,illustration ,,dutch ,,etchers ,,of ,,the ,,seventeenth ,,century ,by ,,laurence ,,binyon ,of the ,department of ,prints and ,drawings1 ,british ,museum ,illustration ,,london ,,seeley ,,and ,,co4 ,,limited1 ,,essex ,,street1 ,,strand ,,new ,,york1 ,,macmillan ,,and ,,co4 #ahie ,,list ,,of ,,illustrations ,,plates ,,page ,the ,two ,plough ,horses4 ,from the etching by ,paul ,potter4 ,b4 #ab ,frontispiece ,the ,wife ,spinning4 ,from the etching by ,a4 ,van ,ostade4 ,b4 #ca to face#bh ,sea ,piece4 ,from the etching by ,l4 ,backhuysen4 ,b4 #d 0 0 #eb ,ox and ,sheep4 ,from the etching by ,a4 ,van de ,velde4 ,b4 #ab 0 0 #gd ,,illustrations ,,in ,,the ,,text ,,fig4 #a4 ,the ,spectacle ,seller4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #bi #h #b4 ,peasant with a ,pointed ,cap4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #c #aj #c4 ,game of ,backgammon4 ,from a drawing by ,ostade4 ,british ,museum #ab #d4 ,the ,child and the ,doll4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #af #ad #e4 ,man and ,woman ,conversing4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #cg #af #f4 ,the ,barn4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #bc #ai #g4 ,the ,humpbacked ,fiddler4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #dd #bb #h4 ,peasant paying his ,reckoning4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #db #be #i4 ,saying ,grace4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #cd #bg #aj4 ,the ,angler4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #bf #bi #aa4 ,the ,tavern4 ,by ,bega4 ,b4 #cb #cc #ab4 ,tobias and the ,angel4 ,by ,h4 ,seghers4 ,m4 #bcf #cf #ac4 ,the ,flight into ,egypt4 ,by ,rembrandt4 ,m4 #bcf #ci #ad4 ,three ,men under a ,tree4 ,by ,everdingen4 ,b4 #e #db #ae4 ,landscape in ,norway4 ,by ,everdingen4 ,b4 #ge #dc #af4 ,drinking the ,waters at ,spa4 ,by ,everdingen4 ,b4 #if #de #ag4 ,the ,cornfield4 ,by ,j4 ,ruisdael4 ,b4 #e #di #ah4 ,the ,burnt ,house on the ,canal4 ,by ,van der ,heyden #ea #ai4 ,fishing ,boats4 ,by ,r4 ,zeeman4 ,b4 #ch #ed #bj4 ,road1 with ,trees and ,figures4 ,by ,breenbergh4 ,b4 #ag #ef #ba4 ,landscape4 ,by ,both4 ,b4 #c #ei #bb4 ,a ,ram4 ,by ,berchem4 ,b4 #ea #fa #bc4 ,title ,piece4 ,by ,berchem4 ,b4 #ce #fd #bd4 ,the ,bull4 ,by ,paul ,potter4 ,b4 #a #ff #be4 ,studies of a ,dog4 ,by ,paul ,potter4 ,british ,museum #fi #bf4 ,the ,cow4 ,by ,paul ,potter4 ,b4 #c #gb #bg4 ,mules4 ,by ,k4 ,du ,jardin4 ,b4 #b #gc #bh4 ,pigs4 ,by ,k4 ,du ,jardin4 ,b4 #ae #gf #bi4 ,a ,goat4 ,by ,a4 ,van de ,velde4 ,b4 #af #gh ,,dutch ,,etchers ,,of ,,the ,,seventeenth ,,century ,,introduction ,i ,when1 towards the close of the last century1 ,adam ,bartsch began that monument of his industry and patience1 ,le ,peintre ,graveur1 he devoted the first volumes of his twenty-one1 not to the early engravers of ,germany or ,italy1 but to the ,dutch etchers of the seventeenth century4 ,these were1 in fact1 the idols of the amateur of that day2 and the indiscriminate praises which ,bartsch lavishes on mediocre artists1 like ,waterloo or ,le ,ducq1 sufficiently show how uncontested was their rank1 and how fashionable their reputation4 ,since then their vogue has considerably declined4 ,rembrandt1 of whom ,bartsch treated in a separate work1 is perhaps more admired1 more studied than he ever was4 ,his etchings1 reproduced in more or less accurate forms1 are not only familiar to artists and to students1 but1 to a certain extent1 reach even the general public4 ,but ,rembrandt's glory has obscured the fame of his countrymen and contemporaries4 ,like ,shakespeare by the side of the lesser ,elizabethans1 he stands forth alone and dazzling1 and1 though they enjoy a titular renown1 they suffer a comparative neglect4 ,yet1 if ,rembrandt is by far the greatest1 others are great also4 ,the following pages are designed to serve as a sort of introduction to the more notable among these etchers1 in the same way that ,mr4 ,hamerton's monograph1 the first of the present series of the ,portfolio1 was intended as an introduction to the etched work of ,rembrandt4 ,and first1 let us warn the reader who is familiar perhaps with masterpieces like the ,christ ,healing the ,sick and ,rembrandt ,drawing at a ,window1 ,clement de ,jonghe1 or ,the ,three ,trees1 but who is not yet acquainted with the etchings of ,ostade and ,paul ,potter1 not to expect too much4 ,few of these lesser masters approach ,rembrandt in the specific qualities of the etcher3 he is beyond them all in draughtsmanship1 far beyond them in the intensity of his imagination4 ,yet the best of them must rank high4 ,it is his immensity of range which marks off ,rembrandt1 more even than his transcendent powers1 from the rest of the ,dutch etchers4 ,not only did his production exceed by far the most prolific among them1 but he touched on almost every side of life4 ,yet he was not the school in epitome1 as a hasty enthusiasm might affirm4 ,with all his breadth of sympathy1 his insatiable curiosity1 he was not quite universal4 ,the life of animals1 the growth and beauty of trees1 the motion of the sea-waves--none of these attracted ,rembrandt deeply4 ,and here1 to supplement him1 we have the work of men like ,potter1 ,backhuysen1 ,ruisdael1 each developing his peculiar vein4 ,all of these etchers whom we have to consider are1 however1 independent of ,rembrandt and his influence4 ,the ,rembrandt school has been expressly excluded from the present monograph4 ,for1 interesting as some of those artists are1 the first thought suggested by their work is that it recalls ,rembrandt3 the second thought1 that it is not ,rembrandt4 ,it is their relation to their master that interests us rather than any intrinsic excellence of their own4 ,only the independent masters1 therefore1 are exhibited here2 and from these groups of etchers several of the greatest names in ,dutch art are absent4 ,frans ,hals1 ,jan ,steen1 ,vermeer of ,delft1 ,hobbema1 ,de ,hooch--none of these1 so far as we know1 has left a single plate4 ,adriaen ,brouwer etched a few2 but they afford only the slightest indications of his genius4 ,and ,albert ,cuyp1 who is the author of half a dozen small etchings1 showed in this line but little of his skill1 and did not apparently pursue it farther4 ,yet the quantity of etched plates produced during this period in ,holland is immense1 and most of the best work was published within the same two or three decades4 ,to take a single year1 #afeb1 ,potter's studies of horses1 a set of cattle by ,berchem1 several plates by ,du ,jardin1 one of the finest pieces of ,ostade1 ,la ,fileuse1 appeared in it2 while the year following saw the publication of ,adriaen van de ,velde's largest etching1 and ,ruisdael's ,three ,oaks had been issued but three years earlier4 ,rembrandt's ,tobit ,blind is dated #afea1 and the ,three ,crosses #afec4 ,this great fecundity has been necessarily a source of some embarrassment to the writer2 and though a number of minor men have been omitted1 several etchers have been included1 whom for the sake of completeness it was necessary to give some account of1 but whom it is hard to make interesting1 and about whom enthusiasm is impossible4 ,,ii ,treating1 as it does1 of so considerable a number of masters1 the present monograph aims at indicating1 as far as space would allow1 something of the relations between them1 and at tracing the interdependence of the various schools4 ,to have taken the etchers separately and considered their work apart1 would have meant the compilation of a tediously crowded catalogue4 ,but when once the masters are approached from the historical side1 it is impossible to treat them simply as etchers4 ,it is as painters that they influenced and were influenced4 ,consequently some account has had to be taken of them as painters4 ,and since some who produced little1 and that little not very remarkable1 in etching1 are yet of great significance as artists1 it has been impossible to treat each man simply on his merits as an etcher4 ,hence1 for instance1 much more space has been devoted to ,ruisdael than the quality or the amount of his work on copper strictly merits4 ,the lives of most of these artists have1 till recently1 rested on a somewhat shifting foundation4 ,dates of birth and death have fluctuated in various authors with easy rapidity4 ,of some1 even now1 nothing certain is known4 ,but the researches of ,dr4 van der ,willigen1 ,dr4 ,bredius1 ,dr4 ,hofstede de ,groot1 and others in the archives of the ,dutch cities have proved much1 disproved more1 and set the whole subject in a clearer light4 ,to ,dr4 ,bredius' ,meisterwerke der kniglichen ,gemlde-,galerie im ,haag1 and ,illustration3 ,fig4 #a4--,the ,spectacle ,seller4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #bi4 still more to his ,meisterwerke des ,rijks ,museum zu ,amsterdam1 the writer is under special obligation1 which he desires most gratefully to acknowledge4 ,but in spite of many readjustments of chronology1 materials for the lives of these artists are singularly meagre4 ,doubtless their lives were in most cases extremely simple4 ,many never left their native town1 or exchanged it only for a home a few miles off3 ,haarlem for ,amsterdam1 or ,amsterdam for the ,hague4 ,others made the journey to ,italy1 or spent some years in ,france or ,germany2 but here the journey itself is sometimes only a matter of inference from the painter's works4 ,birth1 marriage1 and death3 there is little beyond these1 and the dates of their principal productions1 to record about many of these men4 ,of the whole social life of the ,holland of that day we know practically nothing but what its paintings tell us4 ,had those paintings not survived1 what a blank would be left in our conceptions of this country and its history6 ,most countries that have left us great art have left us also great literature1 and each is the complement of the other4 ,the marbles of the ,parthenon have not only the enchantment of their incomparable sculpture1 but bring to our minds a thousand recollections1 gathered in the fields of literature4 ,in a less degree1 it is the same with our enjoyment of ,italian painting4 ,it is one aspect of the flowering time of the ,renaissance1 but not the only aspect1 nor the only material we have for investigating and realising that movement4 ,there was1 no doubt1 a certain amount of literature produced in seventeenth-century ,holland2 but it does not penetrate beyond ,holland4 ,besides the names of ,spinoza and of ,grotius1 who are great but not in literature proper1 not a single author's name is familiar1 nor any book eminent enough to become a classic in translations4 ,and it is certainly not for the sake of the literature that a foreigner learns ,dutch4 ,hence a certain remoteness in our ideas about ,holland1 although it lies so near us3 a remoteness emphasised in ,england by the general ignorance of the language4 ,when one looks at a picture by ,watteau1 one seems to be joining in the conversation of those adorable ladies and their gallants2 half instinctively1 one seems to divine the witty phrase1 the happy compliment that is on the speaker's lips4 ,but the conversations of ,ter ,borch and of ,metsu are mute and distant4 ,we hear the jovial laughter of ,hals1 but we cannot divine his jests and oaths4 ,and ,van de ,velde's merry skating companies1 and ,ostade's tavern-haunting peasants1 and the family groups in their gravely furnished rooms1 rich with a sober opulence1 of ,de ,hooch or of ,jan ,steen1 all1 in spite of their human touches and their gaiety1 affect us with a kind of haunting silence4 ,mr4 ,pater1 in one of the most finished and charming of his ,imaginary ,portraits1 ,sebastian van ,storck1 called up a picture of the social life of these times1 very suggestive and delightful2 but it was noteworthy1 how much of it was merely a reconstruction1 in words1 of impressions from the contemporary pictures4 ,after all1 however1 our ignorance may not cost us much4 ,we judge the painters as painters1 and by their works2 we are not distracted by ,illustration3 ,fig4 #b4--,peasant with a ,pointed ,cap4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #c4 other circumstances about them1 and that is an advantage4 ,they may have had theories about painting1 but fortunately we do not know them1 except by inference from their practice4 ,and if seventeenth-century ,holland has only expressed herself in painting1 she has known how to express herself with marvellous fulness4 ,never before1 and never perhaps since1 has pictorial art been so universally the speech of a nation2 never has it been more various and abundant4 ,instead of being the handmaid of religion or the adornment of a court1 it is now for the first time itself3 full-blooded1 active1 exuberant1 scorning nothing1 attempting everything4 ,modern with all the added richness that the modern spirit allows in life and art1 it reflects the just pride and joy of a great nation arrived1 through incredible struggle and privation1 at victory and peace4 ,yet more wonderful even than this abundance is the fine tact1 the instinctive judgment1 which guided such profuse creation4 ,for in all the great painters of ,holland there is the same sure choice of subjects proper to painting1 the same sure avoidance of what does not lend itself so much to painting as to some other expression of art4 ,religious pictures in the old sense1 pictures intended for churches1 were forbidden by the ,protestant spirit4 ,no court existed to patronise the painters4 ,yet they seemed unconscious of being cut off from any province4 ,in the life around them they found overflowing material1 and their choice of subject was invariably simple1 never a complex product like the engravings of ,drer1 half literary in their interest2 never anecdotic or moral4 ,an excellent tradition was begun1 which lasted through the century4 ,nor was this tradition due to the creative impulse of one man4 ,there was nothing in ,holland parallel to the renovation1 the re-creation rather1 of ,flemish art by ,rubens4 ,rembrandt came near the beginning1 but he did not start the period4 ,one cannot say precisely how this great tradition began2 it seems as if the flowering time came all at once throughout the country1 with the mysterious suddenness of spring4 ,till the seventeenth century1 it was ,italy from which ,dutch artists took their inspiration1 but henceforward it is a native impulse4 ,only men of lesser importance went to paint at ,rome1 and even then they took there more than they brought away4 ,,iii ,considered as etchers1 the ,dutch masters range themselves somewhat differently4 ,only a few1 seemingly1 realised the specific capacities and limitations of etching3 the rest regarded it merely as a method of reproducing their drawings1 as an easier kind of engraving4 ,this was probably the conception of those who first applied acid to metal for the purpose of reproducing designs1 at the beginning of the sixteenth century3 the art had been formerly employed only in the damascening of swords or armour4 ,albert ,drer is an exception2 for1 though he did not develop the method far1 he saw that it required a different kind of handling from that suitable for the burin2 and in his few etched plates the work is freer and more open than that of his line-engravings4 ,the first men to use etching extensively were the ,hopfer family of ,augsburg1 who produced a great number of prints1 chiefly decorative designs4 ,it was employed in landscape by ,altdorfer1 ,hirschvogel1 ,lautensack1 and others among the ,little ,masters4 ,but these did little more than ,illustration3 ,fig4 #c4--;,game of ,backgammon4 ,from a drawing by ,ostade4 ,british ,museum4 carry on the ,nrnberg tradition of engraving1 through another medium4 ,they had little or no influence on the ,dutchmen4 ,a new and powerful stimulus1 however1 was to be given to etching with the beginning