by Lingelbach bears the date 1675. In his Clearing in the Forest (1659) he has depicted his favorite subjects: the old oaks mutilated by the storm and partly stripped of their bark; the fallen trunk of a tree and large, handsome plants, whose leaves pour raindrops over the blades of grass that have pushed their way up between them. Van de Velde has added to this lovely landscape a distant farm, cattle walking along the road, and a pond crossed by a rustic bridge. "With such simple objects," exclaims Blanc, "Wijnants and his pupil have produced a masterpiece, expressing a poetry that few could perhaps explain, but which every well-organized man can feel."
Neglect of Dutch Scenery by Dutch Artists.—Wijnants, like Van Goyen, is not only an excellent painter but chief of a school. Until their time the artists of the Netherlands hunted for scenery outside of their country; for instance, Memling and Saftleven chose the borders of the Rhine; others, like Savery, liked to wander in the Tyrol; others, like Paul Bril, visited the Alps; others, like Everdingen, went to Norway to get inspiration from pine forests and foaming cascades; and Asselijn, Berghem, Jan Both, Moucheron, and Pynacker sought the sunny clime of classic Italy. Into the "Italian landscapes," which they either brought home or finished from memory when they returned, they frequently introduced among the classic ruins and sunlit verdure the cattle and peasants of their own country.
Wijnants the Leader of a new School.—Wijnants was one of the first to take pleasure in his own country. In the environs of Haarlem, his native town, he saw much that would make pictures of charm; so, while other painters were roaming in foreign lands, he took walks in the neighboring meadows and followed the paths that led to the dunes, noticing everything on the way—the tufts of grass, the shrubs, the moss-covered stones, the trees, the roads, the hillocks, the flowers, and taking note of the reflections of light on the bark of the trees, the lichens growing on the stump of a tree, the common bugloss, burdock, and thistle, and the swarming insects. Wijnants was the first to show that poetry was to be found in the lonely walk that led to the sea.
His Influence on other Artists.—Nature seems to have been his chief master; but he soon became the master of others. Adriaen van de Velde, for instance, feeling his vocation for landscape, entered his studio in Haarlem. It is said that one day his wife said to him, "Wijnants, this child is your pupil to-day, but one day he will be your master." Instead of being jealous, the painter never ceased to boast of his pupil's talent, and even allowed him to contribute the figures in many of his landscapes—for Wijnants could paint only earth, trees, and sky. A great number of the figures in Wijnants's pictures, therefore, are the work of Adriaen van de Velde, who always introduces them modestly and in such a way that they render the landscape even more attractive. Philips Wouwermans and Lingelbach also were employed by Wijnants to add figures to his pictures, and a few times Adriaen van Ostade aided him, also Gael, Schellinkx (who painted the dunes very well himself), Jan Wouwermans, Nicholas de Helt Stockade, the painter of battles, and Wyntranck, the clever painter of farmyard animals.
Dutch Landscape-Painters who followed Wijnants.—Wijnants was, as has been said, one of the creators of the Dutch landscape, one of the first to imitate Nature in her humbler expression, finding beauty in common things. After him came such landscape-artists as Philips Wouwermans, Adriaen van de Velde, Daniel Schellinkx, Isaac Ostade, Karel Dujardin, Paul Potter, and in some respects the great Ruisdael.
Van de Velde's Favorite Subjects.—Adriaen van de Velde (1635–72) was a painter of animals, figures, interiors (rarely religious and historical subjects). He is worthily represented in The Hague Gallery by two pictures: a Dutch Roadstead and a Landscape with Cattle. Van de Velde is also responsible for the figures in the pictures of Van der Hagen (No. 47), Van der Heyde (No. 53), and Wijnants (No. 212), in this gallery. Bode says:
Impressionism and Naturalism.—"Adriaen van de Velde is one of the few artists by whom landscape and figures composed in a masterly manner are both felt and thought out harmoniously. He stands so close to our modern impression as does scarcely another of his day, being so simple in his motives and going so straight to nature, that he knows how to reveal the intimate connection between the outside world and our own feeling. A real painter of moods, he excels in awakening in us dark and gloomy feelings; his shadowy forest-glimpses on summer days, with herdsmen reclining beside their panting cattle in obvious rest. His bright mornings with the hunting-parties called together to the halloo, with the gentlemen and nobles promenading on the walks near their equipages, ring fresh and gay in the heart of the spectator; in his homelike evening-feeling with the sound of the returning cattle, he affects us with the feeling of happy departure and well-earned rest."
His Helpfulness to other Artists.—The strong feeling in the figures, and, particularly, the lifelike color of the landscape, is so individual that almost all the landscape-painters of his home—Amsterdam—made use of his assistance in peopling their landscapes—Wijnants, Ruisdael, Hobbema, Hackaert, F. R. de Moucheron, Ph. de Koninck, Verboom, and, above all, Jan van der Heyde, have made excessive use of his services and ability. Even with these artists, who were so foreign to each other in style, the figures that he introduced are so fine that the force of the landscape in both feeling and artistic effect is strengthened in the highest degree; indeed, many of these pictures have attained a higher fame solely through these contributions by the hand of Adriaen van de Velde.
His Skill as a Colorist.—"The paintings of this artist have an additional attraction in their rich and harmonious coloring, the fineness of the tone, and the peculiar tender manipulation of the pigments, which have such a soothing artistic effect.
"Some pictures painted in his last years have suffered by the sinking in and change of color (notably the increase of blue in the green leafage), by which some of their effect has been lost. The Landscape with Cattle has not sunk in; but it has, nevertheless, lost some of its original color in the green of the trees. The idyllic landscape with its joyous, bright sunlight and its peaceful animal life, is a good specimen of this style of Van de Velde's work. The picture is signed 'A. V. Velde, 1663.'"[5]
His Sea Pieces.—The second picture of this artist in this gallery, A Dutch Strand (1665) with numerous figures, is more important. Two similar views of the seashore by him are at Cassel and in the Six collection; and all these examples show that great and simple representation of the sea, in which he is also remarkable for his fine poetic feeling, equalling that in similar works by his brother Willem.
Wouwermans's Delight in painting Horses.—Philips Wouwermans's (1619–68) half century of life was industriously spent in producing about eight hundred pictures. Although his preference for the representation of the horse is evident in almost all his works, there is great variety in the treatment. Wouwermans is at the same time a striking landscape-painter. In many of his pictures the landscape is astonishingly often foreign and sometimes even Italian in subject, and the figures are merely lay-figures. The Country Riding-School plainly exhibits the artist's delight in horses. How beautifully painted are the grays on the right! He draws a brown horse so often that it must have been in particular favor. Some of his pictures must certainly have cost the painter a great deal of time, especially when numerous figures occur in them; as, for instance, in his horse-fairs and battle pictures.
The Fruits of his Great Industry.—It would appear that Wouwermans was well paid, for he was able to give his daughter, who married the flower-painter, De Fromantiou, a handsome dower—Houbraken says 20,000 gulden! He was buried with pomp in Haarlem, on May 23, 1668, having bequeathed to his widow, who was destined not to survive him two years, a very good estate; and to us such a treasury of his art that we can enjoy it all over the world, in almost every important public and private collection.
The Variety and Abundance of his Works.—Whether he shows us the horse wildly rearing in the battle or quietly watering at the river, or being trained by an expert hand, or returning home to a well-cared-for stall after a long ride, we always admire again the rich variety of the master, who, an eminent horseman of knowledge and enthusiasm, never wearies us as such. Many of his pictures are a true