Timothy Cole

“ The Hague Museum possesses a portrait of Paul Potter painted by Van der Helst in 1654, and as Potter died in January of that year, it follows that this portrait must have been completed but a few days before his death. It shows a sensitive and refined countenance, light hair and eyelashes, full, strong lips, and delicate mustache. He is clad in velvet, and sits by his easel with palette and brushes in hand, looking out at the spectator with a serious, determined expression. It seems very remarkable that this should be the likeness of a man wasted with consumption, and at death's door. ”

“ The air that bathes it, the amber warmth with which it is soaked, that gold which is but a veil, those colors which are only the result of the light which inundates them, of the air which circulates around, and of the sentiment of the painter which transforms them, those values so tender in a whole which is so strong—all these things come both from nature and from a conception ”

“ So far as portraiture goes, Van Dyck occupies, with Titian and Velasquez, the first place: His works have an air of elegance and distinction and a mundane grace and courtliness naturally befitting his title of "painter to the king." The Italians called him "il pittore cavalieresco." Without the stamina and natural robustness of his great master Rubens, his portraits are better in point of refinement and grace. But one must know his master to form a just appreciation of his position. ”

“ The subject I have engraved is known as "The Avenue, Middelharnis, Holland." The long avenue of straight, lopped trees leads up to the village, in which the church tower is a conspicuous object. It is a faithful and characteristic glimpse of Holland, with its pastures, waterways, low horizons, and expansive and impressive skies. Above all, it is the sky which holds us here; we feel the vastness of the immense vault of heaven. The work is gray and neutral in coloring, yet clear, strong, and fresh. ”

“ In Dutch art the subject is generally its least important consideration. There is no well-determined subject, because anything would serve to illustrate what the Dutchman sought to tell. What he should paint did not concern him so much as how he should paint. He is enamored of the world in its exterior aspect, and chooses things at random, as it were, as instances in proof that we are immersed in beauty could our eyes behold it. To judge the faces of Van Ostade's men and women ugly, however, is to regard their features merely, and to fail to perceive their air, which is their essence. ”

“ A man must paint what he is. Hooch is a poet of rare and delicate fiber. No other master can compare with him in the representation of the poetry of light, and in that marvelous brilliancy and clearness with which he calls it forth in various distances till the background is reached, which is generally illumined by a fresh beam. ”

“ He bathes his forms in a refined and subtle mellowness of light and shade that gives a warmth of sentiment to his creations. Then, too, one feels in his tenderness for the true, and his cordiality for the real, a certain loftiness and goodness of soul that place him far above the rank of the mere "near-sighted copyist." ”

“ He was well-to-do, living upon his own estate, and painting what he pleased and at his leisure, and according to the inspiration of the moment. Taking nature ever as his guide, he rarely fails to impress us by a charmingly naïve conception, and an originality of handling quite his own.
Very little is known of his early life; he was the pupil of his father, Jacob Gerritsz Cuyp, an able landscape-painter. It is probable that he visited other parts of Holland before beginning to practise on his own account at Dort. ”

“ How beautifully Jan Steen tells the story! The children and elders are dressed in their best, and are assembled in the room by the great chimney, in which are disclosed the presents of the good saint. The principal figure that holds us is the little girl, the very embodiment of joy. Filled with delight, and overwhelmed with good things, she scarcely knows which way to turn or what to do. ”

“ The action of the servant as she presents the jug to the child to sip is expressive of gentleness and endearment; and what could be more charming than the glimpse of the inside room, with its picture, and the casement, and the cushioned chair, and the court beyond in sunlight? How bright and sunny and joyful all this is! It is full of the sentiment of home. Hooch’s pictures are never very large; this one measures 253⁄4 inches high by 231⁄2 inches wide. There are other wonderful works by Hooch in the the Ryks Museum. ”

“ The "silver" manner of Teniers is a greater approach to the cool gray air of nature, and with this improvement in his style there came also a more precise and careful treatment, though there was no diminution of that light and sparkling touch wherein the separate strokes of the brush are left unbroken—a power in which he stands unequaled by any other genre-painter. ”

“ Terburg ranks among the foremost of the genre painters of Holland, and he was the first to paint subjects taken from the wealthier classes of society—interiors in which richness of costume and drapery, and of all accompanying details, is rendered with exquisite feeling combined with realistic truth to nature. ”

“ His mother was celebrated for a rare degree of skill in embroidery, and her love and sympathy guided the artist's infancy, which manifested itself in a precocious genius for art. She died when he was only eight years old, but his father made careful provision for the continuance of his artistic studies, and placed him, at the age of ten years, with Hendrik van Balen, a historical painter of great merit, and at the age of fifteen or sixteen he passed to the studio of Rubens, where he became this master's first and favorite pupil. ”

“ This was the picture which being show'd to king Charles I., caused him to give order that V. Dyck shou'd be sent for over into England. Van Dyck was received at court with every mark of favor and distinction, and his rapid preferment was such that after three months the king made him a knight, and settled on him a pension of two hundred pounds a year for life. His handsome person, engaging manners, and brilliant social gifts, together with the reputation of his talents and the special favor of the king, combined to make him the lion of the day, and his studio was the resort of the nobility. ”

“ From the deep, tender darks of the dress up through the browns of the background, and from the delicate greenish tints of the sky to the mellow tones of the flesh,—the culminating point of the harmonious whole,—all is sensitively bound together by a very subtle feeling for harmony. ”

“ It is the sweetest face that I have encountered among the Dutchmen, and its expression of innocence is captivating. Her head is decked with flowers. She holds in her hand a trowel, or sand-shovel, of the sort that is popular with children at the watering-places of Holland. ”

