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  THE STANDARD GALLERIES

  HOLLAND




[Illustration: JAN VERMEER
View of Delft]




  THE STANDARD GALLERIES

  HOLLAND

  BY

  ESTHER SINGLETON

  _Author of "Dutch and Flemish Furniture," "Great Pictures
  Described by Great Writers," etc., etc._

  WITH FORTY-SIX ILLUSTRATIONS

  [Illustration: A. C. McClurg & Co Logo]

  CHICAGO
  A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
  1908

  COPYRIGHT
  A. C. MCCLURG & CO.
  1908

  Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England

  _All rights reserved_

  Published October 10, 1908

  THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.




_Preface_


When a tourist who, having mapped out his itinerary in accordance with
the time at his disposal for a European trip, arrives at a city for
seeing which he has allowed two or three days at the utmost, the first
question he puts to a fellow traveller, the hotel clerk, or his Baedeker
is, "What must I see?"

First, there is the city itself: its streets, bridges, canals, parks,
and drives. Then there are famous churches, city halls, and other
ancient buildings, including city gates and castles in the immediate
neighborhood. Perhaps there is a palace, and most certainly one or more
museums of art and antiquities. The tourist gazes his fill on
architecture, stone and wood carving, exterior and interior; but above
all he feels that he must make the best use of his opportunities of
seeing the pictures, the fame of which has spread into all civilized
countries. His time is short. He is therefore grateful for a guide that
will direct him to the beauties and celebrities of the famous local
picture-gallery, and point out to him the qualities of the paintings as
well as tell him something of the art of the masters and of the school
to which they belong. It is important first for him to know what he
should see, and secondly what he should see in it beyond the bare facts
he can gather from the catalogue.

On returning home with a few photographs of the canvases that have
struck his fancy, he is also pleased to renew his acquaintance with the
gallery in the pages of a modest work that does not go too deeply into
art questions beyond the grasp of the ordinary layman. Such a guide and
companion this book aims to be; it leads the tourist rapidly through the
most important picture-galleries of Holland, and points out the pictures
that all the world talks about; and gives some account of the Dutch
masters, their qualities and characteristics as exemplified in their
works, there and elsewhere. It does not pretend to be exhaustive, and
confines itself almost exclusively to the consideration of the examples
of native schools.

On going through a gallery the visitor, in accordance with his
individual tastes, will frequently be halted by a picture whose fame has
not reached him, but whose beauty appeals to him quite as much as the
celebrities with which he is familiar from numberless reproductions,
such as Potter's Bull, Rembrandt's Night Watch, or Snyder's Boar Hunt.
The traveller is tempted to linger over the little pictures of the
Little Masters, the charming interiors, marines, landscapes, and still
life of the galaxy of painters of the seventeenth century. It is for
this reason, therefore, that for illustrating the following pages I have
selected many of the less familiar examples of the art of that period.
Sir Joshua Reynolds, who was a sound art critic as well as a great
painter--an unusual combination of qualities--described with fine
appreciation the pleasure derived from the contemplation of the works of
the Dutch school. He says:

  "The most considerable of the Dutch school are Rembrandt, Teniers, Jan
  Steen, Ostade, Brouwer, Gerard Dow, Mieris, Metsu, and Terburg,--these
  excel in small conversations. For landscapes and cattle, Wouvermans,
  P. Potter, Berchem, and Ruysdael; and for buildings, Venderheyden. For
  sea-views, W. Vandervelde, jun., and Backhuysen. For dead game, Weenix
  and Hondekoeter. For flowers, De Heem, Vanhuysum, Rachael Roos, and
  Brueghel. These make the bulk of the Dutch school.

  "I consider those painters as belonging to this school, who painted
  only small conversations, landscapes, etc. Though some of these were
  born in Flanders, their works are principally found in Holland--and to
  separate them from the Flemish school, which generally painted figures
  large as life, it appears to me more reasonable to class them with the
  Dutch painters, and to distinguish those two schools rather by their
  style and manner, than by the place where the artist happened to be
  born.

  "Rembrandt may be considered as belonging to both or either, as he
  painted both large and small pictures.

  "A clearness and brilliancy of coloring may be learned by examining
  the flower-pieces of De Heem, Huysum, and Mignon; and a short time
  employed in painting flowers would make no improper part of a
  painter's study. Rubens's pictures strongly remind one of a nosegay of
  flowers, where all the colors are bright, clear, and transparent.

  "A market woman with a hare in her hand, a man blowing a trumpet, or a
  boy blowing bubbles, a view of the inside or outside of a church, are
  the subjects of some of their most valuable pictures; but there is
  still entertainment, even in such pictures--however uninteresting
  their subjects, there is some pleasure in the contemplation of the
  imitation. But to a painter they afford likewise instruction in his
  profession; here he may learn the art of coloring and composition, a
  skilful management of light and shade, and indeed all the mechanical
  parts of the art, as well as in any other school whatever.

  "The same skill which is practised by Rubens and Titian in their large
  works, is here exhibited, though on a smaller scale. Painters should
  go to the Dutch school to learn the art of painting as they would go
  to a grammar school to learn languages. They must go to Italy to learn
  the higher branches of knowledge."

In attempting to be of some service to the art lover who has no leisure
for extended and independent study, I have by no means relied entirely
upon my own impressions and observation.

In describing the pictures, I have drawn largely on the writings of the
best English, French, German, and Dutch art critics and
historians,--Crowe, Reynolds, Blanc, Burger, Havard, Fromentin, Michel,
Mainz, Wurtz, Bode, Bredius, and many others.

When so many authorities disagree with one another in the spelling of
the names of the Dutch artists, I have endeavored to avoid all criticism
by adopting the spelling used in the official catalogues of The Hague,
Amsterdam, and Rotterdam galleries; and in a few instances these are not
agreed.

For valuable aid in compiling this work, my thanks are due to Mr. Arthur
Shadwell Martin.

                                                                 E. S.
NEW YORK, August 1, 1908.




_Galleries Included_


                                                                  PAGE

  THE HAGUE GALLERY                                                  1

 