DOI issue:
No. 228 (March 1912)
DOI article:Eisler, Max: The van Randwijk collection, [1]: School of the Hague
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.21156#0119
The van Randwijk Collection
“view of a town
BY JAMES MARIS
limb expressing the utter exhaustion of one who is
worn out with walking and can scarcely put one
foot before the other, struggles towards a wretched
hut, as if she had but one desire—to escape from
life. For once the artist seems to have gone
almost too far in his realisation of suffering, for
there is nothing to relieve the painful tension of
the scene. There seems to be no welcome awaiting
the wanderer in her home; the evening hour is
bringing her no rest or refreshment.
The three brothers Maris are here represented
by well-chosen examples of their work, James, or
Jacob as he is called in his own country (1837-99),
by figure-subjects and interiors almost exclusively.
His Children contrasts forcibly alike in composition,
modelling, and colouring with pictures of chil-
dren by Israels. Most sympathetically interpreted
is the child seated in the chair, wearing a grey silk
dress and a dainty transparent white cap, and the
sister leaning against it in a long white frock reach-
ing to her feet, against a background of dull green
Gobelins tapestry, worked in delicate shades. A
dark red Persian carpet, a blue plush cushion, and
a green ball all harmonise well with the other
details. The light is very well managed: the
pewter plate full of cherries and the gleaming blue
net over the brown hair of the girl are effective
notes of colour, and the painting of the seated child’s
neck, of the hand taking the fruit to the mouth in
a hesitating way, and the pose of the head are all
specially noteworthy, as are also the attitude and
gesture of expectancy of the older girl, the two
forming excellent foils to each other. The collec-
tion also contains a water-colour by James Maris
of the Nurse, which, with its vigorous execution
and successful blue-grey colour-scheme, is very
charming and is far superior to the same sub-
ject in oil in the Boymans Museum at Rotterdam.
The nurse herself is very well interpreted, her stiff,
conventional bearing bringing into relief the natural,
unaffected air of her charge. Another good Jacob
Maris is the view of a distan town seen across a
harbour, the water of which is treated in a masterly
manner. The long perspective of streets and
buildings, too, is most successful, and the whole com-
position is marked by the dignified repose and
restraint so characteristic of similar works from
the same hand. The groups of houses lead up
naturally to a massive round tower that breaks the
monotony and is just in the right place. From it
99
“view of a town
BY JAMES MARIS
limb expressing the utter exhaustion of one who is
worn out with walking and can scarcely put one
foot before the other, struggles towards a wretched
hut, as if she had but one desire—to escape from
life. For once the artist seems to have gone
almost too far in his realisation of suffering, for
there is nothing to relieve the painful tension of
the scene. There seems to be no welcome awaiting
the wanderer in her home; the evening hour is
bringing her no rest or refreshment.
The three brothers Maris are here represented
by well-chosen examples of their work, James, or
Jacob as he is called in his own country (1837-99),
by figure-subjects and interiors almost exclusively.
His Children contrasts forcibly alike in composition,
modelling, and colouring with pictures of chil-
dren by Israels. Most sympathetically interpreted
is the child seated in the chair, wearing a grey silk
dress and a dainty transparent white cap, and the
sister leaning against it in a long white frock reach-
ing to her feet, against a background of dull green
Gobelins tapestry, worked in delicate shades. A
dark red Persian carpet, a blue plush cushion, and
a green ball all harmonise well with the other
details. The light is very well managed: the
pewter plate full of cherries and the gleaming blue
net over the brown hair of the girl are effective
notes of colour, and the painting of the seated child’s
neck, of the hand taking the fruit to the mouth in
a hesitating way, and the pose of the head are all
specially noteworthy, as are also the attitude and
gesture of expectancy of the older girl, the two
forming excellent foils to each other. The collec-
tion also contains a water-colour by James Maris
of the Nurse, which, with its vigorous execution
and successful blue-grey colour-scheme, is very
charming and is far superior to the same sub-
ject in oil in the Boymans Museum at Rotterdam.
The nurse herself is very well interpreted, her stiff,
conventional bearing bringing into relief the natural,
unaffected air of her charge. Another good Jacob
Maris is the view of a distan town seen across a
harbour, the water of which is treated in a masterly
manner. The long perspective of streets and
buildings, too, is most successful, and the whole com-
position is marked by the dignified repose and
restraint so characteristic of similar works from
the same hand. The groups of houses lead up
naturally to a massive round tower that breaks the
monotony and is just in the right place. From it
99