“ He is said to have been the son of a locksmith, and to have worked at his father's trade—he is popularly known as "the blacksmith of Antwerp." Doubt has, however, been cast upon this, as likewise upon the romantic story telling how he wooed and won his bride. The father of his lady-love had declared that she should marry a painter, and Massys accordingly left the anvil, and devoted himself to the study of painting. Such was the power of his love that he rapidly became a master in his new art, and so wedded the object of his passion. ”

“ I certainly cannot agree with Sir Joshua Reynolds in saying of his paintings that "one looks at them with admiration on the lips, but indifference in the heart." To have before our minds continually the stupendous creations of Michelangelo, Titian, Rembrandt, etc., is to debar ourselves of much of the delight which comes from contemplating the works of humbler, though not less faithful, artists. In Dou we see an innocent simplicity that imitates what is, yet makes what is imitated charming. ”

“ Flinck excelled particularly in portraiture, and this became his chief occupation. His picture of the "Regents," dated 1642, may be noted among many other fine works of the Amsterdam museum. It exhibits admirable taste in arrangement; the heads are living; and it has the breadth of treatment and the glow of color peculiar to Rembrandt. ”

“ Seen, however, in this way, the effect of candle-light would undoubtedly appear darker and redder from contrast with the daylight than otherwise. Nevertheless, Gerard Dou’s candle-lights, though showing the influence of this method, are by no means as dark or as red as one might suppose from the foregoing. He evidently modified the ill effect of the sensation received from peering through the aperture, by the impression natural to one when in and surrounded by candle-light at night. His pictures of such effects, though darkened by
time, are yet very delightful things to look at. ”

“ A few portraits by his hand exist, which are full of individuality; such are those of himself and his wife to be seen in the room of portraits at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, and of which I have chosen that of his wife as an illustration. The two portraits are upon one panel; that of his wife is wonderfully well preserved, as, being the inner panel, and boxed in the frame, it is shown only upon application to the custodian. It is delightfully fresh, and charming to look at. ”

“ It measures 161⁄4 inches high by 133⁄4 inches wide. It would be impossible to describe its wondrous color—the warm, humid atmosphere and mellow golden light in which it is steeped. It is an admirable instance, also, of how well the master could bind together a mass of shadow and a mass of light, and must have been the fruit of much observation and reflection. In respect to its light and shade, everything is subservient to the man and fish, which receive the strongest lights and shadows, though they are not, like the background, in the sunlight. ”

“ Such was the demand for his paintings that a wealthy connoisseur named Van Spiring gave him an annual donation of 1000 florins merely for the privilege of the first choice of the pictures that he completed at the close of every year, at the same time paying him the price of the picture he chose like any other purchaser. ”

“ The animal shows its temperament, length, height, joints, bones, muscles, its hair rough or smooth, tangled or curled, its loose or tight skin, all in perfection. The gesture is true, and the head admirably living. ”

“ His versatility, and his power of imitating the manner of the most various masters, as well as the great range of his subjects, caused him to be styled "the Proteus of painting," for although the animated delineation of the peasant world, under the most varying forms, is his favorite sphere, he frequently gives us scenes from the realms of fancy. ”

“ As he happened to be at Münster during the sitting of the memorable Peace Congress, he painted for his own pleasure the marvelous little picture of the "Ratification of the Treaty of Peace," which is now to be seen in the National Gallery at London. After the signing of the treaty in 1648, the Spanish minister at the imperial court took Terburg with him to Spain, and thus enabled the still young painter to see what the great Velasquez was doing. ”

“ He was born in 1638, probably at Amsterdam, though the city of Haarlem, the town of Koeverden, and the village of Middelharnis in Holland are each said to have been his birthplace. He is known, however, to have resided at Amsterdam, and to have been married there in 1668, to which event his friend Jacob was a witness. He then recorded his age as thirty. He died in Amsterdam, December 14, 1709, and was buried there, ending his days in poverty and obscurity, his last lodging being in the Roosgraft, the street in which Rembrandt had died, just as poor, forty years before. ”

“ He captivated by a surprising realism of treatment and a living individuality of character in his heads, to which was added a naturalistic coloring, undisturbed by any conscientious scruples of chiaroscuro. ”

“ This is especially evident in his celebrated work of "The Entombment," an altarpiece for the chapel of the Joiners' Company in the Cathedral of Antwerp. Sir Joshua Reynolds says of this work, "There are heads in this picture not exceeded by Raphael, and indeed not unlike his [early] manner of painting portraits, hard and minutely finished." The work is now in the Public Gallery at Antwerp. Besides works of this order, Massys also painted works of a secular nature, such as those where merchants or money-changers are seen weighing their gold or counting their gains. ”

“ While still a youth he visited England, and thence set out on further travels, passing through Germany into Italy, where he studied the works of the great Italians. Returning to Holland by way of France, he remained some time at Amsterdam, and learned much from the works of Rembrandt. ”

“ Until 1750, the best examples of Cuyp were not valued at more than twelve dollars apiece. The English have the honor of first discovering him to the world, and consequently England possesses the majority of his works. ”

“ She beckons to the boy, calling him to her; and by a motion of her hand upon the bed-curtain we can see that she has something good for him behind, which Santa Claus has left her to give him on condition that he will be a good boy in future, and in particular stop teasing his elder sister with his pranks and practical jokes. ”

“ Very little is known of his life. He was born at Dort, in June 1616 and became a pupil of Rembrandt toward 1630, when about fourteen years of age, and is not known to have had any other instructor. In 1652 he became a citizen of Amsterdam, and died there, on July 24, 1680, a rich man. ”