of the seventeenth century1 by the prolific and famous ,french artist1 ,jacques ,callot4 ,born in #aeib1 ,callot produced a great mass of work before his death in #afch1 and his etchings1 by which alone he is known1 had a great popularity in his lifetime4 ,in #afbd he was invited to ,brussels by the ,infanta ,isabella ,clara ,eugenia1 and was commissioned by her to commemorate the ,siege of ,breda1 an event which also occasioned a masterpiece to ,velasquez1 the famous ,lances of ,madrid4 ,callot undoubtedly brought the art into prominence and favour in the ,netherlands4 ,yet of direct influence over either ,flemings or ,dutchmen1 ,callot had little or none4 ,his spirit was too essentially ,french1 his method too individual1 for him to be imitated by men of such different race and temperament4 ,in #afbg1 however1 ,callot met1 at ,nancy1 ,claude ,lorraine1 and probably instructed him in etching4 ,claude left ,nancy for ,italy in the same year1 and in the following year etched his first plates4 ,between #afcj and #affc1 he published a considerable number1 among them some of exquisite delicacy and beauty4 ,and from these etchings many of the ,dutchmen derive their inspiration2 and ,claude is said to have employed men like ,swaneveldt1 ,andries ,both1 and ,jan ,miel for inserting figures in his landscapes4 ,another foreign master who exercised a widespread influence over the ,dutch etchers was the ,german1 ,adam ,elsheimer4 ,traces of this influence pervade the history of ,dutch art1 as ,dr4 ,bode in his ,studien zur ,geschichte der holldndischen ,malerei has very fully demonstrated4 ,elsheimer etched a few plates2 but1 with all deference to ,dr4 ,bode's authority1 we find it difficult to attach to them the importance which he gives them4 ,through the etchings and engravings made from his pictures ,elsheimer was undoubtedly a source of inspiration to the ,dutchmen1 but scarcely through the rare and by no means remarkable plates which he etched himself4 ,the real importance of ,elsheimer1 and the secret of his fascination over his contemporaries1 lie in his fresh treatment of light and shade4 ,problems of lighting occupied his contemporaries1 ,caravaggio and ,honthorst1 but these devoted their skill chiefly to effects of double lighting and strong contrast2 it was the rendering of luminous shadow and subtle tones of twilight that ,elsheimer was the first to attack4 ,in this he is a forerunner of ,rembrandt1 who undoubtedly took suggestions from him1 and was helped by him in his own development of chiaroscuro4 ,rembrandt cannot be fully understood without a knowledge of what ,elsheimer had done before him4 ,but ,rembrandt was by no means the only ,dutch master who profited by the ,german's art4 ,the whole of the ,italianised ,dutch school at ,rome1 men like ,poelenburg for instance1 felt his influence more or less strongly4 ,nor was he without followers in the native school of landscape painters and etchers in ,holland1 as we shall see when we come to them4 ,elsheimer1 in fine1 though by no means a great painter1 is of considerable historical importance1 and the admiration which he excited in his ,illustration3 ,fig4 #d4--,the ,child and the ,doll4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #af4 own day can hardly be over-estimated4 ,so great a man as ,rubens admired him so much that he had three of his landscapes on his walls1 and made copies from his paintings and designs4 ,this is the more remarkable1 because ,rubens rarely occupied himself with the problems that fascinated ,elsheimer4 ,and while these problems were of a kind to appeal to etchers1 it was not on etching but on line-engraving1 an art admitting little scope for subtlety of chiaroscuro1 that ,rubens cast his potent influence4 ,without using the burin himself1 he employed a number of brilliant engravers to reproduce his designs1 just as ,raphael had employed ,marc ,antonio for the like purpose4 ,even in our day1 when public picture-galleries are numerous and the distances between various capitals have so immensely shrunk1 the fame of the great painters rests still to a large extent on photographs and engravings from their works2 it is easy1 therefore1 to comprehend of what capital importance it was for masters of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to secure competent interpreters4 ,line-engraving was admirably suited for the reproduction of pictures like those of ,rubens1 with their large design and flowing sweep4 ,and so potent was ,rubens's example1 that etching found in ,belgium only a few isolated1 and with the single exception of ,vandyck1 unimportant followers4 ,in ,holland it was just the reverse4 ,perhaps it was the result of some vital difference in temperament between the ,flemings and the ,dutchmen1 such as caused the one country to embrace the severer1 soberer religion of ,protestantism1 while the other clung to the more ancient creed of ,rome1 with its strong appeal to the senses2 at any rate1 it seems characteristic that line-engraving1 with its capacity for reproducing qualities of splendour and spacious action1 should have found in ,antwerp its most effective1 various1 and brilliant exposition1 while the plainer1 more self-contained1 more intense spirit of the great ,dutchmen developed the more personal1 intimate1 subtle art of etching1 as it had never been developed before4 ,but ,dutchmen1 no less than ,flemings1 felt the need for reproducing their designs1 and here arose a difficulty4 ,for etching is not1 in spite of modern successes1 so well adapted to reproduction as line-engraving is4 ,as we have said1 it was only a certain number of the ,dutchmen who divined this4 ,rembrandt1 of course1 perceived it2 and though he spread his fame by working steadily on copper as well as on canvas1 he made his etched work independent of his painting and never a simple reproduction of pictures4 ,lesser men had not the intelligence to do as he did2 and many of the artists of whom we shall treat1 though they produced fine work on copper1 cannot be esteemed true etchers4 ,we will begin our studies with one who was1 beyond dispute1 a born etcher1 ,ostade4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #e4--,man and ,woman ,conversing4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #cg4 ,,ostade ,,and ,,his ,,school ,i ,adriaen van ,ostade was born in ,haarlem1 at the end of #afaj4 ,the researches of ,dr4 ,van der ,willigen have placed this fact beyond doubt1 and the old tradition of his having been born at ,lbeck must therefore be set aside4 ,in the baptismal register for ,december #aj1 #afaj1 there is entered the name of ,adriaen1 son of ,jan ,hendricx1 of ,eyndhoven1 and of ,janneke ,hendriksen4 ,on the #bnd of ,june1 #afba1 the birth of ,isack1 son of the same parents1 is recorded4 ,these dates have always been associated with the births of the brothers ,ostade1 and there are other grounds for identifying them with the ,adriaen and ,isack just mentioned4 ,jan ,hendricx was a weaver1 and in consequence of the religious persecutions of the time1 left his native ,eyndhoven1 a village in ,north ,brabant1 for ,haarlem4 ,this was some time before #afje1 for in that year1 already a burgess of the town1 he married4 ,he had several children2 and in a document of #afej1 two of them are mentioned as brother and sister to ,adriaen and ,isack1 who are thus proved to have been his sons4 ,the name of ,ostade was taken from a hamlet close to ,eyndhoven4 ,adriaen is first mentioned with this surname as a member of the civic guard1 in #afcf4 ,haarlem1 ,m4 ,vosmaer has said1 is in two things like ,florence4 ,it is a city of flowers and a city of artists4 ,its archives show that from an early time the arts flourished and were fostered there4 ,money was never grudged for fine work in every branch of skilful industry1 no less than for good painting and good sculpture4 ,the goldsmith1 the potter1 the leather-worker1 the stone-cutter1 could find employment for their powers and remuneration worth their skill4 ,haarlem was1 in fact1 a type of those busy and prosperous cities where it seems that art thrives best2 for though art and commerce are often supposed to have a natural disagreement1 history shows them to have been the most apt companions4 ,but the city of ,dierick ,bouts1 of ,albert van ,ouwater1 of ,jan ,scorel1 was at the time of ,ostade's birth1 in a condition even more favourable for the production of fine work than it had been in the fifteenth and following centuries4 ,in #aegc occurred the famous siege by the ,spaniards4 ,those who had borne the burden of those terrible days were now growing old2 but the young generation received and handed on their heroic memories1 unembittered by thoughts of loss1 suffering1 or defeat4 ,and when1 in #afji1 peace came1 and the ,united ,provinces1 acknowledged by ,spain1 turned to enjoy their victorious repose1 there was added the sense of triumph to that of trials endured4 ,it was the great time for ,holland4 ,her soldiers were famed as the finest in ,europe4 ,her navy was the most powerful1 the best-manned4 ,her cities grew1 and wealth poured into them4 ,a universal well-being pervaded the country1 and a spirit of joy and of expansion1 like the glow of health1 diffused itself in the citizens4 ,it was natural that art1 too1 should feel this new influence4 ,and in ,haarlem1 where the siege had destroyed so much of the old town1 and modern buildings of warm red brick had sprung round the vast surviving monument of the middle ages1 the ,groote ,kerk of ,st4 ,bavon2 in ,haarlem especially1 a new spirit1 intensely modern1 began to possess the rising painters4 ,from art which lavished its parade of dexterity on the old mythological fables1 handled without heart or meaning1 from the smooth and pallid conventionalities of ,cornelis ,corneliszoon1 and the extravagant cleverness of ,goltzius1 these men turned to the life that was around them4 ,among them were artists like ,jan de ,bray1 ,esaias van de ,velde1 ,dirk and ,frans ,hals4 ,it was in the studio of ,frans ,hals that the young ,ostade learnt to paint4 ,already in #afaf1 ,hals had painted his superb group of the civic guard1 and was now in the fulness of his extraordinary power4 ,the exuberant joy and energy1 the confident sincerity1 the swift and certain touch1 intimate with realities1 that marked ,hals1 were typical of the country and the time4 ,life--that is the ,illustration3 ,fig4 #f4--,the ,barn4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #bc4 absolute necessity for such an artist3 for him everything that has life is a possible subject1 a possible realm to conquer4 ,a subject that he cannot feel1 as well as conceive1 his instinct rejects at once4 ,a great pride of life is what characterises ,hals' pictures human life in all its fulness he accepts3 unhindered by the shrinkings of more fastidious natures1 he enjoys with a robust enjoyment4 ,it is the same also with ,ostade2 but the pupil was too individual an artist to repeat his master4 ,ostade felt1 perhaps1 that he could never rival those magnificent portrait-groups1 and his own preferences1 his own gifts1 led him to a different choice of subject4 ,perhaps some who have seen ,ostade's pictures and found them coarse and ignoble1 have imagined the painter of them to be equally coarse and ignoble-looking as his boors4 ,his portrait shows him a man of somewhat severe1 keen countenance1 in plain attire2 a grave man1 one would say1 with humour lurking in his gravity1 as often happens2 it is a portrait that might be taken for that of an ,englishman of the ,commonwealth4 ,ostade was1 in fact1 a well-to-do citizen of the middle class4 ,his collection of pictures1 sold at his death in #afhe1 was1 as we know from the ,haarlem ,gazette1 extensive2 and the fact that it contained two hundred of his own paintings1 proves that he was1 unlike so many of his compeers1 far removed from want4 ,of ,ostade's life1 apart from his production1 we know almost nothing4 ,he was a member of the ,oude ,schuts1 the ancient and honourable ,company of ,arquebusiers4 ,he was married twice2 first1 in #afcf1 to ,machtelgen ,pietersen1 who died in #afdb2 and again to a second wife1 whose name is not known1 by whom he had a girl1 ,johanna ,maria4 ,this daughter married a surgeon1 ,dirk van der ,stoel1 into whose hands ,ostade's etched plates and proofs passed at his death4 ,in #afdg and #affa ,ostade is mentioned as a member of the government of the ,guild4 ,in #affb1 he was dean of the ,guild4 ,an incident of his earlier years is of interest1 as showing his liberal spirit4 ,in #afdb he joined ,salomon ,ruysdael1 at a meeting of the ,guild1 in protesting against the policy of protection1 which inspired ,haarlem ,guild1 like many others1 to oppose the importation of works of art from other towns or their sale in ,haarlem4 ,ostade seems never to have travelled1 like many of his countrymen1 beyond the borders of ,holland1 nor ever to have changed his home1 except from one street of ,haarlem to another4 ,he died in #afhe4 ,on an early afternoon of ,may his body was carried from his house in the ,kuis-straat to the ,groote ,kerk1 a little company of his friends following4 ,,ii ,with most of the ,dutch artists1 etching was a subordinate accomplishment1 and their work on copper is but a less interesting reflection of their work on canvas4 ,this cannot be said of ,ostade4 ,as with ,rembrandt1 his etched work is the complement1 rather than a supplement merely1 of his painting4 ,to the present writer1 indeed1 his etchings have more interest than his pictures4 ,the latter are numerous2 they may be seen in almost all galleries of importance1 and the reader is doubtless familiar with their characteristics4 ,delightful as they often are1 they do not rival those of ,adriaen ,brouwer1 who was by four years ,ostade's senior1 and who1 though born a ,fleming1 worked mostly in ,holland1 and entered ,hals' studio at the same time4 ,there are a few plates attributed to ,brouwer2 but1 if genuine1 these show that he never thoroughly mastered the technique of etching2 none of them approaches the least successful plates of ,ostade4 ,brouwer as a painter1 on the other hand1 surpasses beyond question all the painters of peasant life1 whether of ,holland or of ,flanders4 ,ostade does not manage paint with the freedom of a great master1 but his drawing is always superb4 ,the drawing reproduced 7,fig4 #c7 is a characteristic specimen4 ,it is the end of a game of backgammon4 ,the game is won1 but the defeated player refuses to accept his defeat without a careful scrutiny4 ,in the attitudes1 the gestures of players and onlookers1 everything is vital2 the moment is admirably caught4 ,there is an etching also of a game of backgammon1 but it does not directly illustrate the drawing4 ,ostade did1 however1 make use of sketches for his etchings4 ,there is in the ,british ,museum a sketch for ,the ,father of a ,family 7,b4 #cc74 ,a comparison of this with the etched plate is interesting4 ,there is a certain affinity to ,rembrandt in the manner of drawing2 less summary and swift1 but masterful and free4 ,and1 like ,rembrandt1 ,ostade does not use his sketch as a finished thing1 and copy it faithfully and minutely4 ,his ,illustration3 ,fig4 #g4--,the ,humpbacked ,fiddler4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #dd4 interest in the subject has not died out2 he is alert for a new posture1 a fresh touch1 a livelier handling of some part of his design1 that may improve the whole4 ,in this case the drawing1 which is of a different shape from the print and much broader1 contains at the left the figure of a man seated and cutting a loaf of bread on his knees4 ,ostade felt that this figure disturbed the unity of the piece no less than the sense of home seclusion1 and he omitted it from his work on the copper4 ,this reveals the born etcher3 one who works