DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62913#0325
REMBRANDT VAN RIIYN.
255
the light and shade; the forms of his figures are also meagre,
and the execution mannered.
Sir Godfrey Kneller (a name familiar to every English
family of distinction by some example in portraiture) was born
at Lubeck, about the year 1648, and in accordance with the
bent of his own inclinations, rather than the consent of his
parents, he was placed under the tuition of Ferdinand Bol,
from whom he learnt the rudiments of the art, and then entered
the school of Rembrandt; and for this reason only is his name
registered among the scholars of tliat master; for if his early
style of painting ever had any resemblance to Rembrandt’s, it
was soon lost in his English manufactory of face painting.
Let it not be understood by this observation, that the Writer
intends to disparage the whole of the works by Kneller, far
from it, for some of his best productions prove him to have
possessed a genius capable of attaining much greater excellence,
had not avarice impeded its powers.
Fie died in London, in 1702, leaving an estate of upwards of
2000Z. a year, besides other property, although he lost 20,000/.
by the South Sea Bubble.
Christian William Ernest Dietrich. Many very
clever pictures from the pencil of this painter, in the style of
Rembrandt, justly merit him a place in the present list. He
was born at Wiemar, in Saxony, in 1712, and having acquired
a knowledge of the rudiments of the art from his father, a
painter of very moderate abilities, and afterwards improved
himself under Alexander Thiele, a landscape painter, he gave
such proofs of genius as to induce the court of Dresden to send
him to Italy. How long he studied in that far-famed school,
or what were the important advantages he derived from it,
does not readily appear in his works, for these reflect the style
and peculiarities of other masters1 pictures, as Rembrandt,
Poelemburg, Ostade, and Salvator Rosa; but those of the
255
the light and shade; the forms of his figures are also meagre,
and the execution mannered.
Sir Godfrey Kneller (a name familiar to every English
family of distinction by some example in portraiture) was born
at Lubeck, about the year 1648, and in accordance with the
bent of his own inclinations, rather than the consent of his
parents, he was placed under the tuition of Ferdinand Bol,
from whom he learnt the rudiments of the art, and then entered
the school of Rembrandt; and for this reason only is his name
registered among the scholars of tliat master; for if his early
style of painting ever had any resemblance to Rembrandt’s, it
was soon lost in his English manufactory of face painting.
Let it not be understood by this observation, that the Writer
intends to disparage the whole of the works by Kneller, far
from it, for some of his best productions prove him to have
possessed a genius capable of attaining much greater excellence,
had not avarice impeded its powers.
Fie died in London, in 1702, leaving an estate of upwards of
2000Z. a year, besides other property, although he lost 20,000/.
by the South Sea Bubble.
Christian William Ernest Dietrich. Many very
clever pictures from the pencil of this painter, in the style of
Rembrandt, justly merit him a place in the present list. He
was born at Wiemar, in Saxony, in 1712, and having acquired
a knowledge of the rudiments of the art from his father, a
painter of very moderate abilities, and afterwards improved
himself under Alexander Thiele, a landscape painter, he gave
such proofs of genius as to induce the court of Dresden to send
him to Italy. How long he studied in that far-famed school,
or what were the important advantages he derived from it,
does not readily appear in his works, for these reflect the style
and peculiarities of other masters1 pictures, as Rembrandt,
Poelemburg, Ostade, and Salvator Rosa; but those of the