scheffer's picture Ulrich is standing by the table on the right, and the angry father is cutting the table-cloth. Exasperated by this insult, Ulrich returned to the army and, throwing himself into the thickest of the fray at Doffingen, was killed. The old count spent the night weeping over the body of his only son. The companion picture, called The Weeper, represents the bereaved father with clasped hands seated by Ulrich's body, which still is in armor and lying on a bearskin in the tent.

=Hendrik Scheffer's The First Child.=--Arie's younger brother, Hendrik Scheffer (1798-1862), also a pupil of Guerin, was a capable painter whose work, The First Child, hangs in this gallery. A young mother in bed receives a visit from her husband, who is kissing her hand. On the right the nurse is seen with the child in her arms.

=A Similar Picture by Cornelis Troost.=--Another similar picture is by Cornelis Troost. The lady is lying in bed eating her breakfast. Near her are a cradle, a nurse with the baby, and a little girl. The wall is hung with portraits, and a clock and a painted screen are seen.

=Brakenburg's Malade Imaginaire and Interior.=--Richard Brakenburg (1650-1702), a pupil of Ostade, has a _Malade Imaginaire_, in which a young woman in blue rests languidly on her pillow, attended by a physician, who is feeling her pulse. A little dog plays by her side, and several persons are variously grouped and laughing. A parrot cage hangs from the ceiling. This picture is dated 1696. A different phase of life appears in his Interior, showing a large room full of peasants, including women and children. They are laughing at an owl on a perch, because a man dressed in a black satin doublet is giving it a piece of cake on the point of a knife. A bird-cage hangs from the ceiling.

=Bollongier's Carnival.=--Hans or Johan Bollongier, who lived in the middle of the seventeenth century, has a Carnival. A man and woman are dancing in a street, the former being dressed as a savage and carrying a club; an individual follows them with a "rommel pot." In the foreground we see a dog, and a man in a blue toga, holding a sword and an imperial globe in his hands. Behind these persons a house is visible, the doors and windows of which are filled with people. The picture is dated 1720.

=Jan Steen's Feast of St. Nicholas.=--Turning now to humorous pictures, Jan Steen affords two. The Feast of St. Nicholas differs slightly from the one in the Rijks, and represents the painter's family. On the right is seated a young woman in a white satin dress and a blue velvet jacket trimmed with white fur. She is holding out her hands to a little girl, whose arms are full of spiced bread and other dainties. On the left a boy is crying behind the table, on which is a shoe containing a switch, and near him a servant, a boy, and an elderly man are laughing at his distress. The last has a gla.s.s of wine in his hand. Behind the group is an old woman, who is showing a piece of silver to the poor little boy to console him for St. Nicholas's present.

=Another Humorous Picture by Jan Steen.=--Another picture which shows Jan Steen in his most humorous vein is The Operator, who is removing the stones from a man's head. In Holland in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to say that a man had "a stone in his head" was only the equivalent for saying that he was "cracked"; and "to extract the stone from one's brain" merely meant to cure him of his folly. The patient is seated in a surgeon's office, and the surgeon, who is behind him performing an imaginary operation, ostentatiously places some stones in a basin that an old woman is holding in the full view of the patient. On the left stands a boy with a basket full of stones, from which the surgeon supplies himself. The patient's arms are tightly bound with a rope of straw; a crow is pecking at his hand, and he is screaming with all his might. Some spectators at an open window are laughing heartily.

=A Similar Picture in the Style of Frans Hals.=--This may be compared with a picture of the school of Frans Hals, called The Quack Doctor. The doctor pretends to be cutting stones from the head of a man. To his cap is fastened a piece of parchment with Hebrew letters and three seals, and he wears spectacles. The patient is crying out; and a boy, dressed as a negro, stands in front with a basin full of stones. On the right is a table covered with a red cloth, upon which are scissors and other instruments, books, gourds, and a water bottle.

=Cuijp's Eater of Mussels.=--Aelbert Cuijp's Eater of Mussels has a double interest because the painter has represented himself here. The scene is laid in a forge, where the master is eating mussels from a plate that stands beside a gla.s.s of beer on a keg. Two little girls and a boy are watching him with great attention, and through an open window two gentlemen are peeping in from outside. One has a gla.s.s of wine in his hand, and the other is the artist himself, who is laughing heartily at the man devouring the mussels. In the foreground are seen a dog, a large jug, an anvil, some sh.e.l.ls, an overturned basket of wood, a cat, and a hen. In the background are seen a blacksmith and many utensils.

=Two Bright Pictures by Van Stry.=--Abraham van Stry (1753-1826), a pupil of his father, the architectural painter, has an amusing Table Well Served. In a middle-cla.s.s room a fat man is seated at a table, on which stand a fine roast and other dishes. He casts an approving glance upon a dish which a servant is just bringing in. Behind him another servant is pouring out some wine. This artist's Village Inn represents a peasant on a white horse. He is taking a gla.s.s of beer from the innkeeper's wife. A servant, a barking dog, a woman, and a boy are the other figures. The sunlight is very vivid.

=Some Characteristic Examples of the Early Netherlands School.=--The early Netherlands school is well represented by a few characteristic examples. Toost van der Beke, called "The Master of the Death of the Virgin Mary," may be studied by three pictures,--Saint Jerome in his Study, the Virgin Mary and the Infant Jesus, and Portrait of Joris van der Helde (who died in Ghent in 1569). Dierick, or Dirck, Bouts is represented by The Apostle Saint John, which was formerly attributed to Rogier van der Weijden. Saint John is seated in a landscape writing the first verse of his Gospel on a sheet of paper, and a devil is tormenting him.

"The Master of the Half-Length Female Figures," a Dutch painter who is supposed to have worked at Bruges between 1520 and 1540, and who is known only by his pictures of saints on altarpieces and young women playing musical instruments, may be studied here in pictures called Golgotha and Young Woman Playing on a Lute. The latter is dressed in the costume of 1540, and she is singing from a music-book the words:

"Si jayme mon amy Trop, plus que mon mary, Se n'est pas de mervelles."

Golgotha represents the Crucifixion. The Cross, bearing the livid figure of Christ, is in the foreground, and beside it stand the Virgin on the left and St. John on the right. The landscape is very fine, but is entirely Flemish in character, although soldiers are supposed to be returning to the distant Jerusalem. At the foot of the hills Flemish cottages are noticeable, and the sky is gradually darkened from the sun on the horizon, until it gets very black just above the Cross.

This may be compared with The Crucifixion of Christ of the Netherlands school, an altarpiece of the sixteenth century, formerly attributed to Bernard van Orley (died in Brussels in 1525). Like the former, it presents a green landscape with hors.e.m.e.n wending their way to the distant Jerusalem. The Virgin and St. John are kneeling at the foot of the Cross, and in the clouds are two female saints, G.o.d the Father, and the dove representing the Holy Ghost.

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