with directness1 swiftness1 passion2 whose needle takes the impulse of his thought immediately1 who never works in cold blood4 ,,iii ,let us now consider the etchings themselves4 ,there are just fifty in all1 and nine or perhaps ten of the number are dated4 ,the earliest date is #afdg1 the latest #afgh4 ,arranging the dated plates in order of time1 we get the following table4 ,the references are to the numbers in ,bartsch1 ,peintre-,graveur1 ,vol4 ,i43-- #afdg4 ,the ,hurdy-,gurdy ,player4 ,b4 #h4 ,the ,barn4 ,b4 #bc4 ,the ,family4 ,b4 #df4 #afdh4 ,the ,father of the ,family4 ,b4 #cc4 #afeb4 ,the ,wife ,spinning4 ,b4 #ca4 #afec4 ,the ,tavern ,brawl4 ,b4 #ah4 ,saying ,grace4 ,b4 #cd4 #afga4 ,the ,cobbler4 ,b4 #bg4 #afgh4a ,the ,child and the ,doll4 ,b4 #af4 ,to this may possibly be added ,the ,humpbacked ,fiddler 7,b4 #dd74 ,neither ,bartsch nor ,dutuit appears to have noticed a date on this plate2 but it seems clear that it is there1 following the signature1 though obscured by lines4 ,the writer inclines to decipher it as #afca or #afea2 but it is impossible to be positive on the point4 ,these data would doubtless serve many critics with material for constructing a chronological list of the whole of the etchings4 ,but this amusement shall be left to the reader4 ,the etchings1 as a matter of fact1 do not present any marked variety of treatment4 ,ostade was not1 like ,rembrandt1 a master of many styles2 nor did he develop any particular style by continually surpassing his own successes4 ,we can only say that he seems to have attained his greatest mastery in a middle period1 about #afej4 ,the ,wife ,spinning of #afeb is not followed by any dated piece that at all rivals it4 ,the ,cobbler of #afga1 for instance1 which was a failure in the first biting1 betrays also a certain languor of handling1 very different from the inexhaustible care and skill bestowed on the earlier plate4 ,this inference is confirmed by what we know of ,ostade's work on canvas4 ,his first period dates from #afcj to #afce2 then follows a middle period in which1 influenced by ,rembrandt1 he adopted a warmer scheme of colour2 lastly1 in a third period1 he began to repeat himself and decline4 ,beyond such general deductions it does not seem worth while to go4 ,in ,rembrandt's case the question of chronology is of extreme interest and significance1 but in ,ostade there is no development to speak of1 and to labour after exhibiting it would be waste of time4 ,next1 as to the various states of the etchings4 ,the reverence for first states and rare states1 common to collectors1 has from their point of view its own justification2 but they are apt perhaps sometimes to confuse the sthetic value of a print with its market value4 ,artists1 on the other hand1 are sometimes prone to dismiss the whole question of states as tedious and absurd4 ,it is1 however1 of great importance that the etcher should be judged on his own merits and not on the merits1 or demerits1 of other people4 ,ostade undoubtedly made alterations in his plates during printing and thus created 8states02 but many more states were created after his death by other hands re-working the worn copper4 ,it is reasonable to suppose that the last state touched by the artist is the one that he would wish to be taken as typical of his perfect work4 ,but the question arises3 ,which is the last state touched by the artist8 ,the work of later hands1 added to a plate after the artist's death1 does not concern us2 but the development of the etching up to that state when the artist leaves it as a finished thing1 must interest us greatly4 ,how are we to decide8 ,in the case of ,ostade1 we are helped a little by external data4 ,as we ,illustration3 ,fig4 #h4--,peasant paying his ,reckoning4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #db4 have seen1 the plates were sold at his death in #afhe4 ,we know also that they were sold again by their new possessor1 ,dirk van der ,stoel1 ,ostade's son-in-law1 in #afhf2 and eight years later again1 in #afid4 ,what state they were in then we can only conjecture3 but we may infer something from what we know to have been their state in #agaj or a little later4 ,in the year just mentioned a ,french engraver1 ,bernard ,picart1 arrived in ,holland2 and some time after his arrival he published a collection of the etched work of ,ostade and of his pupil ,bega4 ,the book of ,ostade's etchings was bought1 perhaps on its publication1 by ,hans ,sloane3 and through him it has passed into the possession of the ,british ,museum4 ,whoever examines it will notice at once the inequality of the plates3 some are worn and harshly retouched1 some are passable1 a few are even good4 ,something of this is due to the delicately-worked plates1 giving out sooner than those more coarsely etched4 ,probably also some were more in demand than others4 ,thus1 to take a few examples3 while ,the ,painter in ,his ,studio 7,b4 #cb7 is in the tenth and last state1 and ,peasant ,paying ,his ,reckoning 7,b4 #db7 is in the seventh or last but one1 ,the ,dance in the ,tavern 7,b4 #di7 is in the fourth out of seven states in all1 and ,the ,empty ,jug 7,b4 #ae7 in the fourth out of eight states in all4 ,and several of the smaller plates are still in the second state4 ,in determining therefore the extent to which later hands have worked on the etchings1 each must be considered separately4 ,only in a few cases1 probably1 are those in ,picart's edition still in the condition left by the master himself2 and most seem to have been retouched more than once4 ,every one will judge for himself the precise point at which new work comes in3 and opinion will always differ on such questions4 ,as ,ostade was not always successful in his first biting1 the second state is generally the most representative4 ,peasant ,paying ,his ,reckoning is a very different thing in ,picart's edition from the brilliant second state of the same etching4 ,the student of ,ostade will find ,dutuit's book#b indispensable3 it contains all that was known of the etchings and their different impressions up to the year of its publication4 ,and the author's own collection was perhaps unrivalled4 ,nevertheless1 it is not perfect4 ,the states are described with an extraordinary superfluity of detail1 and the one or two differentiating circumstances are buried in a mass of irrelevant description4 ,verification is therefore a matter of time and labour4 ,there are also a few states still undescribed4 ,still1 for those who have an appetite for 8states10 ,dutuit is very satisfying4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #i--,saying ,grace4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #cd4 ,,iv ,ostade's etched work is1 considered as etching1 unequal4 ,sometimes1 as for instance in ,the ,cobbler 7,b4 #bg71 the first biting was not a success2 at other times1 as in the ,man ,laughing 7,b4 #d71 the ,saying ,grace 7,b4 #cd71 or the ,fiddlers 7,b4 #de71 the plate has been over-bitten4 ,the plate which ,bartsch calls ,la ,fileuse 7,the ,wife ,spinning4 ,b4 #ca7 ,plate ,i41 is one which represents very fully some of ,ostade's characteristic excellences as an etcher4 ,it is a fine example of his success in bathing his subject in atmosphere4 ,one feels the quiet afternoon warmth upon the cottage-front1 as the woman who spins feels it1 as the child feels it1 as the two basking pigs feel it4 ,that softness of air1 which in our northern climate gives even to the near trees a kind of impalpable look1 and which seems to clothe things with itself--that is what ,ostade has sought to render with mere etched lines2 and he has triumphed over immense difficulties4 ,his figures detach themselves with a wonderful reality1 with no hard brilliancy1 no superfluous shadows4 ,there is a fine absence of cleverness in such quiet mastery of means4 ,more remarkable still is the little plate 7,b4 #db7 which is reproduced in ,fig4 #h4 ,the amount of knowledge1 of feeling for light and shadow1 of subtle and sure draughtsmanship in this small etching is astonishing4 ,the problem of painting daylight as it is diffused in a room through the window1 which1 of all painters in the world1 ,jan ,vermeer and ,pieter de ,hooch1 and1 in a different way1 ,rembrandt and ,ostade himself1 have most fully mastered1 is here attacked in etching1 and with extraordinary success4 ,what seems strange is that a problem so fascinating1 one which had evidently a strong seduction for ,ostade in his painting1 should have been attempted by him so rarely in his etchings4 ,the ,painter in his ,studio 7,b4 #cb7 is another success in the same line1 while the ,players at ,backgammon 7,b4 #ci7 is partly a failure1 through the biting having gone wrong4 ,but1 as a rule1 ,ostade prefers out-of-door effects4 ,none of the etchings quite rivals1 in the writer's judgment at least1 this little plate1 ,peasant ,paying his ,reckoning4 ,but there are several typical small pieces which have a great charm4 ,the ,spectacle-seller 7,b4 #bb1 ,fig4 #a71 for instance1 is an admirable composition1 and the ,illustration etching rich4 ,the ,humpbacked ,fiddler 7,b4 #dd1 ,fig4 #g71 and the ,man and ,woman ,conversing 7,b4 #be1 ,fig4 #e71 though the needle has been used somewhat differently in each1 have similar merit4 ,but the plates that interest1 perhaps1 most1 are not always those which are etched the best4 ,the chief glory of ,ostade is his imaginative draughtsmanship1 and akin to this are his vivid human sympathy and his humour4 ,these are not so manifest in the plates we have mentioned as in some others4 ,but before passing to those pieces which show these qualities at their ,illustration3 ,fig4 #aj4--,the ,angler4 ,by ,ostade4 ,b4 #bf4 best1 let us notice one which is unlike any of the others4 ,this is ,the ,barn 7,b4 #bh1 ,fig4 #f74 ,had the execution of this plate matched the feeling it evinces1 it would have been a fine achievement4 ,who does not know the strange1 vague impression which such a barn as this produces on the mind8 ,the cool dimness1 the mysterious shadow among the rafters1 penetrated here and there by soft rays1 the atmosphere of the farm1 scent of hay1 cries of fowls1 mingling in a sense of imperturbable antiquity--all exhale an intangible emotion impossible to express in language1 but which a painting or an etching could well convey4 ,ostade has conceived his subject finely2 but the acid and the needle have imperfectly seconded his design4 ,rembrandt would have given us out of such material a memorable plate indeed4 ,but let us not deny ,ostade his due4 ,much in the piece is admirable3 note especially the softness with which the light comes through the chinks on to the hay4 ,in ,the ,angler 7,b4 #bf1 ,fig4 #aj7 the difficulties attempted are less great1 and there seems little wanting to entire success4 ,here ,ostade's human interest is engaged1 and whenever this is so1 he is great4 ,the stationary posture1 the muscular habit of the angler1 with lax body but firm wrist1 is perfectly given2 as is the slackening of the line1 the indolent gaze of the boy leaning on the rail1 and the sleepy impression of a still summer day without breezes4 ,it is in such expressive drawing of the human body that ,ostade shows himself a master4 ,the delighted eagerness of the baby in ,fig4 #d2 the jerk of its short limbs and crowing of its lips2 or in ,the ,music ,party 7,b4 #cj71 the boisterous1 maudlin pleasure of the man who sits in the chair1 beating time with his hand to the laborious scraping of the fiddler1 catching what he can of the score1 with what humour and expression are these portrayed6 ,one hears the terrible discord and the cheerful thump of the peasant's fist accompanying it4 ,another piece of imaginative drawing is ,the ,brawl 7,b4 #ah74 ,the loose1 ineffectual1 lurching stroke of the drunken man1 the startled effort of the fat man as he springs up from his barrel1 the terror of the woman clasping her baby closer1 the mingled fear1 anger1 and surprise of the little man who has provoked the quarrel and prepares to defend himself--all are excellent4 ,the same qualities pervade ,ostade's largest plate1 the ,dance in the ,tavern 7,b4 #di71 which also shows his extraordinary art in composition at its best4 ,there are people1 and perhaps always will be1 who find in work such as ,ostade's nothing but vulgarity4 ,and some1 who cannot help enjoying his fine drawing1 find themselves repelled by his choice of subjects4 ,it seems difficult to understand this repulsion4 ,for in his etchings1 at any rate1 ,ostade shows no exclusive preference for the coarse and sordid4 ,mr4 ,hamerton has accused him of deadness of heart and apathy of intellect1 and declares him to be insensitive to all that is best among the poor4 ,but is this quite true8 ,an accomplished lady some time ago wrote an essay in condemnation of the 8vulgarity0 of ,john ,leech and ,charles ,keene in certain of their drawings for ,punch4 ,such criticism seems to argue an excessive delicacy or a deficiency of humour4 ,ostade's range was limited1 compared with that of those two great artists1 but as a draughtsman he is in the same order with them2 and in the writer's judgment he is equally free from that dulness which has no sense for the fine or rare in men and things1 that acceptance of the common price1 the common standard1 which are the attributes of real vulgarity4 ,look1 for instance1 at the etching reproduced 7,fig4 #i74 ,the subject has been the theme of many painters and engravers4 ,it is a subject easily spoiled2 a little too much of sentimental piety1 a little too much of satirical mockery1 and the theme is made trivial or obvious4 ,but ,ostade's feeling is just right4 ,there is no drawing of a trite moral1 as1 for instance1 in the treatment of the same subject by a later engraver1 ,nicholas van ,haeften4 ,nor is there a hint of mockery at the discrepancy between the 8good things0 for which ,heaven is thanked and the humble pottage on the table4 ,but is there not1 besides the wonderful sensitiveness of drawing in the figures1 which makes one feel how the toil-hardened1 clumsy hands tremble awkwardly as they are clasped1 and how the boy1 though his back is turned1 is shutting his eyes resolutely tight--is there not also a tenderness1 a dignity in the whole8 ,again1 in the little plate1 ,the ,child and ,doll1 is there not true feeling1 expressed with a fine reticence1 in the mother's face and in the child's8 ,the careful fondness of the mother is even better expressed in another etching1 where she hands a baby down to the eager arms of its elder sister1 a child of six or seven1 who receives it with joyful pride4 ,the drawing reminds one of some of the exquisitely humorous and exquisitely tender sketches of ,leech4 ,v ,it is when we come to the work of his pupils1 ,bega and ,dusart1 that we realise best ,ostade's finer qualities4 ,cornelis ,pietersz ,bega was born at ,haarlem in #afbj1 and died there of the plague in #affd1 fully twenty years before his master4 ,according to ,houbraken's story1 his real name was ,begyn1 which he changed to ,bega after being turned out of his father's house for his youthful escapades4 ,the story is not incredible of such a youth as he appears in his portrait1 gay and somewhat vain-looking1 with long curling locks4 ,bega's etchings are thirty-eight in number1 and have a very distinctive air4 ,certain characteristics seem to indicate that his original bent was towards a decorative treatment of his subject4 ,his drawings show a care for the happy disposition of drapery1 remarkable in this school4 ,he has a feeling for large design1 combined with great indifference to human character4 ,but such treatment was alien to the ,dutch school in general2 nor did ,dutch peasants lend themselves at all willingly1 so it seems1 to passive decoration4 ,certainly a pupil of ,ostade's would have no encouraging influences to help him