DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.67683#0491
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
333
A writer of our time, very enlightened in such matters, has wittily replied
that such a people had but one thing to propose— a very simple and bold thing,
. . . and that was to require that they [the artists] should paint its portrait.
This phrase says everything. Dutch painting, it is quickly perceived, was and
could be only the portrait of Holland, its exterior image, faithful, exact, com-
plete with no embellishment. Portraits of men and places, citizen habits,
squares, streets, country-places, the sea and sky — such was to be, reduced to
its primitive elements, the programme followed by the Dutch school, and such
it was from its first day to the day of its decline. . . .2
PAINTING
Thus it comes about that the great accomplishment of the
Dutch lay in the field, of painting, and this, too, in a brief space
of time, the seventeenth century, following hard upon the in-
dependence of Holland. Two artists stand preeminent — Frans
Hals (1580-1666 a.d.) and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669 a.d.).
The Laughing Cavalier (Pl. 133 a) illustrates one of Hals’s in-
dividual portraits. Is he laughing? The self-confident soldier
with a suggestion of bravado looks out at us with a very direct
glance, while over his face ripples a momentary expression that
is difficult to analyze. The plain surface of the broad flaring hat
brings out this highly expressive face and emphasizes by contrast
the rich detail of the coat. The lacy quality of the fine ruff is
indicated by skillful strokes, while on the cuff the pattern is
painted in such careful detail that one could easily reproduce it.
In the upper part of the cuff and on the sash again is the broad
slashing brush work.
Momentary surface expression, caught in passing and fre-
quently of a jovial nature, is characteristic of much of Hals’s
work, and his technical methods are particularly suitable to his
purpose. How much he could say by means of a few of his vigor-
ous brush strokes, the Young Man with a Slouch Hat illustrates
(Pl. 133 b). He is sitting in a chair with his arm over the back;
his eyes sparkle; an infectious jollity spreads over the face, which
the easy, unconventional position of the body and angle of the
hat accentuates. The planes are roughly blocked out and the
transitions abrupt; the high lights are daubed on, but daubed
with utmost skill. Goya’s artistic creed might well be applied
here, “ A picture is finished when its effect is true,” and the effect
of sparkling vivacity, the living expression of a passing moment,
would not be more effective if the details of the hand, for instance,
were more carefully worked out.
The other great painter of portraits is Rembrandt, who devel-
2 Fromentin, Masters of Past Time, p. 130.
333
A writer of our time, very enlightened in such matters, has wittily replied
that such a people had but one thing to propose— a very simple and bold thing,
. . . and that was to require that they [the artists] should paint its portrait.
This phrase says everything. Dutch painting, it is quickly perceived, was and
could be only the portrait of Holland, its exterior image, faithful, exact, com-
plete with no embellishment. Portraits of men and places, citizen habits,
squares, streets, country-places, the sea and sky — such was to be, reduced to
its primitive elements, the programme followed by the Dutch school, and such
it was from its first day to the day of its decline. . . .2
PAINTING
Thus it comes about that the great accomplishment of the
Dutch lay in the field, of painting, and this, too, in a brief space
of time, the seventeenth century, following hard upon the in-
dependence of Holland. Two artists stand preeminent — Frans
Hals (1580-1666 a.d.) and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669 a.d.).
The Laughing Cavalier (Pl. 133 a) illustrates one of Hals’s in-
dividual portraits. Is he laughing? The self-confident soldier
with a suggestion of bravado looks out at us with a very direct
glance, while over his face ripples a momentary expression that
is difficult to analyze. The plain surface of the broad flaring hat
brings out this highly expressive face and emphasizes by contrast
the rich detail of the coat. The lacy quality of the fine ruff is
indicated by skillful strokes, while on the cuff the pattern is
painted in such careful detail that one could easily reproduce it.
In the upper part of the cuff and on the sash again is the broad
slashing brush work.
Momentary surface expression, caught in passing and fre-
quently of a jovial nature, is characteristic of much of Hals’s
work, and his technical methods are particularly suitable to his
purpose. How much he could say by means of a few of his vigor-
ous brush strokes, the Young Man with a Slouch Hat illustrates
(Pl. 133 b). He is sitting in a chair with his arm over the back;
his eyes sparkle; an infectious jollity spreads over the face, which
the easy, unconventional position of the body and angle of the
hat accentuates. The planes are roughly blocked out and the
transitions abrupt; the high lights are daubed on, but daubed
with utmost skill. Goya’s artistic creed might well be applied
here, “ A picture is finished when its effect is true,” and the effect
of sparkling vivacity, the living expression of a passing moment,
would not be more effective if the details of the hand, for instance,
were more carefully worked out.
The other great painter of portraits is Rembrandt, who devel-
2 Fromentin, Masters of Past Time, p. 130.