CHAPTER XIV.

PAINTING IN HOLLAND.

ALL Dutch painting may of course be regarded as an offshoot from the early Flemish school, though the talent which vitalized the slowly-growing art of Holland was of much later date than the time of the Van Eycks. The practical and peaceful burghers of this little country were not startled by any extraordinary burst of genius till the advent of the seventeenth century, when Rembrandt suddenly made them famous. His predecessors may be easily counted. Albert van Outwater, of whom we have no pictures, but who resided at Haarlem in the fifteenth century, was the founder of the Dutch school; while his pupil, Gerard van Haarlem, who died early, has left two panels of the "Mourning of Christ," and the "Remains of St. John," now in the Belvedere, Vienna, as well as two or three others at Munich. Dierick Bouts or Stuerbout, also of Haarlem, thought to be the immediate follower of Hubert van Eyck, furnishes examples of greater excellence. His coloring is soft and glowing; his figures stiff, yet correct and solemn, and his landcsape backgrounds admirable. Some of his altar-pieces are at Berlin, Bruges, and Munich, such as "The Gathering of Manna,"

and "Meeting of Abraham and Melchizedek," in the Pinakothek.

Cornelis Engelbrechtsen, born at Leyden, in 1468, was less attractive. The Town-House of Leyden still possesses from his hand a large altar-piece with wings, of poor execution, representing the "Crucifixion," with its symbolical types. He is remembered, however, as the master of Lucas of Leyden, who was not only the first distinguished Dutch painter, but the successful introducer of engraving into Holland, and the valued friend of Albrecht Dürer and of Holbein.

Luc Jacobez, commonly called Lucas of Leyden, was born at Leyden, in 1494, painted well at the age of twelve, and engraved on copper at fourteen. His prints, which number one hundred and seventy-four, have rendered him celebrated some are now very scarce and expensive, particularly the "Eulenspiegel," which immortalized a popular clown of a past century. "The Sleeping Monk killed by Mohammed," and the "Dance of the Magdalene," are also wonderfully fine and rare. There is a fantastic and whimsical element in many of these engravings, characteristic both of the man and the period, which is almost equally visible in his panels, and shows us frequent contrasts of serious simplicity and strange buffoonery. His life was short but fertile. Not many of his genuine paintings can be discovered, though cata logue-makers find it convenient to assign early Dutch works to his authorship. A large but unpleasant "Last Judgment" adorns the Town-Hall of Leyden, smaller pictures are at Munich, and a portrait of the Emperor Maximilian hangs in the Belvedere, Vienna. A "Pietà," in the tribune of Uffizi, Florence, and a "Deposition from the Cross," at Paris, are

noticeable as specimens of his graver style. Their yellowish lights and deep-brown shadows may be effective, but not beautiful. With all his industry, Lucas had a keen appreciation of the pleasures of the world, and his biographers give graphic accounts of a brilliant tour through the Netherlands in company with the Flemish painter Mabuse. The journey was made in a splendid barge, and enlivened by banquetings and revels. Many fellow-artists welcomed and envied the gay travelers; yet it has been supposed that Lucas was then poisoned by some jealous rival; for on his return home he was seized with a severe illness, from which he never wholly recovered, but, after lingering six years upon a sick-bed, died at the age of thirty-nine.

Hans Schoreel, a pupil of Mabuse, born in 1495, was at this time winning reputation at Haarlem. He had fallen in love during his early years with the beautiful young daughter of a painter, and, to render himself worthy of her, went to study under Michael Angelo. But he staid so many years in Italy that, on revisiting his native land, he found the lady married, and was obliged to console himself with his profession. He settled at Utrecht, and, with the exception of his matrimonial disappointment, led a prosperous and happy life, dying of gout in 1567. The zeal of the Reformers destroyed most of his pictures, but a "Virgin and Child" is in the Town-Hall of Utrecht.

His pupil Martin Hemskerk, or Martin van Veen, another most unsuccessful imitator of Michael Angelo, was once a favorite in Holland, and still has pictures at Delft and Haarlem. But the name of Van Veen reminds us rather of Otto van Veen, the instructor of Rubens, born at Leyden, 1558.

He was a very learned and accomplished man, though a very feeble painter: Six of his allegorical pictures, representing the "Triumph of the Catholic Church," are in a cabinet of the Munich Gallery, while others are shown at Antwerp.

The close of the sixteenth century, and opening of the seventeenth, bring us fairly into the departments of landscape and portrait painting, in which the Dutch were soon to rival every other nation. We will notice a few of these early artists before we attempt a sketch of Rembrandt, who proved himself a master in all branches.

Abraham Bloemart, who was born at Gorcum, 1567, and died at Utrecht, 1647, painted history, landscape, and animals, with tolerable fidelity and force; but was excelled by Jan van Goyen and Jan Wynants, both born about 1600, and sharing the honors of being considered the pioneers of Dutch landscape-painting. Both were eminently truthful in their copies of Nature, but Van Goyen's pieces are somewhat sad and desolate, while the coloring of Wynants is lighter and fairer. A marvelous advance is seen in the works of Albert Cuyp (1606-1667), who still holds his rank among the most charming of all landscape-painters. His father, born, like himself, at Dort, had been an artist of some note, and a pupil of Bloemart; but the son gained and merited the title of the Dutch Claude, and pleases all critics by his lovely effects of light and atmosphere. Sunny mornings and misty evenings fascinate us upon his canvas. Often he introduces figures who ride along through the clear, bright fields, with a life-like enjoyment which the spectator shares, as for example in "The Cavalier" of the Dresden Gallery. The English profoundly admire Cuyp, and have secured many of his pictures, some

of which may be seen in the National Gallery and in the Dulwich Collection. "The Departure" and "The Return " are in the Louvre; and others, scarcely less fine, in Munich. Only a few are left in Holland, as other nations have been more appreciative than his own countrymen. Cuyp sometimes attempted flower, fruit, "still-life" pieces, and “interiors;" but his peculiar forte is so decidedly landscape that we need not pause to think of the versatility of his talents.

The brothers Jan and Andries Both, of Utrecht, born about 1608 and 1610, were also eminent for their rural scenes, and have bathed their pictures in the same rich and melting sunshine. Their coloring is usually deeper than that of Cuyp, but not more luminous. Most of their life was passed in Italy, though their best paintings are in the Louvre, and in the Dresden and other German galleries. Andries was drowned at Venice, in 1645, and Jan died at Utrecht five years afterward.

The faithful imitation of Nature, which the Dutch have always and everywhere required as the first element of success, was peculiarly developed in the portraits which at this epoch came greatly into demand. We shall see in Dutch and German collections, especially at Dresden, many curiously realistic and interesting faces, dating from 1600 to 1650, to which we find the name of Mierevelt attached. They seem of a more cultivated and intellectual type than most of the sitters of Holbein or Pourbus; and we feel a strong desire to hear something of the history of these men and women, generally past middle age, who look at us with such life-like intensity from the canvas. Few painters are more vivid than Mierevelt; extremely realistic, yet not commonplace or dis