forward on such lines4 ,so1 though ,bega adopts in part the themes and general handling of his teacher1 the rather flat design which he affects1 his frankly artificial chiaroscuro1 his use of light and shadow as masses of black and white rather than as opportunities of mystery1 contrast strongly with ,ostade's solid modelling1 his pervading atmosphere1 and his pre-occupying human interest4 ,one perceives that the master's influence could not altogether swamp the pupil's natural impulse3 but neither wins the day1 and the result is an unsatisfying compromise4 ,the ,tavern 7,fig4 #aa7 is a very characteristic plate4 ,it is very brilliant1 and makes a powerful impression at first sight4 ,but it does not bear close study4 ,there is a want of subtlety in it1 and a want of feeling2 a certain hardness1 combined with a certain cleverness1 that repels4 ,bega's two other large plates1 also of tavern scenes1 reveal just the same qualities1 and need not be further particularised4 ,in technical character1 these etchings recall the ,spanish etcher ,goya1 who was also fond of producing a sharp1 vivid1 emphatic effect by a similar artificial manner of lighting4 ,not improbably ,bega's etchings may have been known to ,goya1 and given him a suggestion4 ,bega had apparently no tenderness1 and little or no interest in ,illustration3 ,fig4 #aa4--,the ,tavern4 ,by ,bega4 ,b4 #cb4 humanity4 ,this deficiency1 in one of the ,dutch school1 and trained in the ,dutch tradition1 is notable4 ,one has only to turn from his mother and baby sitting by the window 7,b4 #ba7 to ,ostade's ,child and ,doll1 to feel what a difference lies between the two4 ,cornelis ,dusart was a much later scholar4 ,at ,bega's death he was only a child of four1 and he survived ,ostade many years1 living on till #agjd4 ,when ,ostade died1 he finished his master's uncompleted pictures1 but kept them till his death in his own possession4 ,some of ,dusart's etchings1 as for instance ,the ,village ,fte 7,b4 #af7 have a pleasing effect1 with well-managed light and shade2 but they cannot be compared with the similar pieces by ,ostade1 whose method is here carried on1 but in an inferior manner4 ,yet he has a vein of his own1 a gross1 riotous1 extravagant vein1 with a great fondness for violent action4 ,in the plate called by ,bartsch ,le ,violon ,assis 7,b4 #ae71 which was too large to be reproduced here1 his specific qualities appear to great advantage4 ,one seems to hear an hilarious din merely from looking at it4 ,the fiddler plays with a wild fantastic energy2 one peasant accompanies him with crashing tankard and roaring chorus2 another sits bent and sullen with his head on his hands4 ,the landlord1 with huge frame and round paunch1 looks on with twinkling eyes4 ,a woman by the great chimney1 on which hangs the notice of a sale of tulips and hyacinths1 8,tulpaan en ,hyacinthen10 calls a child to her4 ,the roomy background with its beams and rafters1 is drawn and lighted with extraordinary skill4 ,as a page of daily life1 fresh and vivid1 this etching deserves the fullest praise4 ,dusart in his later years devoted himself to mezzotint1 and produced a great deal in this manner4 ,these engravings1 some of which represent in ,dusart's extravagant way1 the joy in ,holland at the taking of ,namur in #afie by ,william ,,iii41 are more interesting historically than artistically4 ,it was not till the middle of next century that mezzotint1 the invention of which does not date from much earlier than ,dusart's birth1 reached its perfection in the hands of the ,english engravers4 ,,the ,,etchers ,,of ,,landscape ,i ,the seventeenth century1 which inaugurated so much that is characteristic in modern art1 permitted for the first time the recognition of landscape as a subject worthy for its own sake of painting4 ,and feeling for landscape seems to be almost entirely a modern thing4 ,drawings of landscape by ,titian and ,campagnola among the ,italians1 and by ,drer among the ,germans1 had indicated the first beginnings of a preference2 and there are a certain number of landscape subjects among the engraved work of the ,little ,masters4 ,but these are occasional efforts by men whose chief work lay in other lines4 ,in painting no one ventured as yet to concentrate his interest on the landscape1 and though men like the ,flemish ,joachim ,patinir evidently cared more for their backgrounds of mountain and river than for the human incidents which relieve them1 they had not the courage to cast away compromise and brave authority by omitting the traditional foreground4 ,rubens is the first great ,northern master who paints landscape with entire and frank abandonment to the subject4 ,the broad prospects and swelling undulations of ,flemish country are painted by him with a kind of glory that reflects his large and joyous mind4 ,lodowyck de ,vadder and ,lucas van ,uden1 his contemporaries1 etched landscape for the first time in ,flanders4 ,but it was in ,holland that this line was most abundantly developed4 ,to tranquil1 observant natures1 such as seem typical of the nation1 there was in landscape a strong appeal1 a permanent delight4 ,the majority of the ,dutch etchers found here their chief material4 ,,ii ,earliest1 perhaps1 of all ,dutch landscape painters1 and almost certainly earliest among ,dutch landscape etchers1 is a little known artist1 ,hercules ,seghers4 ,a mystery hangs over him2 for though there is documentary evidence in an inventory of #afbe or thereabouts1 that he painted a considerable number of landscapes1 these pictures have nearly all disappeared4 ,some1 doubtless1 may be lurking under other names2 one1 called a ,rembrandt1 was discovered some time ago at ,florence2 one is at ,berlin2 but this can hardly account for all4 ,we can only guess what they were like from the etchings1 which are usually either views ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ab4--,tobias and the ,angel4 ,by ,h4 ,seghers4 ,m4 #bcf4 of ,holland with vast horizons1 or strange visions of wild and mountainous country4 ,seghers was born in #aehi1c and died in #afej4 ,a scholar of ,gillis van ,connincxloo1 he was producing work as early as #afjg1 and from that date to #afcj seems to have been his chief period of activity4#d ,his life1 like that of several of the ,dutch masters1 was a long and hopeless struggle against poverty4 ,he is said to have become a drunkard1 and to have died from the effects of a fall4 ,dr4 ,bredius1 judging apparently from his work1 thinks that he must have visited the ,alps1 travelled into ,italy1 and found a stimulus in the art of ,adam ,elsheimer4 ,certainly the rocky landscapes which appear in the etchings could have no archetypes in ,holland4 ,but there is so strong a vein of the fantastic in them1 that it is difficult to believe they were done from nature1 especially when one observes how precise a pencil ,seghers uses when he sketches his native country4 ,however1 truth to mountain formation is anything but an easy thing to seize2 only by incessant training and close observation does the eye acquire it2 and to draw rocks imaginatively1 that is1 with vivid realisation of their essential forms1 is scarcely possible to one who has not the work of predecessors to learn from and to surpass1 and whose eye has not dwelt upon them from childhood4 ,one may imagine1 therefore1 that the efforts of a lowlander1 to whom mountains must have had something visionary and strange in their aspect1 would be halting1 laborious1 and confused in grappling with such unfamiliar material4 ,the rocks painted by ,patinir are a case in point4 ,this may well explain the singular shortcomings of ,seghers' rendering of rocks and mountains4 ,in his attempts to represent floating clouds on the mountain sides he is simply grotesque4 ,if1 then1 it was actual scenery that ,seghers etched1 where is that scenery to be found8 ,it is certainly not the ,alps1 and though one or two plates suggest the ,tyrol1 the landscape is most like in character to the ,karst district on the eastern shores of the ,adriatic4 ,one of the etchings might almost stand for the rock-surrounded plain of ,cettinj1 in ,montenegro1 though to infer that ,seghers travelled to so remote a country would be a wild conjecture4 ,there can be no doubt1 on the other hand1 of the influence of ,elsheimer over ,seghers1 and through him1 over ,rembrandt4 ,in the ,national ,gallery there is a picture by ,elsheimer representing ,tobias and the ,angel1 in a wooded landscape4 ,this was engraved by ,elsheimer's friend1 ,count de ,goudt1 and either from the picture or the engraving1#e ,seghers borrowed the main features of one of his etchings 7,fig4 #ab74 ,the two chief figures have been retained almost unaltered2 but their being placed higher up in the picture makes a considerable change in the composition1 they have more dignity and significance4 ,the elimination1 also1 of some rather trivial details1 such as the great flowers in the foreground1 and the passing figures in the middle distance1 make for the same effect4 ,a kind of mystery and solemnity have been added to the landscape1 and in fact the impression of the whole is deepened and enlarged4 ,the subject has been fused in ,seghers' mind and has become his own4 ,at his death1 ,seghers' effects1 including his etched plates1 were sold4 ,among the buyers of these latter were1 apparently1 ,antoni ,waterloo and ,rembrandt4 ,waterloo published some of ,seghers' landscapes with his own1 and it has been assumed by ,dutuit that these impressions were from the earlier artist's plates1 re-worked4 ,comparison of one of the original etchings1 however1 with that published by ,waterloo of the same subject1 leads the writer to doubt this4 ,the work is entirely different4 ,rembrandt1 we know from the inventory of his effects taken in #afef1 bought six of ,seghers' landscapes1 and he also bought the copper on which had been etched the ,tobias and the ,angel4 ,it was re-worked by ,rembrandt1 and it now appears in ,rembrandt's work as a ,flight into ,egypt4#f 7,see ,fig4 #ac47 ,the dark wooded landscape remains unaltered1 and though the ,holy ,family and a group of trees now occupy the right hand of the scene1 the great wing of the angel is still distinctly to be seen above them1 and ,tobias's legs have not been perfectly erased4 ,rembrandt1 we may be sure1 would never have taken another man's work unless he had found in it a strong appeal to his own nature4 ,and ,seghers seems to have been his prototype in landscape4 ,on the one hand1 the mysterious1 darkly wooded1 mountainous visions of ,seghers suggest the type of landscape in which ,rembrandt set1 for instance1 his own ,tobias and the ,angel1#g a type which he was fond of reproducing4 ,on the other hand1 ,seghers' love for the vast distances of ,holland1 crowded plains with broad rivers winding into an infinite horizon1 appears again in some of ,rembrandt's etchings1 and more notably still in those spacious prospects1 8escapes for the mind0 as ,mr4 ,pater has called them1 of ,rembrandt's pupil1 the most truly ,dutch and perhaps the greatest1 of all the landscape painters of ,holland--,philip de ,koninck4 ,to return to ,seghers' etchings4 ,there is something about them which arrests the eye at once1 and this is partly due to their peculiar printing4 ,seghers was a born maker of experiments1 and in nearly all his plates sought to get an effect of colour4 ,in fact1 it is usually asserted ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ac4--,the ,flight into ,egypt4 ,by ,rembrandt4 ,m4 #bcf4 that he anticipated1 by a hundred years1 the coloured engravings of ,leblond4 ,printing in colour from two or more blocks had been practised by wood-engravers long before this time4 ,burgkmair and ,cranach in ,germany1 ,ugo da ,carpi and ,andrea ,andreani in ,italy1 had produced a number of these 8chiaroscuros10 as they are called1 with charming effect4 ,this was about the beginning of the sixteenth century4 ,and almost in ,seghers' own time1 ,hendrik ,goltzius1 of ,haarlem1 published some of his best work from coloured wood-blocks4 ,but in all of these cases1 at least two1 and often three separate blocks were used1 and the colours superimposed on each other4 ,this was also the procedure of ,leblond1 though he used metal plates and mezzotint4 ,seghers1 however1 employed a single plate only1 and his effects are not due to what is usually understood as colour printing4 ,he first prepared his paper with a coat of paint1 which formed the ground2 in some cases this was a greenish tint4 ,he then etched his subject and printed it in an indigo ink2 and in order to procure shading of the same colour1 he lightly scratched the parts to be shaded with the dry-point1 so that the copper held the ink on its surface4 ,by this simple means he produced an apparently complex effect4#h ,the green tint and dark-blue ink are1 of course1 only taken as a specimen1 for ,seghers used various colours4 ,sometimes the impressions are printed on linen4 ,in one case the etching is printed in white on a brown ground4 ,besides views of ,dutch plains and of mountain scenery1 ,seghers also etched trees2 not with great success1 but with a striving after truth of foliage very rare in his day4 ,now and then1 too1 he attempted buildings1 and with a real feeling for the romantic1 for picturesque beauty1 in architecture4 ,on the whole1 we must allow an important place in the history of ,dutch landscape to ,hercules ,seghers4 ,but that must not prevent us from perceiving that it is an historical importance only4 ,seghers opened up the road1 but he achieved no eminent triumph himself4 ,nor1 in spite of his suggestiveness for ,rembrandt and ,de ,koninck1 does he seem to have exercised any great influence on the landscape etchers who immediately succeeded him4 ,he has no affinity with the men whose work we must now consider4 ,,iii ,the two diverging tendencies of ,dutch art1 that which fed on the ,italian tradition and that which clung to the native soil1 are both to some extent represented in ,seghers4 ,leaving for a time the ,italianised masters1 let us follow the main development of ,dutch landscape art1 the painters and etchers whom ,holland alone inspired4 ,the first names of note are those of ,esaias and ,jan van de ,velde4 ,jan was born in #aeif1 ,esaias a few years earlier4 ,of the former we shall say something later on4 ,he produced a great deal of work1 the most remarkable part of which is a number of plates engraved and etched in the manner of ,elsheimer4 ,it is by these plates that he is best known1 and through them he ranks as one of the ,italianised school4 ,as1 however1 he etched a certain number of purely ,dutch landscapes1 after the designs probably of his brother1 he must also be mentioned here4 ,these landscapes are mostly sets of traditional subjects1 such as the sixteenth century loved3 ,the ,four ,elements1 ,the ,four ,seasons1 ,the ,twelve ,months4 ,always strongly overworked with the burin1 these etchings have a somewhat harsh and dry effect4 ,the harshness is especially noticeable in the treatment of foliage4 ,it is as if the artist were striving to reproduce with the etching-needle the manner of line-engraving as employed by the ,goltzius school4 ,failing to secure this he has recourse to the burin to supplement his incomplete success in etching4 ,esaias uses the acid in a much franker fashion4 ,a plate of his1 which we may take as representative1 depicts a whale cast on the shores of ,holland1 perhaps at ,scheveningen1 in #afad4 ,a great crowd has assembled on the beach staring at the stranded monster1 examining and measuring its vast proportions4 ,the dunes recede in the distance2 boats are at anchor in the surf4 ,the scene is treated with the plainness and sincerity characteristic of ,dutch art4 ,and the etching1 with its firmly and rather coarsely bitten lines1 unsophisticated by the burin1 