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velt, a native of Woerden, but a pupil of Claude Lorraine. He did not profit much by his advantages, for his coloring remained cold, and his manner artificial; but he is highly praised as an etcher and designer of Roman views.

Philip Wouvermans, born at Haarlem in 1620, was a more picturesque and prolific artist. Between seven and eight hundred spirited paintings are ascribed to him, though all cannot be genuine. Many are battle and hunting scenes, filled with cavaliers, dogs, and horses. His masterpieces are the "Coup de Pistolet," at Buckingham Palace, and a "Hawking Party," at Amsterdam. Thirteen of his works are in the Louvre, particularly “The Riding-School;" forty-nine at St. Petersburg, including "The Burning Mill;" a "Stag-Hunt," and sixteen others, are at Munich; "The Hay-Cart," at the Hague; and sixty-four at Dresden. It is said that he invariably placed a white horse in every picture, as may be seen even in an "Annunciation to the Shepherds," where the steed and his rider watch the angelic messengers from an adjacent hill. Time and study greatly improved his tone and touch; but he died before attaining his fiftieth year.

The mention of Paul Potter recalls at once the animals

and pastures for which he is famous. Few Dutch painters enjoy more general and practical renown. He was born at Enkhuysen, in 1625, passed his youth at the Hague, and finally removed to Amsterdam, where he died in 1654. Sheep and cattle, grassy meadows, and calm pools, all reposing in pleasant atmosphere, are his most congenial subjects. He loved animals, not only on canvas, but in farms and fields; familiarized himself with their habits, and carefully copied their traits, down to the falling of a hair, or the point of a

horn, with the most effective coloring, and the most entire accuracy. He might represent them gigantic in size, but he never slighted their finish. The "Young Bull," of the Hague, painted at twenty-two, immediately established his reputation. This immense creature, perfectly portrayed, stands proudly in the foreground, while a shepherd, three sheep, and a cow, complete the group. A "Bear-Hunt," of exaggerated proportions, is shown in the Amsterdam Museum; and smaller and milder pieces from his hand are tolerably plentiful in England and Germany. The Hermitage at St. Petersburg contains nine of his best pictures, especially "The Condemnation of Man by the Tribunal of Animals," and a large landscape, in which a rural barn-yard appears to have been let loose, and mixed in sunny confusion with goats and asses, wayfarers and horses.

The same department of art is further illustrated by Adrian van de Velde, of Amsterdam (1639-1672). Like Potter, he scarcely lived to reach the prime of manhood, yet left nearly two hundred paintings and twenty-six engravings. His animals and landscapes were excellent; his human figures correctly drawn; and the tone of his pictures clear, bright, and calm, with fine aërial perspective. His large Brabant landscape, in the neighborhood of Antwerp, contains his own and his wife's portrait. Good specimens of his ability exist in Dresden and in the Louvre; but the name of Van de Velde is better known through Willem, the unrivaled marine painter.

These brothers Van de Velde were the sons of an earlier artist of Leyden, who also made a specialty of marine painting, and was patronized and pensioned in England, but

whose memory is now merged in that of his children, Willem and Adrian. Willem was born in Amsterdam, in 1633. He soon displayed his partiality for the sea, and followed his father to England, where there was a constant demand for their pictures, which even now bring enormous prices. Every phase of the ocean has been represented by his brush-tempest and quiet; clouds and sunshine; full-rigged vessels, and shining cities on receding coasts. He also excelled in sea-fights; and exhibited, with cool impartiality, the naval victories of the English over the Dutch quite as vividly as those of the Dutch over the English. In the National Gallery, London, hang nine of his works. The Louvre has a Calm," small, but very fine in perspective and finish; the Hague and Amsterdam possess several, including a wellchosen view of the latter city; and a Storm" and "Calm " are in one of the cabinets of the Munich Gallery. He died in 1707, while his rival, Ludolf Backhuysen, born at Embden, in 1631, was also winning fame at Amsterdam.

Backhuysen is said to have commenced his career as a writing-master, and to have subsequently given lessons in marine drawing to Peter the Great of Russia. He delighted in shipping, and introduces frigates and fleets into most of his compositions. His coloring is generally opaque and dark, as he preferred rough seas and gloomy skies to serener and transparent air. His pictures, as well as those of Van de Velde, adorn the most important public and private galleries of England; while the "Return of William of Orange," at the Hague; the "Embarkation of Jan de Witt," at Amsterdam; a "View of the Port of Amsterdam," at Vienna; and the "Seaport of Antwerp," at Munich, may be specially

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enumerated among the variety of his works. His death, at Amsterdam, in 1709, closes the list of Dutch marine masters, and brings us to a brief notice of the delineators of architecture and still-life.

As painters of buildings, we may therefore first mention the two Hendricks van Steenwyck, father and son, who were peculiarly successful in depicting interiors of churches, with vanishing perspective and rich ornamental accessories, as may be observed at Vienna and in the Louvre. Peter Neefs (1570-1638) continued the same architectural style, sometimes adding a torchlight illumination to increase the effect. He, too, is represented in the Louvre, though he may be more favorably judged by a "Night Interior," at Munich, and a "Gothic Church," at Vienna. But the most picturesque of these "little masters" is doubtless Jan van der Heyden (1637-1712), who devoted himself to "exteriors," in which he sets before our eyes every stone in a wall, every tile on a roof, every paving-stone in a street, every leaf on a tree!" Thus his works, which number about one hundred and sixty, and are dispersed through Holland, Germany, and England, give us most faithful views of many Dutch towns, market-places, and gardens, pleasing in color, and miniaturelike in finish.

Another father and son, Jan Baptist Weenix (1621–1660) and Jan Weenix the younger (1644-1719), both of Amsterdam, are celebrated for their birds and animals, living and dead. The elder Weenix also rendered larger subjects, as in his "Knife-Grinder" and "Young Girl asleep," at Munich; but the younger is known by his cocks, partridges, hares, and other game, especially the "Pheasant" at the Hague.

335 Both have pictures in Holland, Dresden, Munich, and the Louvre.

Their pupil, Melchior Hondekoeter, of Utrecht (16361695), may be called the painter of the poultry-yard. Though descended from the Marquis of Waterloo, his artistic ambition did not soar above hens and ducks, except possibly to rise on rare occasions to a peacock. He is of course highly esteemed in his native land, and an occasional swan or turkey of his creation has strayed as far as Paris and St. Petersburg. Willem Kalf, of Amsterdam (1630-1693), was an enthusiast for kitchen-scenes, into which he infused as much poetry as the nature of the case would permit. Pots, pans, vases, vegetables, and crockery, attest his skill.

Among the more modest but more interesting painters of flowers and fruit, David de Heem, of Utrecht (1600-1674), occupies the first rank. His plants, blossoms, fruit, and insects, are familiar to travelers in Northern Europe; while his plates, and glass or crystal vessels, are remarkably well done. Cornelis de Heem, his son, imitated him in the same genre, as did afterward Jan van Huysum, of Amsterdam (16821749), whose pictures of bouquets, vases, and birds'-nests, are particularly pretty, and are eagerly purchased for large sums. Rachel Ruysch, daughter of an anatomical professor of Amsterdam, has almost equal reputation for flower-painting, and drew and colored with a precision and fidelity which would put the modern proficients in this branch of art to the blush. Bidding farewell to her floral beauties, we abandon Protestant Holland for fervent Spain.