Studio: international art (51.1911)

Recent Designs in Domestic Architecture

“WOMAN BINDING UP HER FOOT”

they can hardly be finer than the magnificent
Study of a Lion possessed by M. Wauters. Its
merits are far in advance of those of any of the
drawings shown me at the British Museum, and I
may add that it is certainly much finer than those
of the Louvre and the Albertina. A Persian
Hunter and his Cheetahs at a Fountain, another of
the animal studies of the Rue Ampere collection,
is less advanced in its drawing, but its composition
foreshadows a picture of exceptional interest.
Finally, there is a third drawing into which Rem-
brandt has introduced animals : a farmyard scene,
with sheep at a fountain and a woman pumping.

A little sketch of a canal with a mill is the only
landscape in the Wauters collection, but it is quite
sufficient to remind us of Rembrandt’s love of the
country, and indirectly, to call up the figure of the
woman who exercised such a powerful influence on
his art during the nine years of their married life.
Saskia van Uylenborch, the daughter of Rombertus
van Uylenborch, a distinguished jurisconsult,
became the artist’s wife in 1634; she sat for his
picture of the Jewess Fiancke, which is in the
Ermitage Gallery in St. Petersburg, and for count-
less other works, and her death in 1642 was one
of the greatest blows that the painter could have
received. It has been suggested that this loss,
and also the state of health of his little son Titus,
who needed country air, drew him towards land-
scape painting : he sought consolation, as so many
have done, in “ fresh woods and pastures new.”

We now come to the studies which Rembrandt
made for his compositions. M. Wauters is the

fortunate possessor of no
fewer than five of them,
and as one would expect,
they are all Bible sub-
jects. The story of
Samson, that of the re-
turn of the prodigal son,
that of the flight into
Egypt, that of St. Gerome,
and that which we may
read in the Book of
Tobit in the Apocrypha,
exercised such a powerful
influence over his imagi-
nation that he returned
to them again and again.
With the exception of the
first two we find them
all in the Rue Ampere.
There is a masterly St.

Gerome in the Desert,
and a no less interesting Flight into Egypt, in
which the Virgin, wearing Saskia’s large hat, is
represented as having descended from the ass
and in the act of resting on Joseph, who is
carrying the child. Side by side with this charm-
ing study is hanging a sketch of Jacob at Isaac’s
Bedside, finely illustrating the most dramatic
moment in that well-known scene—that in which
Isaac says : “ Come near, 1 pray thee, that I may
feel thee, my son, whether thou be my very son
Esau or not.” And not far from this moving
work which recalls a similar one in the Fodor
Gallery, in Amsterdam, are the two remaining
drawings, Tobias' Mother and the Angel and The
Departure of Tobias. Here, once more, is the
genius of Rembrandt set forth for the joy of our
eyes : his power to depict with the pen some of the
most touching episodes in literature. F. L.

BY REMBRANDT

R

ECENT DESIGNS IN DOMES-
TIC ARCHITECTURE.

The illustrations we give on this occa-
sion relate to some restoration work done by Mr.
Baillie Scott in Norfolk, and we cannot do better
than reproduce the description given by the archi-
tect himself:—

“ Runton Old Hall is a characteristic example
of those old flint-and-brick houses still to be found
in the Eastern counties. The intercourse with
Holland in the past is no doubt partly responsible
for the peculiar charm of these old homes, and this
Dutch strain blends admirably with the indigenous

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