has a solidity and simplicity not without attraction4 ,regarded as etching1 this is primitive work4 ,still it is genuine etching1 and by one who has perceived that needle and acid demand an employment and an aim different in kind from that of the graver4 ,it is interesting1 therefore1 to compare this plate with the line-engraving of a similar subject1 representing another whale stranded1 a few years before1 in #aeih1 by ,jacob ,matham1 the pupil of ,goltzius4 ,with the ,van de ,veldes it is natural to associate two contemporaries1 who with them helped to inaugurate the great age of ,dutch art2 ,pieter ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ad4--,three ,men under a ,tree4 ,by ,everdingen4 ,b4 #e4 ,molyn1 the elder1 and ,jan van ,goyen1 the latter born in the same year with ,jan van de ,velde4 ,molyn1 who was born in ,london1 but was working in ,haarlem before #afaf1 is an artist of real independence4 ,a set of etchings1 published in #afbf1 shows the same qualities that appear in his drawings--firm draughtsmanship1 openness and freedom of design1 and a fine economy of means4 ,heaths and moors1 a climbing country road with plodding waggon1 a wayside inn1 such were the simple elements which he translated into always distinguished work4 ,doubtless to ,molyn's teaching must be attributed something of that fine manner which imparts so much charm to the pictures of ,gerard ,ter ,borch1 his pupil4 ,dying in #afef1 ,molyn survived by a few years one who1 though not a pupil1 came certainly under his influence2 ,van ,goyen4 ,till lately ,van ,goyen1 perhaps because his works are better known1 was supposed to have been ,molyn's teacher1 or at least to have given a stimulus to his art4 ,van ,goyen shows more power in his drawings than in his paintings1 which are sometimes but little removed from sepia monochromes2 and it is a surprise to come1 here and there1 upon a picture of his which is bright and fresh4 ,the few etchings which he published are undated1 but belong1 according to ,dr4 ,lippman1 to his middle life1 #afbe-cj4 ,they ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ae4--,landscape in ,norway4 ,by ,everdingen4 ,b4 #ge4 have not the character of ,molyn's plates1 and are far less good as etchings4 ,simon de ,vlieger1 who ranks in date as a younger contemporary of the ,van de ,veldes and of ,molyn1 is more successful as an etcher in the few plates which he produced1 than any of the early landscape artists4 ,unhampered by the traditions of the line-engraver1 he aims at an effect at once delicate and free4 ,as a painter1 he is known almost entirely by sea-pieces1 silvery in tone1 from which ,jan van de ,cappelle drew something of his mastery over still effects at sea1 mornings of sleepy mist through which the sun breaks palely on the sails of anchored vessels4 ,like most of the ,dutch painters1 de ,vlieger changed his home several times4 ,born at ,rotterdam in #afjj1 he was at ,delft from #afcd to #afdj1 and from then till his death1 nineteen years later1 at ,amsterdam4 ,it seems probable that here he gave lessons to the young ,willem van de ,velde1 who was afterwards to be famous as the greatest of ,dutch sea-painters1 and who died at ,greenwich1 a ,court painter to ,charles ,,ii4 ,in his etchings1 which are undated1 de ,vlieger does not attempt the sea2 though one 7,b4 #aj71 a fine piece in its way1 is a scene on the sea-beach1 with fishermen and their haul4 ,the best of the plates are two ,sylvan pieces1 ,the ,wood by the ,canal 7,b4 #f71 and the ,grassy ,hill 7,b4 #g74 ,the foliage is more sensitively treated than it commonly is by ,dutch etchers1 and with more approach to delicate truth4 ,there is also a set of animals and poultry2 possibly one of the earliest sets of subjects of this kind1 which the middle of the century found so popular4 ,,iv ,with ,allardt van ,everdingen 7#afba-afge7 we reach a new element in ,dutch landscape4 ,working under ,pieter ,molyn at ,haarlem1 he began by painting marine subjects2 and with a view to increasing his knowledge of the sea1 took ship on the ,baltic4 ,but a storm drove him to ,norway2 and there for some time1 taking advantage of misfortune1 he lingered travelling and sketching4 ,before #afde1 however--that is before he was twenty-five1 ,everdingen was back in ,haarlem4 ,he now began to paint pictures from his ,norwegian sketches3 and to the ,dutch public this northern scenery disclosed a novel charm4 ,used to wide pastures and ample skies1 they found a romantic strangeness in tumbling streams among rocks and pine-forests1 where the sky was shut off by mountain slopes4 ,in #afeb ,everdingen removed to ,amsterdam1 where he remained till his death4 ,probably his fame had preceded him3 at any rate his popularity soon grew great there also1 and his canvases were much sought after4 ,besides numerous pictures1 the ,norwegian sketches provided the artist with material for a long series of etchings4 ,fig4 #ae is a very characteristic specimen of them4 ,without any extraordinary qualities1 they have often a genuine charm4 ,the ,norwegian landscape is treated with insight into its peculiar features1 and though ,everdingen fails entirely to suggest the rush and foam of torrents1 he makes fine use of the log cabins1 rafts1 and palings1 and etches pines with truth and spirit4 ,of a probably later date are the four views of a watering-place1 possibly ,spa1 one of which is here reproduced 7,fig4 #af74 ,the subject is ,illustration3 ,fig4 #af4--;,drinking the ,waters at ,spa4 ,by ,everdingen4 ,b4 #if4 interesting1 and the handling of the buildings and the groups of people is excellent4 ,everdingen was not without humour1 which is shown in the long series of illustrations to ,reynard the ,fox4 ,but most readers will probably find the chief interest of the artist to lie in his relations with a greater man1 ,ruisdael4 ,v ,though a native of ,haarlem1 ,jacob van ,ruisdael produced most of his life's work at ,amsterdam4 ,he is conjectured to have been born about #afbe2 the precise year has not been discovered4 ,his father ,isaak1 a frame-maker1 had him trained as a surgeon2 and it was not till after he had passed a course of surgery that he abandoned the profession for painting1 in which he had early shown his gift4 ,ruisdael's first pictures are dated #afdf1 and his works from that year to #afee1 his 8early period10 are nearly all views of ,haarlem and its neighbourhood4 ,thoroughly ,dutch in character1 they have little of that gloomy tone so frequent in the artist's later time4 ,the beautiful ,view of ,haarlem at the ,hague1 with its massed clouds and ray of sunshine gliding over the plain1 is a perfect example of this early manner4 ,with ,ruisdael's removal from ,haarlem1 a great change comes over his art4 ,there seems no doubt that his early ,dutch landscapes were not popular4 ,they were perhaps too original4 ,he came to ,amsterdam poor and without much reputation1 and he found there1 established in fame and popularity1 ,allardt van ,everdingen1 returned from ,norway and now attracting the world of buyers by his pictures of that wild and romantic country4 ,it was in #afeb1 as we have seen1 that ,everdingen settled in the city1 and three or four years later ,ruisdael arrived4 ,he did not become a burgess till #afei1 but had probably been already some years in residence before the formal inscription of his name4 ,from this period dates the lamentable change in ,ruisdael's art4 ,the master1 whose native independence is so marked that one is at a loss to name his probable teacher1 of his own will and in sheer mortification of spirit at his want of success1 forces himself from the meadows and dunes of his delight1 and invents1 to win the patronage of the rich men of ,amsterdam1 a ,norway of his own4 ,a visit to ,north ,germany1 of which there is some evidence1 helped his invention4 ,now begins the long series of waterfalls and pines and torrents so familiar in the picture galleries4 ,it is not on these that ,ruisdael's fame rests2 on this ground ,everdingen1 in spite of his inferior merits as a painter1 remains his master4 ,but as the pictures of this period are the most common1 the public is apt to identify him with this acquired style in which the true ,ruisdael is obscured4 ,for this reason it was a fortunate choice which secured for the ,national ,gallery1 two years ago1 so exquisite a specimen of the painter at his best as the ,shore at ,scheveningen1 ,no4 #acij4 ,the chilly ending of an afternoon1 with clouds blowing up and the rain beginning1 the vexed movement of shallow water as the rising wind breaks it into short waves1 the wetness of the spray-laden atmosphere1 are painted with a sensitive subtlety that more modern landscape1 with all its triumphs1 has not excelled4 ,the mood of feeling here expressed is intimately ,ruisdael's own4 ,without the brooding melancholy which became oppressively habitual later1 which found such grandiose expression in pictures like the famous ,jews' ,burying-place at ,dresden1 there is here a latent sadness that seems to have been bred in the fibre of the man4 ,it seems a kind of expectation of sorrow2 the mood that poetry with greater intensity has expressed in some lines of ,browning which suggest themselves3 ,the rain set early in to-night2 ,the sullen wind was soon awake3 ,it tore the elm-tops down for spite1 ,and did its worst to vex the lake4 ,i listened1 with heart fit to break4444 ,for such a nature who would predict happiness8 ,fortune satisfied that inborn melancholy to the full4 ,the years brought increasing poverty1 and the cares of providing for himself and for his father wore the artist down4 ,the autumn of #afha found him ill and helpless2 so helpless that the religious community to which he belonged1 the sect of ,mennonites1 procured admission for him to their almshouse at ,haarlem4 ,there he lingered till the next spring4 ,in ,march he was buried in ,st4 ,bavon's4 ,,vi ,ruisdael's etchings are but twelve1 or perhaps thirteen1 in number2 only seven being catalogued by ,bartsch4 ,their fewness shows1 what their technical qualities confirm1 that the artist neither had great aptitude for this method of expression nor cared to pursue his experiments in it far4 ,they all belong to his earliest period4 ,one1 the ,three ,oaks 7,b4 #f71 is dated #afdi1 and it is difficult to assign any of the others1 except possibly the ,cornfield1 to a later date4 ,of the four large plates1 the one which ,bartsch calls ,les ,voyageurs 7,b4 #d71 is decidedly the most interesting4 ,it is a forest scene1 wild and intricate1 with water running or standing in pools among the great roots of the oak which occupies the centre and of the beech which fills the left4 ,the two figures are passing in the middle distance1 where the wood is clearer4 ,it is a remnant1 perhaps1 of that vast forest which at one time covered the whole of ,holland4 ,ruisdael's strong feeling for old trees1 for the solitude of forests1 densely branching and mysterious1 inspires him here2 and one has only to turn to the facile etchers of sylvan scenery1 ,waterloo or ,swanevelt1 or ,van der ,cabel1 to realise the difference between the man who feels what he cannot perfectly master and the man who has perfect mastery of a facile formula4 ,ruisdael never succeeded in finding a quite satisfactory convention for foliage in etched line2 but his continual feeling after truth of rendering1 his sensitiveness1 to which the forms of branch and leaf are always fresh and wonderful1 make his work always interesting4 ,the three other large plates 7,b4 #a-c7 are less successful handlings of the same kind of subject4 ,though the first1 ,the ,little ,bridge1 is not a forest scene1 and represents a decayed old farm-building1 it is penetrated with the same feeling for picturesque1 moss-grown antiquity and neglected solitude4 ,the ,three ,oaks are etched with truth and strength1 but they do not rival the grandeur of the oak in the larger plate4 ,the ,cornfield 7,fig4 #ag7 is sunny and pleasant4 ,there are two states of the four large plates1 and many of the ,three ,oaks and the ,cornfield4 ,as the later states are by far the more common1 it is well to be warned that the plates have been retouched1 and1 in the writer's opinion1 certainly not by ,ruisdael4 ,in the first three a pudding-shaped cloud1 with hard1 bulging edges 7what a satire on this consummate master of clouds67 has been inserted1 and in all there is fresh work1 sometimes adding to the effect of the plate1 but still suggesting an alien hand4 ,ruisdael's etching is little more than an illustration of his painting2 criticism1 therefore1 of the one must deal to a certain extent with the other4 ,ruisdael's great fame rests1 perhaps1 as much on his historical importance as on his actual merit4 ,with ,hobbema he prepared the way for ,crome and ,constable1 and through them for ,rousseau and the landscape of modern ,france4 ,but1 taken on his own merits1 he is a considerable figure4 ,were it not for the fatiguing series of unpersuasive waterfalls1 which too often represent him1 his real qualities would have more chance of making themselves felt4 ,when on his own ground he is ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ag4--,the ,cornfield4 ,by ,j4 ,ruisdael4 ,b4 #e4 more various1 more subtle1 altogether finer than ,hobbema1 except when ,hobbema is at his very best1 as in the severely charming ,avenue of ,middleharnis4 ,hobbema often fails to convince1 because he has not sufficiently felt his subject2 and so he will paint a grand sky with the wind moving great clouds across it1 but when he comes to the trees of his foreground he forgets his sky1 and paints the branches in a breathlessly stiff atmosphere1 without the suggestion of a wind4 ,the resulting effect is a perplexing heaviness4 ,ruisdael betrays the same defect in his later pictures2 what else could one expect from one condemned to produce unrealities for a market8 ,but in his good period he always shows an impressible imagination1 and his materials are fused by the feeling in which he steeps them4 ,his sense for the beauty of trees is profound1 though rather limited in its range4 ,he was lacking in the consummate style of ,crome1 and would never have achieved the largeness and reticent power of a picture like the ,english master's ,avenue at ,chapel ,fields4 ,but for skies1 for clouds1 he has an eye more true1 a love more comprehensive1 than those of any who had gone before him1 than those of many who were to follow him4 ,he piles his clouds in mountainous glory1 8trailing0 their shadows over the wide country1 till the level pastures of ,holland grow in 8visionary majesties0 like the grandest mountains of ,norway4 ,this gives us all the more reason to deplore the absence of any attempt to deal with clouds in the etchings1 still more the presence of those inflated shapes inserted by a stupid publisher4 ,,vii ,though an important figure in the history of landscape painting1 ,ruisdael did not strongly influence the contemporary etchers of landscape4 ,hobbema1 his famous scholar1 did not1 so far as we know1 etch at all4 ,a few etchers1 however1 felt ,ruisdael's stimulus more or less3 ,van ,beresteyn1 who was working at ,haarlem in #afdd1 and produced some etchings somewhat in the manner of ,ruisdael's ,cornfield1 but with a mannered treatment of trees3 ,h4 ,naiwincx1 who handled a delicate point1 and etched a set of graceful plates of woodland and river3 and ,adriaen ,verboom1 who in his two or three etchings is perhaps more successful in treatment of trees than any of the ,dutchmen4 ,but more celebrated than any of these is ,antoni ,waterloo4 ,his etchings1 to which alone he owes his reputation1 are considerably over a hundred in number2 and as the subjects are monotonous1 they soon become tedious4 ,groups of trees by a roadside1 or a fringe of wood alone occupy ,waterloo's needle4 ,now and then1 as in ,b4 #bh1 the touch is light and the effect pleasant3 but having once found a formula1 ,waterloo is content to repeat it4 ,his foliage is hard and heavy4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ah4--,the ,burnt ,house on the ,canal4 ,by ,van der ,heyden4 ,roelant ,roghman 7#aeig-afhf71 though most of his plates are nominally topographical1 shows more feeling1 if less skill4 ,one set of plates by him illustrates the ,dutch postal system between the mother country and the ,east ,indies1 and has therefore an historical interest4 ,but ,roghman's chief claim on our concern is that he was the faithful and beloved friend of ,rembrandt4 ,his etchings1 however1 show no trace of ,rembrandt's influence2 and he was by ten years the elder man4 ,like ,seghers and like ,ruisdael1 ,roghman was neglected and miserable in his life1 and died in an almshouse4 ,one of his landscapes is in the ,national ,gallery4 ,,viii ,the illustration on page #ea 7,fig4 #ah7 is from an etching which represents a certain province of ,dutch art1 handled by several of the painters with much success1 but scarcely touched by the etchers4 ,of this group1 to whom architecture1 whether in the spacious and austere interiors of the ,dutch churches1 or the squares and ruddy brick house-fronts of the towns1 was the chief preoccupation1 ,jan van der ,heyden is the most famous and the best4 ,he is also the one among them who has etched4 ,the illustration1 though much reduced1 gives a fairly good idea of his work4 ,master of a precise and patient pencil1 ,van der ,heyden is not content till he has drawn in every brick1 every stone4 ,and the marvel is1 that in spite of his method1 he contrives to convey a certain spirit of largeness into his design4 ,in fact1 though so minute in detail1 he seems always to have kept his eye on the whole4 ,a pleasant temperate warmth of colour pervades his pictures1 the kind of light which on certain days suffuses old brick walls1 as if dyed in the sunshine of many summers3 and that exquisite order1 the almost extravagant cleanliness of ,dutch households1 makes itself felt in these glimpses of tree-bordered canals1 and of trim house-fronts with their well-proportioned windows4 ,much of this colour persists even in the black and white of an etching like that reproduced4 ,it is the day after a fire1 and a little crowd of neighbours is gathered to look on the burnt remnant of the house4 ,how ,illustration3 ,sea ,piece4 ,from an etching by ,l4 ,backhuysen4 excellently are the groups and figures depicted6 ,this is not true etcher's work2 but it is very skilful work1 very good work1 of its kind4 ,neither ,van der ,heyden1 nor any of the ,dutch painters of architecture1 realised the capacity of outlines in stone or brick1 attended by their circumstance of light and shadow1 to impress the imagination1 to stir emotion1 as ,mryon was to do later4 ,but their work1 by its soberness and firm simplicity1 wins us4 ,in its own way1 and in its own degree1 it will always give pleasure4 ,,ix ,from ,holland1 the first naval power in ,europe of the seventeenth century1 a love of the sea and an expression of it in art were naturally to be expected3 and among the several fine painters who now for the first time made the sea their subject1 two at least1 ,reynier ,zeeman and ,ludolph ,backhuysen1 have left some admirable etchings4 ,simon de ,vlieger painted1 but did not etch marine subjects2 of ,jan van de ,capelle only three indifferent plates are known2 and ,willem van de ,velde did not etch at all4 ,zeeman's real name was ,nooms2 but his love of the sea procured him early the name which he adopts on all his plates4 ,he travelled much1 but worked chiefly at ,amsterdam1 where probably he was born in #afbc4 ,zeeman's etchings are nearly all in sets1 representing views of ,amsterdam1 different kinds of ,dutch shipping1 and naval battles4 ,they passed through the hands of several publishers1 who1 we may conjecture1 commissioned him to do them3 and they were evidently popular4 ,such work1 nominally and primarily intended to serve a literary rather than a pictorial purpose1 suffers in consequence4 ,the artist has had to choose his subjects with a view to those whose interest was not in the etcher as etcher1 but in his knowledge of ships and skill in depicting them4 ,yet ,zeeman has managed to serve art as well as history4 ,ships1 with their ordered intricacy of rigging and their mysterious beauty1 have an endless fascination for him3 for it is shipping1 rather than the sea itself1 which he loves4 ,and his ships are etched with an admirable feeling1 a simple and effective handling of the bitten lines4 ,his men of war move with royal stateliness2 and the battle-pieces have something of the magnificence one imagines in the old sea-fights4 ,equally good in their way are plates like the fishing boats 7,fig4 #ai7 setting out at morning over the still sea1 bathed in a wash of limpid air and sunshine4 ,only in his clouds does ,zeeman completely fail4 ,historically1 too1 these prints are interesting4 ,here1 with patriotic pride1 ,zeeman is fond of showing the ,english ship of the line or frigate1 with her sails riddled1 conquered at last1 and with the ,dutch tricolour hoisted over the ,st4 ,george's ,cross4 ,nothing could more ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ai4--;,fishing ,boats4 ,by ,r4 ,zeeman4 ,b4 #ch4 vividly bring home to ,englishmen the powerful position of ,holland at the time4 ,backhuysen's etchings are later than ,zeeman's1 being all produced in #agja1 when the artist was seventy years old1#i and seven years before his death at ,amsterdam4 ,a pupil of ,everdingen1 he had soon risen to fame and was employed or sought after by many foreign princes1 including the ,tsar ,peter the ,great2 and from over much production his work suffered4 ,the etchings1 however1 though produced so late in life1 are neither languid nor feeble4 ,in freshness and vivacity they excel ,backhuysen's drawings4 ,it is the same with ,zeeman3 probably because the etching-needle has so much more capacity for giving the crispness of foam and the sharp lights of running waves1 than pencil and sepia4 ,no one1 till ,turner came1 succeeded at all in painting the mass and weight of water as the tides move it in deep seas2 but the easily agitated1 breezy motion of the shallow ,dutch waters is often suggested with a pleasant freshness by ,backhuysen4 ,the best of the etchings is that of the ship under sail1 crushing the water under her bows into foam4 ,x ,so far1 we have considered only the native school of landscape artists1 who took their subjects from ,holland and its borders4 ,but towards the end of the sixteenth century there was established in ,rome a group of painters from the ,netherlands1 to which each succeeding generation added new members1 whether they settled there for life or stayed only for a few years4 ,belonging to this group are a certain number of etchers1 deriving originally1 in more or less degree1 from ,elsheimer1 and receiving a second and more powerful stimulus from the art of ,claude4 ,jan van de ,velde1#aj it seems probable1 spent some years of his manhood in ,italy1 and perhaps worked under ,elsheimer himself4 ,at any rate1 a number of his plates are entirely in ,elsheimer's manner4 ,these are so heavily overworked with the burin that they must count rather as line-engravings than as etchings4 ,the burin plays1 indeed1 a more or less important part in all ,jan van de ,velde's prints4 ,one set1 illustrating the story of ,tobias1 was etched from designs by ,moses van ,uytenbroeck1 an artist who also published a number of plates of his own4 ,here again is an instance of the traditional chronology being at fault4 ,uytenbroeck's birth is usually given as #afjj4 ,but ,bode has pointed out that there are engravings after his work by an artist who died in #afab4 ,the date must therefore be put back several years4 ,uytenbroeck is perhaps the nearest to ,elsheimer of all his followers4 ,the relation of the figures to the landscape1 the curious human types1 with their rather stolid1 plain faces and heavy gestures1 the treatment of ,italian landscape1 all are intimately akin to the ,german master's art4 ,elsheimer's influence still persists strongly in ,cornelis ,poelenburg1 one of the most popular of the ,dutch artists in ,rome1 whose small1 smoothly glowing pictures of grottoes and bathing nymphs are familiar in every ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bj4--,road1 with ,trees and ,figures4 ,by ,breenbergh4 ,b4 #ag4 gallery4 ,poelenburg did not etch himself1 but his friend ,jan ,gerritz ,bronchorst etched from his paintings and in his style1 though with less grace and elegance4 ,we find here the beginnings of that school of landscape1 8,arcadian0 as ,bode calls it1 which so soon received its fullest and most perfect expression in the large and tranquil art of ,claude4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #ba4--,landscape4 ,by ,both4 ,b4 #c4 ,pieter de ,laer1 of whose etchings of animals we shall say something in the next chapter1 etched one landscape at least in the delicate soft manner of that master4 ,and with him maybe associated ,bartolomeus ,breenbergh1 who lived in ,rome from his twenty-first to his twenty-eighth year1 #afbj-afbg4 ,he was married at ,amsterdam in #afcc and died there in #afei or earlier2 but was at ,rome again in the interval1 during which he published 7#afdj7 a set of very attractive little prints4 ,fig4 #bj is an example of his work4 ,the same delicate1 fine needle1 and the same preference for the picturesque1 characterise the earlier etchings of ,thomas ,wyck4 ,later he adopted a freer1 broader style1 and worked on a larger scale1 but with less success4 ,but the most conspicuous and important of this group is ,jan ,both4 ,like ,poelenburg1 he was a man of ,utrecht1 where he was born in #afaj and where he died in #afeb4 ,his portrait1 taken in his later days at home1 is that of a stout1 grave burgher4 ,quite young he left the studio of his master ,bloemart and travelled through ,france to ,rome4 ,there the soft sunshine of ,claude fascinated him and he began to follow in the footsteps of that famous painter4 ,every one knows the landscapes of ,both1 their smooth1 rather insipid grace1 their premeditated balance of composition1 their elegant monotony4 ,it is certain that they were popular in ,holland1 whither they were brought in ships from ,italy to adorn the walls of wealthy buyers4 ,probably in that day such painting of placid sunshine was a new thing2 what we perceive to be a surface acquaintance with ,nature savoured almost of intimacy2 and doubtless ,both's pretty and monotonous conventions had then a permanent charm4 ,in his etchings1 ,both's weaknesses do not appear so strongly4 ,and1 wisely1 he did not produce many4 ,had there been more they would1 beyond doubt1 have been precisely similar to what we have2 and from mere fatigue at their monotony one would have rated them below their worth4 ,as it is1 the ten landscapes after his own designs are more than enough to reveal ,both's great limitations4 ,yet they are few enough for us to enjoy them4 ,for1 after all1 they are attractive and accomplished etchings4 ,from ,claude1 ,both had learned how to produce1 with a nice management of the acid1 an exquisite softness in his distances4 ,the atmosphere is limpid and bathed in sunshine1 and the foregrounds are suggested with that light touch and selection of detail which are first requisites in an etching4 ,here1 again1 it is only fair to the artist to judge him by the early states of his work4 ,the ruled lines defacing the sky which they are meant to constitute1 were added in the second state by the publisher4 ,of that there can be little doubt4 ,unfortunately1 ,both's first states are extremely rare4 ,both's pupil1 ,willem de ,heusch1 approaches if he does not rival his master4 ,he is not independent enough1 however1 to merit special notice4 ,herman van ,swanevelt1 another artist whose birth-date must be put further back than the traditional #afbj1aa lived on to #afij1 when he died at ,rome4 ,his etchings are more considerable in number than in merit4 ,he began the school of reminiscences from ,claude and ,titian's landscapes which lingered on through paler and paler repetitions into the eighteenth century1 in the sad facility of ,genoels and ,van der ,cabel and ,glauber4 ,never was art more bloodless and apathetic than in these degenerate spoilers of a fine tradition4 ,,the ,,etchers ,,of ,,pastoral ,i ,while landscape thus occupied the talent of so many ,dutch painters1 a certain number struck out a branch apart1 choosing subjects that may briefly be called pastoral4 ,for these men the foreground of cattle1 the goatherd or the shepherd with his flock1 was of greater interest than the background of often quite conventional scenery4 ,sometimes two or more painters collaborated1 and one painted the landscape while another put in the animals4 ,and as in painting1 so in etching4 ,a certain group of men etched nothing but animals1 with now and then a landscape4 ,of these the chief are ,paul ,potter1 ,claes ,berchem1 ,adriaen van de ,velde1 ,karel du ,jardin4 ,this love of the domestic animals for their own sake in art seems native and almost peculiar to ,holland4 ,many painters before this time had shown a remarkable love of animals4 ,from ,benozzo ,gozzoli to ,bassano1 individuals among the ,italian masters had introduced their favourites1 wherever opportunity offered1 into sacred and historical compositions4 ,and among the elder contemporaries of the ,dutchmen1 ,rubens1 ,snyders1 and ,velasquez had painted dogs and horses as only they could paint them4 ,but it is mainly in hunting pieces1 as servants or companions of man1 that these painters introduce animals2 cattle and sheep do not interest them4 ,it is the same with the great engravers who preceded the seventeenth-century etchers4 ,drer was undoubtedly very fond of animals and engraved them frequently4 ,and that singular master of the fifteenth century1 whose name we do not know1 but who is generally called the ,master of the ,amsterdam ,cabinet from the fact that by far the fullest collection of his prints is at ,amsterdam1 engraved dogs and horses with a freedom and a vivacity which ,drer never attained1 and which were in that period of ,northern art unique4 ,this master was long thought a ,dutchman1 but the type of his faces1 among other considerations1 marks him as a ,swabian artist4 ,yet in none of these men appears anything like the peculiar feeling which in ,potter1 for instance1 strikes so strong a note4 ,the glory and ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bb4--;,a ,ram4 ,by ,berchem4 ,b4 #ea4 excitement of the chase1 so magnificently put on canvas by ,rubens1 the relish of the boar's savage fury as the hounds hurl themselves at him1 are absolutely alien to that brooding intentness1 as alert to catch every curve in the attitude of cattle rising or lying down1 as subtle to penetrate to their mysterious non-human existence1 so distant and aloof1 pervading the ,dutchman's art4 ,it is a mood which fuses the mind into the life it watches1 till the delight of cool running water to the cattle1 as they plunge in from the hot fields1 is as intimately felt as the joy of battle in their charging hounds1 which is merely reflected human feeling1 is felt by the painters of the hunt4 ,thus1 while in ,flanders painters and etchers like ,jan ,fyt carried on in their animal pieces the tradition of ,rubens and ,snyders1 a totally different mode of animal painting and etching was springing up in ,holland4 8,pastoral10 it is most convenient to call it2 but it is not pastoral in the same sense that the word has come to have1 as applied to certain types of poetry1 whether the ,idylls of ,theocritus or the ,eclogues of ,virgil4 ,there1 as with the early painters of animals1 the human interest is the preoccupying interest2 and the poet sings of the peasant's life in the fields1 his industries1 his pleasures1 his loves and quarrels1 either from native love and knowledge of that life1 or in a desire no less genuine1 if expressed through forms of more or less artificial colouring and outline1 for the real simplicity of the country4 ,it is the herdsman1 not his herd1 that is the pastoral poet's theme4 ,now1 for the first time1 the artist disengages himself from the point of view of man1 and effaces himself before the dumb life he contemplates4 ,already1 in the engravings of ,lucas van ,leyden1 who1 by his early maturity and his early death1 his gentle nature and his exquisite skill1 seems to stand as a prototype of ,paul ,potter--a kind of foreshadowing of this attitude appears4 ,but not till the seventeenth century does the vein begin to be developed4 ,then1 by rapid degrees1 not through any single influence1 but communicated imperceptibly as if 8in the air10 the tradition grows4 ,,ii ,moses van ,uytenbroeck and ,claes ,moeyart1 whose etchings in the style of ,elsheimer were mentioned earlier1 both produced a certain number of purely pastoral plates4 ,of ,uytenbroeck1 we have a set of groups of animals with backgrounds of ,campagna landscape1 which seem to date from early in the century4 ,and in the later manner of ,moeyart1 dated #afch1 is a group of cattle1 sheep1 and goats1 under shady trees1 in a conventional landscape but with an unidealised ,dutch herdsman4 ,neither of these men etched cattle with much knowledge or spirit1 though ,moeyart was an artist of many-sided talent1 and painted pictures that are excellent in their way4 ,considerably better is an etching by ,jan ,gerritz ,bleecker1 also dated #afch4 ,it is a group of cattle with a cowherd piping1 conceived in the pastoral vein of ,potter's ,shepherd4 ,here1 already1 the interest of the artist begins to centre on the animals4 ,in ,pieter de ,laer this interest is still more frank4 ,born before #afac1 de ,laer found early a home in ,italy1 where his pictures were widely appreciated4 ,in the same year that we have just mentioned1 #afch1 he1 too1 published a set of etchings of animals1 in which attitude and action are caught with far more vivacity and truth than hitherto1 while the design--though coarsely bitten--is light and free1 compared with earlier work4 ,another set of horses1 which probably followed this1 is the prototype of studies like those of ,potter's4 ,de ,laer seems to have been one of the first ,dutchmen to import ,dutch realism and the ,dutch method of painting into ,italy4 ,the ,italians found in such art something fresh and vigorous4 ,de ,laer soon gained immense vogue in the south1 and had a corresponding influence on his countrymen who came to work there4 ,among these1 probably1 was ,claes ,pietersz ,berchem4 ,it is not known for certain whether this artist visited ,italy1 but the internal evidence of his pictures points strongly to the supposition that he did4 ,at any rate1 ,dr4 ,bredius is convinced of it1 and for the present we may safely accept the hypothesis on his authority4 ,berchem was born at ,haarlem in #afbj1 but was working at ,amsterdam before #afdb1 in which year his name occurs as member of the ,haarlem ,guild of ,st4 ,luke4 ,we also know that he was painted by ,rembrandt in #afdg4ab ,was this before or after his journey to ,italy1 asks ,bredius1 and leaves the question open4 ,the etchings1 however1 help us towards an answer4 #afdd is the date on a set of cattle1 with a milkmaid for title2 also on the ,return from the ,fields 7,l',homme ,mont sur l'ne7 7,b4 #e74 ,these are etched with fine1 delicate short strokes1 in a manner afterwards abandoned by ,berchem4 ,his most celebrated print1 however1 the so-called 8,diamond10 or ,joueur de ,cornemuse 7,b4 #d71 and the ,fluting ,shepherd 7,b4 #f71 are in the delicate early manner1 and must be assigned to the same date4 ,now1 these are all unmistakably ,italian in character4 ,if we may assume from ,berchem's pictures that he had been to ,italy1 we can assume it with equal safety from these etchings4 ,we may infer1 then1 that in #afdg he had already returned from ,italy4 ,berchem had many pupils1 including ,karel du ,jardin1 of whom we shall speak later4 ,he was evidently one of the popular artists of the day4 ,it is curious to compare the features of the man as they live in ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bc4--,title ,piece4 ,by ,berchem4 ,b4 #ce4 ,rembrandt's magnificent portrait1#ac with the characteristics of his art4 ,it is a face in which1 for all its obvious strength1 there is a want of gentleness1 fineness1 impressibility2 a type of nature that succeeds easier in life than in art3 for the qualities which count for strength in the world count often in art for weakness4 ,and weak1 in truth1 is ,berchem the artist4 ,with his paintings we are not now concerned4 ,through them he rivalled ,both in popularity1 and for facility and complacency it is hard to say which bears the palm4 ,berchem is quite content to paint the gnarled trunk of an oak1 the hairy leaf of a burdock1 the moss on a stone and the stone itself1 grass and leaping water1 as of the same polished1 one might almost say1 8slimy0 texture4 ,so long as he has produced an agreeable composition1 he is content4 ,in his etchings1 this insensibility to the fine differences in the grain and moulding of things1 all that goes to give trees and rocks and plants the charm and interest of character1 is less obviously disclosed4 ,at first sight the plates have a pleasant look1 they are touched by a cunning hand which has attained no common skill in distributing light and in grouping4 ,but one has not to look at them long before wearying of their emptiness4 ,berchem etches cows1 and sheep1 and goats1 because they make pretty groups in composition--they add to the effect of a pastoral landscape2 but in themselves he shows no real interest whatever4 ,his goats pose2 his cows have a look of faded human sentiment2 his very sheep are foolishly self-conscious4 ,though they are drawn with a certain spirit and with a 8touch0 that mediocre artists and their admirers mistake for an evidence of genius1 the main truths in the lines of these animal forms escape him4 ,in fine1 ,berchem was one of those men who have little of the artist in them but skill of hand and facility in assimilation4 ,having invented or concocted a recipe for producing a chosen class of subjects1 he is perfectly happy in repeating himself as long as the demand continues4 ,berchem lived sixty-three years1 and worked hard4 ,,iii ,who that has seen it can forget the portrait of ,paul ,potter by his friend ,van der ,helst8 ,the most beautiful portrait of that accomplished painter1 it has also an impalpable attraction that comes wholly from the sitter1 and of the many choice pictures in that choice gallery of the ,hague1 the ,mauritzhuis1 its charm is not the least enduring4 ,the picture was painted in #afed1 when ,potter was already near death4 ,a certain drooping of the eyelids1 a pallor of the face1 indicate the fatigue which was overmastering his powers4 ,he was not yet thirty when he died1 but his production had been immense4 ,and in him1 as sometimes happens1 ,nature1 as if by a kind of anticipation1 had brought the inborn gift to early flower1 a compensation in some sort to the world for its early loss4 ,it was at ,enkhuisen1 a village on the extreme point of jutting land ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bd4--,the ,bull4 ,by ,paul ,potter4 ,b4 #a4 that looks out upon the ,zuider ,zee1 that ,paul ,potter was born1 ,nov4 #bj1 #afbe4 ,but only his early boyhood was passed there1 for in #afca his father ,pieter1 also a painter1 removed to ,amsterdam4 ,from his father the boy first learnt to draw1 and perhaps from him also inherited the love of animals which was so strong in him4 ,m4 van ,westrheene1 in his life of ,potter1 conjectures that he was influenced by two artists1 ,aelbert ,klomp and ,govert ,camphuisen1 who painted pictures of the kind that ,potter made famous4 ,but these men appear to have begun painting too late for this to have been possible4 ,dr4 ,bredius thinks ,claes ,moeyart was a more likely source of influence4 ,it is known also that at a certain period1 about #afdb1 ,potter was in the studio of ,jacob de ,wet at ,haarlem4 ,but whoever may have taught him1 his early ripeness and the strong sincerity of his nature assure us that ,potter derived little from any teacher4 ,with vivid preferences1 a habit of subtle observation1 and an extraordinary skill of hand1 he would have been content to repeat no master's formulas1 however popular4 ,his first signed picture and his first signed etching bear the same date1 #afdc4 ,he was eighteen years old4 ,the etching 7,b4 #ad7 shows already skill in grouping and a hitherto unknown knowledge in etching of animal forms4 ,its fault is over-much elaboration4 ,three years later ,potter was at ,delft1 and there in #afdg1 at the age of twenty-two1 painted his most famous picture1 ,the ,young ,bull1 now at the ,hague4 ,it was one of the pictures carried off by ,napoleon1 and of all those masterpieces from all countries which were restored by ,france in #ahae1 this was esteemed the second in value4 ,since then its fame has fallen1 but with all its obvious demerits it has suffered more--to borrow an expression applied by ,mr4 ,swinburne to ,byron's ,address to ,ocean in ,childe ,harold--from praise than from dispraise4 ,in #afdi ,potter removed to the ,hague1 and it was here that he met his wife1 ,adriana ,balcheneynde1 daughter of an architect in that town4 ,they were married in the following year4 ,his marriage did not stop the artist's ceaseless industry1 but rather increased it by his desire to provide for his household4 ,thinking perhaps to find more patrons there than at the ,hague1 he was induced by ,dr4 ,tulp1 the professor of anatomy1 famous from ,rembrandt's picture1 to come to ,amsterdam4 ,in a letter by a ,frenchman who was in ,amsterdam at this time1 looking for pictures on behalf of ,queen ,christina of ,sweden1 we have a glimpse of ,potter in his studio1 working with prodigious assiduity4 ,the ,frenchman found ,potter at work on a painting which had already cost him five months of continuous toil4 8,rien ne se peut voir plus curieusement fait10 says the ,frenchman4 ,when we consider that the painter produced considerably over one hundred pictures in his brief life1 it is amazing to realise his powers of work4 ,he was only to live two years longer4 ,,iv ,the etched work of ,potter that has come down to us consists of eighteen plates2 not many1 considering how prolific he was as a painter1 but all the plates are important4 ,taking them in chronological order1 we have first the etching already spoken of1 done when the artist was only eighteen1 ,the ,cowherd 7,b4 #ad74 ,in #afdi1 six years after its original execution1 the plate was reduced in length by ,potter and the new date affixed4 ,a reedy hollow1 with a pool1 was substituted for the group of three cows at the left2 and an alteration was also made in the feet of one of the cows descending the hill on the right4 ,the etching1 we know1 was popular4 ,for1 after it had been cut down1 it was issued by at least three publishers in turn2 by ,f4 de ,wit1 by ,p4 ,schenk1 and by an anonymous publisher who effaced the two former names4 ,probably in the first instance it was issued by ,potter himself1 as was the series of cattle published in #afej4 ,full of skill in grouping and knowledge of form as this plate is1 it is certainly inferior to the later etchings4 ,already1 by the next year1 ,potter was able to produce a print1 ,the ,shepherd 7,b4 #ae7 which surpasses it in every way1 and which to more sound drawing adds a pastoral atmosphere of lightness and sunshine and repose4 ,berchem1 ,potter's senior by five years1 was at ,haarlem in #afdb1 when ,potter1 as we know1 was in ,de ,wet's studio4 ,we may assume1 therefore1 that the two met4 ,perhaps it was in emulation of ,berchem's set of etchings1 published in #afdd1 that ,potter produced his ,cowherd and ,shepherd4 ,if so1 he succeeded in surpassing them4 ,there now occurs an interval of some years in ,potter's etched work4 ,his next publication1 so far as we know1 was the series of eight plates 7,b4 #a-h7 representing cattle1 and beginning with the fine ,bull 7,fig4 #bd74 ,this title-piece is dated #afej1 so that we may refer the production of the plates to #afdi1 and possibly the year or two immediately preceding4 ,however1 the fact that #afdi is the date of the revised ,cowherd seems to point to ,potter's having resumed his interest in etching in that year1 and to his having executed the whole set after the re-publication of that plate4 ,illustration3 ,fig4 #be4--,studies of a ,dog4 ,by ,paul ,potter4 ,british ,museum4 ,he would hardly issue an immature work1 when he had by him much more triumphant specimens of his skill4 ,as studies of animals1 these eight little plates are as good as they can be4 ,but they are not more than studies4 ,as we saw1 it had become a fashion for artists to etch such studies1 and so spread their fame among those who could not buy their pictures4 ,this at once suggests the reason of ,potter's deficiency as an etcher4 ,strictly speaking1 he was not an etcher at all4 ,he used etching because it was the favourite medium for multiplying sketches of his time4 ,but one feels that the burin would have been the apter instrument for that sure and cunning hand4 ,there is a deliberation1 a want of immediacy in these designs1 that are not of the born etcher4 ,between the treatment of cattle in these etchings and their treatment in line-engraving by ,lucas van ,leyden there is no essential difference4 ,but we must take things as they are1 and as specimens of subtle and certain drawing1 the plates are astonishing4 ,the attitudes and movements of oxen have never been better given4 ,but it is not in mere correctness of drawing that ,potter excels his rivals4 ,berchem was only interested in animals so far as they helped him in the composition of a landscape1 but with ,potter they were the main interest1 he loved them for themselves4 ,and in expressing that vague inarticulate soul that is in the look of cattle1 that mildness and acquiescence which are in their attitudes and motions1 he is a master1 greater than any4 ,there is something in ,dutch landscape1 so open1 tranquil1 large1 which seems to look for the presence of these peaceful creatures as its natural complement2 their spirit is so entirely in harmony with the spirit of their pastures4 ,not accidental1 perhaps1 nor without its due effect1 was the ,dutch strain of blood in the ,american poet who seems to have first suggested in words what ,potter expressed in art-- ,oxen that rattle the yoke and chain1 or halt in the leafy shade1 ,what is it that you express in your eyes8 ,it seems to me more than all the print ,i have read in my life4#ad ,like ,whitman1 ,potter is possessed by the fascination of animals2 he1 too1 8stands and looks at them long and long40 ,and with a feeling so reticent that its intensity escapes a superficial notice1 he puts into these etched lines the breath that moves their bodies1 and the dumbness that looks out of their eyes4 ,v ,two years after the publication of the cattle series1 appeared the five larger plates of horses4 ,these have less the air of being mere etched studies for pictures2 they seem to have been made for their own sake1 and make a kind of history1 such as ,tolstoi in the strange story of ,kohlstomir has written2 a kind of ,horse's ,progress4 ,the fourth 7,b4 #ab71 the ,two ,plough ,horses1 is reproduced on ,plate ,,iii4 ,this and the ,horse ,whinnying 7,b4 #aj7 seem to the writer the finest of the series1 and the finest of all ,potter's etchings4 ,the work is entirely simple and unaffected3 there is immense skill1 but no apparent consciousness of it1 still less parade of it4 ,nothing adventitious is brought in1 no artifice is used of setting or surrounding3 bathed in light and air1 on their own level pastures1 the horses stand clearly outlined4 ,but what a feeling of morning freshness1 of careless and free joy1 is in the breeze that tosses the mane of the whinnying horse1 and makes him tremble with felt vitality6 ,it is a triumph of the untamed energy of life4 ,how different a picture from this of the two tired creatures1 set free from their heavy labour at the plough1 but no longer rejoicing in their freedom1 except as a respite4 ,by some magic of sympathy ,potter makes us feel the ache of their limbs1 stiff with fatigue1 just as he expresses the patience in their eyes4 ,yet tender as is the feeling of the drawing1 it is so restrained that 8pity0 seems a word out of place4 ,it is rather the simple articulation by means of sensitive portrayal1 of an else inarticulate pathos4 ,such drawing as this is in a true sense imaginative4 ,the studies of dogs1 reproduced in ,fig4 #be are an admirable example of ,potter's gift4 ,it is interesting to compare them with a drawing by ,berchem1 also in the ,british ,museum1 representing a hunting scene1 with the boar at bay and dogs springing at him or struggling in the leash4 ,unfortunately1 it has been impossible to find room for a reproduction of it2 but whoever looks at it will perceive at once a vital difference between such drawing and that of ,potter's4 ,berchem sketches the scene in a rapid1 summary manner1 using a few strokes only for each figure4 ,it is ,rembrandt's method2 but what a difference in the result6 ,there is a sketch by ,rembrandt of a lion springing at and seizing a man on horseback4 ,only a few lines are used1 but the whole action of each figure is expressed perfectly4 ,berchem thinks to do the like1 but his ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bf4--,the ,cow4 ,by ,paul ,potter4 ,b4 #c4 lines are all just beside the truth4 ,his mind1 which has not sufficient love for things to brood upon their forms1 is incapable of the swift act of sympathy necessary to seize their movement in action2 and its power of reproduction1 by nature probably a delicate and precise faculty1 has been warped and blunted by the man's satisfaction in his own cleverness1 till it gives an inaccurate image4 ,berchem's work is therefore false1 and deserves to be called unimaginative4 ,it convinces only the incompetent spectator of things4 ,potter's work is never false1 and its imaginative quality is rather obscured than absent in his poorer productions4 ,the fact is that1 having ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bg4--,mules4 ,by ,k4 ,du ,jardin4 ,b4 #b4 given the vital image of an animal1 he could not resist the temptation of adding to it non-essential facts4 ,he had not that transcendent intelligence which instinctively practises the economy called 8style40 ,but it was on the side of intelligence1 certainly not of tenderness or sympathy1 that he was lacking4 ,he sat down to ,nature's feast1 and the delight of his eyes seduced him4 ,before leaving this plate of the ,two ,plough ,horses1 we may notice a point which does not seem to have been remarked before1 that there was apparently a kind of tradition of subjects among the animal painters and etchers4 ,this plate was published1 in the set of horses1 in #afeb4 ,but in a set of etchings published the year before1 #afea1 by the artist ,dirk ,stoop1 this identical subject appears4 ,the horses stand towards the left of the plate in precisely the position of ,potter's horses4 ,stoop1 though as good as many of the ,dutch etchers1 was no consummate draughtsman1 and his horses are not to be compared with ,potter's4 ,yet they do not look in the least like a copy1 while the dates discountenance such a supposition4 ,if there be any direct relation between the two etchings it must have been ,potter who took a hint from ,stoop4 ,but it seems equally likely to suppose that the subject1 two plough-horses released from labour1 was a traditional one4 ,the life of cattle and horses does not offer more than a certain number of typical pictures1 and hence the tendency of painters and etchers to repeat the same subject1 always with an eye to improving on the best yet done2 just as earlier painters would choose a ,saint ,sebastian as the typical subject in which to display their power of painting the human figure4 ,in the same way ,potter's fifth etching of horses1 where he depicts the forlorn death that overcomes the worn-out beast1 has its prototype in a similar etching by ,pieter de ,laer1 and the subject is repeated by ,du ,jardin4 ,the etcher mentioned above1 ,dirk ,stoop1 ,jed a wandering life1 went to ,lisbon1 became painter to the ,court there1 and1 being brought over to ,england with the ,infanta1 worked also in ,london4 ,his etchings of horses and dogs are less good than those of the court ftes1 processions1 and spectacles at ,lisbon1 at ,hampton ,court1 and at ,london4 ,,vi ,if ,potter did not produce many etchings himself1 ,marcus de ,bye1 who etched in most cases after ,potter's designs1 was comparatively prolific4 ,he produced over a hundred prints4 ,some of these1 ,illustration3 ,ox and ,sheep4 ,from an etching by ,a4 ,van de ,velde4 purporting to be after drawings by ,potter1 are studies1 not of cattle and sheep or horses1 but of wild animals--lions1 tigers1 and wolves4 ,if these could be taken as fairly representative of ,potter's work1 we should have to infer that ,potter was far less fortunate in his drawing of wild creatures than of tame4 ,and it would be unlike ,potter to have made such studies except from the life4 ,de ,bye1 however1 lost a great deal of the subtlety and life of his original in working from ,potter's sketches4 ,karel du ,jardin is a more independent artist4 ,born at ,amsterdam in #afbb1 he was trained in ,berchem's studio1 but went to ,italy still young4 ,there he found ,de ,laer's pictures in great esteem1 and developed a manner and a choice of subject very similar to his4 ,some time before #afef he returned to ,holland1 and remained at the ,hague till #afei1 when he removed to ,amsterdam4 ,there he painted some fine portraits1 quite unlike his ordinary pictures in style1 being stirred to emulation presumably by the superb ,corporation pieces then produced there4 ,in #afge he started again for ,italy1 but died three years later in ,venice4 ,the ,british ,museum possesses a red-chalk drawing of ,du ,jardin by himself4 ,it is an agreeable portrait1 but the face does not suggest much power4 ,though a pupil of ,berchem1 ,du ,jardin in his etchings follows ,potter much more than that artist4 ,dr4 ,lippmann1 in fact1 speaks of him as 8,schuler ,potters10 but the expression must only mean a follower1 not a pupil1 of ,potter4 ,twenty-four of ,du ,jardin's etchings are dated1 the dates being #afeb1 #afec1 #afee1 #afef1 #afeh1 #afei1 #affj1 and #afge4 ,only one piece belongs to the last year1 while the other years have two1 three1 four1 and five pieces each4 ,so that1 whenever the undated etchings were produced1 the bulk of ,du ,jardin's work on copper may safely be assigned to the eight years #afeb-affj2 that is to say1 to the first years after his return to ,holland1 and possibly to the last year or two of his first stay in ,italy4 ,most of the etchings are from sketches made in ,italy4 ,fig4 #bg is an example1 and is a good specimen of ,du ,jardin as an etcher4 ,there is nothing very original about such art1 but its agreeable qualities will always give pleasure4 ,du ,jardin1 in his drawing and in his painting1 has a light and happy touch2 yet beyond such craftsman's merits there is little to be said for him4 ,he seems to have painted and etched what was the fashion with a facile grace and commendable skill1 but without any strong inborn love of the subjects he handled4 ,as an etcher he is of the same order as ,potter4 ,a good many of the prints are pastoral landscapes2 these are less good than those in which animals are the main subject4 ,to turn from some of these small landscape ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bh4--,pigs4 ,by ,k4 ,du ,jardin4 ,b4 #ae4 studies of ,du ,jardin's1 in which nothing is seized strongly while everything is made a little dull1 to an etching of ,rembrandt's1 say ,six's ,bridge1 is to receive a most vivid impression of ,rembrandt's immense superiority4 ,rembrandt's light sketch is instinct with style2 ,du ,jardin1 in these prints at any rate1 has no style at all4 ,such etchings as that of the pigs 7,fig4 #bh7 are of far higher quality4 ,another etcher from ,amsterdam1 ,adriaen van de ,velde1 came strongly under ,potter's influence4 ,born in #afce-cf ,van de ,velde1 like ,du ,jardin1 studied with ,berchem4 ,it has sometimes been assumed that he1 too1 followed up his studies with a journey to ,italy1 but ,dr4 ,bredius decides against this supposition4 ,there is ,italian scenery in many of ,adriaen's pictures1 but there were plenty of fellow artists to borrow materials for such backgrounds from4 ,and with him the landscape is never much more than a background4 ,his interest lay more in his cattle and his figures than in their surrounding4 ,it is known1 indeed1 that he inserted figures for several of the landscape painters1 including ,ruisdael and ,hobbema4 ,van de ,velde's etchings are nearly all of cattle1 and here he sometimes comes near ,potter in drawing1 while in management of the acid he is decidedly ,potter's superior4 ,his earliest dated etching of #afec is a large plate1 which though not powerful has a real beauty4 ,the cow which forms the centre of the composition is almost identical with that in the foreground of ,potter's ,cowherd4 ,perhaps this was deliberate imitation1 and if so1 is evidence of the recognition ,potter's knowledge of animal form commanded1 but it may equally well have been an accident4 ,the whole plate is bathed in drowsy sunshine1 with which the man asleep by the roadside1 drawn with an admirable suggestion of repose1 harmonises well4 ,this print is one of those which must be seen in the silvery earliest state to be appreciated4 ,the original design for this plate is in the ,british ,museum4 ,in the same collection is also the design for ,the ,cow ,lying ,down 7,b4 #b74 ,on the same sheet of paper is a study of part of the cow in a slightly altered position1 and this has been adopted in the etching4 ,except for this insignificant change1 the two etchings are copied from the pencil studies with entire fidelity4 ,and probably this was always ,van de ,velde's practice1 as it was with ,potter and ,du ,jardin4 ,it is1 therefore1 strictly speaking1 incorrect to describe the drawings as being made for the etchings4 ,the studies were etched simply that they might be multiplied4 ,none of the studies of cattle1 etched by the ,dutch masters1 surpasses ,van de ,velde's set of three1 numbered #aa1 #ab1 and #ac in ,bartsch4 ,the second is reproduced 7,plate ,,iv474 ,potter never produced an effect so delicate and so rich in colour as ,van de ,velde in these three etchings4 ,at the same time there is no ostentation of skill2 rather there seems a ,illustration3 ,fig4 #bi4--;,a ,goat4 ,by ,a4 ,van de ,velde4 ,b4 #af4 kind of modesty in the workmanship that is winning4 ,equally excellent is the charming little study of a goat 7,fig4 #bi74 ,van de ,velde1 if not a great artist1 was a true one1 and his early death at the age of thirty-seven was a loss to the art of ,holland4 ,,index ,altdorfer1 #ab ,amsterdam ,cabinet1 ,master of1 #fj ,backhuysen1 #ec1 #ed1 #ee ,bartsch1 #e1 #bc ,bassano1 #fj ,bega1 #bf1 #ca1 #cb ,berchem1 #fj1 #fc-fe1 #fh1 #ga1 #gb ,beresteyn1 ,c4 van1 #ej ,bleecker1 #fc ,bode1 #ac1 #ee1 #ef ,both1 ,a4 #ac ,both1 ,j4 #eg1 #eh1 #fe ,bray1 ,j4 de1 #ah ,bredius1 #h1 #cg1 #fc1 #fg1 #gg ,breenbergh1 #eg ,bronchorst1 #ef ,brouwer1 #ba ,bye1 ,m4 de1 #gd1 #ge ,cabel1 ,a4 van der1 #dh1 #eh ,callot1 #ab1 #ac ,campagnola1 #ce ,camphuisen1 #fg ,capelle1 ,j4 van de1 #dc1 #ec ,caravaggio1 #ac ,claude1 #ac1 #ee1 #ef1 #eg ,constable1 #di ,cornelis ,cornelisz1 #ah ,crome1 #di1 #ej ,du ,jardin1 #fj1 #fd1 #gd1 #ge ,drer1 #aa1 #ce1 #fj ,dusart1 #ca1 #cd ,dutuit1 #bd1 #bf1 #ch ,elsheimer1 #ac1 #ad1 #cg1 #ee ,everdingen1 ,a4 van1 #dd-df ,fyt1 ,j41 #fb ,genoels1 #eh ,glauber1 #eh ,goltzius1 #ah1 #ci ,goudt1 ,count de1 #cg ,goya1 #cb ,goyen1 ,j4 van1 #db1 #dc ,gozzoli1 #fj ,groot1 ,hofstede de1 #h ,grotius1 #i ,haeften1 ,n4 van1 #ca ,hals1 ,d41 #ah ,hals1 ,f41 #f1 #ah1 #bj ,hamerton1 #f1 #cj ,helst1 ,b4 van der1 #fe ,heusch1 ,w4 de1 #eh ,heyden1 ,j4 van der1 #eb1 #ec ,hirschvogel1 #ab ,hobbema1 #f1 #di1 #ej1 #gg ,honthorst1 #ac ,hooch1 ,p4 de1 #f1 #i1 #bh ,hopfer1 #ab ,keene1 #ca ,klomp1 #ff ,koehler1 #dj ,koninck1 ,p4 de1 #ci ,laer1 ,p4 de1 #eg1 #fc1 #gd ,lautensack1 #ab ,leblond1 #ci1 #dj ,le ,ducq1 #e ,leech1 #ca ,leyden1 ,lucas van1 #fb1 #gj ,lippmann1 #dc1 #ge ,matham1 #db ,metsu1 #i ,miel1 #ac ,moeyart1 #fb1 #fg ,molyn1 ,p4 de1 #db1 #dc ,naiwincx1 #ej ,ostade1 ,a4 van1 #f1 #ag-cb ,pater1 ,walter1 #i1 #ch ,patinir1 #ce1 #cg ,picart1 #be ,potter1 #f1 #fj1 #fb1 #fc1 #fe-ge1 #gg ,rembrandt1 #e1 #f1 #ac1 #ae1 #bd1 #bh1 #ch1 #fc1 #gb1 #gf ,roghman1 #ej1 #eb ,rousseau1 ,th41 #di ,rubens1 #aa1 #ad1 #ae1 #ce1 #fj1 #fa ,ruisdael1 #f1 #g1 #df-ej1 #gg ,seghers1 ,h41 #cf-dj ,snyders1 #fj1 #fb ,spinoza1 #i ,steen1 #f1 #i ,stoop1 #gd ,swanevelt1 #ac1 #dh1 #eh ,terborch1 #i1 #db ,theocritus1 #fb ,titian1 #ce ,tolstoi1 #ga ,uden1 ,l4 van1 #ce ,uytenbroeck1 ,m4 van1 #ee1 #fb ,vadder1 ,l4 de1 #ce ,vandyck1 #ae ,velasquez1 #ac1 #fj ,velde1 ,a4 van de1 #fj1 #gg1 #gh ,velde1 ,e4 van de1 #ah1 #da ,velde1 ,j4 van de1 #da1 #ee ,velde1 ,w4 van de1 #dd1 #ec ,verboom1 #ej ,vermeer1 #f1 #bh ,vlieger1 ,s4 de1 #dc1 #ec ,vosmaer1 #ag ,waterloo1 #e1 #ch1 #dh1 #ej ,watteau1 #i ,westrheene1 van1 #ff ,wet1 ,j4 de1 #fg1 #fh ,whitman1 #gj ,willigen1 van der1 #h1 #ag ,wyck1 #eg ,zeeman1 #ec1 #ed ,,footnotes3 #a ,the last figure is doubtful4 ,it is #h according to ,bartsch and ,dutuit1 but may also be #i4 #b ,manuel de l',amateur d',estampes3 par ,m4 ,eugene ,dutuit4 ,vol4 ,v4 ,paris4 #ahhb4 #c ,by all the older authorities the date is wrongly given as #afbe4 #d ,the ,tobias and the ,angel dates probably from about #afac1 or a little later1 as this was the date of de ,goudt's print4 #e ,probably the engraving1 since ,seghers' print is a reverse copy from this1 but in the same sense as the picture4 #f ,no4 #bcf in ,middleton's ,catalogue4 #g ,in the ,national ,gallery4 #h ,seghers has also been credited with the use of soft ground etching or of aquatint4 ,examination of the prints shows1 however1 that the effects in question were got either by using acid on the plate1 or by working in dotted lines1 not with the roulette but with the simple needle4 ,in ascertaining these facts and in correcting some of his first impressions the writer has profited by the knowledge and the kind assistance of ,mr4 ,s4 ,r4 ,koehler1 ,keeper of the ,prints at ,boston1 ,u4,s4,a41 whose authority on such questions is well known4 #i ,this assumes him to have been born #afca4 ,another date given is #afcc4 #aj ,see supra3 p4 #da4 #aa ,a drawing of his is dated ,paris1 #afbc4 ,and according to ,bertolotti he was in ,rome by #afbg4 #ab ,bredius gives the date as #afdd4 #ac ,exhibited last winter 7#ahie7 at ,burlington ,house by the ,duke of ,westminster4 #ad ,compare also a little-known piece of ,whitman's 8,the ,ox-,tamer10 in ,autumn ,rivulets1 which ends3 ,now ,i marvel what it can be he appears to them 444 ,i confess ,i envy only his fascination--my silent1 illiterate friend1 ,whom a hundred oxen love there in his life on farms1 ,in the northern county far1 in the placid pastoral region4