The Mentor: The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2
Rembrandt died in 1669. Twelve years before, he had been sold out
of house and home. It is said that there are in America today more
paintings by this greatest of Dutch masters than in any one country of
Europe. Thirteen pictures signed by him became a part of the Altman
Collection. There are now about one hundred Rembrandt paintings owned
in this country. The “Orphan Girl at Window” is in the Art Institute,
Chicago. Mr. Frick, of New York, acquired the so-called “Polish Rider”
and “Rembrandt Seated.” Other examples of Rembrandt’s genius are in
galleries in Boston, Philadelphia, New York, and Cincinnati.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 9. SERIAL No. 157
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
JAMES STUART, DUKE OF LENNOX, BY VAN DYCK]
_THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART_
_Anthony van Dyck_
THREE
The Metropolitan Museum offers an unusual chance for the study of
Van Dyck’s (dike) portraits, though it possesses none of his figure
subjects. In point of time, the “Portrait of a Man” from the Marquand
Collection in the Museum is probably the earliest of the eight
portraits attributed to him. For a long time it was attributed to
Van Dyck’s master, Rubens. The “Portrait of a Lady” (holding a black
feather fan) from the same source, seems also to belong to the first
Antwerp period. Van Dyck was born in Antwerp on March 22, 1599. In
1621, when he was twenty-two years of age, Rubens advised him to visit
Italy. Aside from some occasional journeys, he seems to have spent
his time at Genoa, and for nearly five years he painted the nobility
of that thriving port. It was during these years that the “Marchesa
Durazzo” of the Altman Collection was done, as was also the portrait of
his friend and fellow-townsman, Lucas van Uffel, whose activities as
a merchant had brought him to Genoa. Upon his return Van Dyck worked
for five years in Antwerp, painting during that time many altarpieces
and religious subjects for the churches and chapels of the city. The
portrait of Baron Arnold Le Roy (Hearn Collection) was probably painted
within this period.
From Antwerp, Van Dyck went to London at the invitation of Charles
I. Many portraits of the king, of Queen Henrietta and their children
testify to the high esteem in which he was held. His popularity was so
great and his commissions so numerous that he was compelled to hire a
number of assistants. The helpers painted the costumes and draperies of
the portraits, while their employer limited his brush to the painting
of the faces and hands.
The portraits of the famous art patron, The Earl of Arundel and his
grandson, and of James Stuart, Duke of Lennox, came in this period,
when the artist’s short life of forty-two years was drawing to a close.
The Duke of Lennox was a cousin of the king, who created him first Duke
of Richmond. The Duke is said to have offered to ascend the scaffold
in the place of his noble cousin when Charles I was condemned. Whether
the rank of the sitter prevented Van Dyck from allowing his assistants
to have anything to do with the portrait we cannot know positively,
but seldom has a more superb portrait come from his brush. How
remorselessly the weakness of his character is given! Note the mastery
in the placing of the star of the Order of the Garter, and the emphasis
given to the devotion of the superbly painted greyhound.
There came into the market a few years ago a number of portraits
from one of the old Genoese palaces, where they had hung since Van
Dyck painted them. A majority of these pictures passed into American
collections. Two were secured by Mr. Frick, and three more became a
part of the Widener Collection in Philadelphia, where they hang in the
company of two others of this master’s fine canvases.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 9. SERIAL No. 157
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
YOUNG WOMAN WITH A WATER JUG, BY VERMEER]
_THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART_
_Jan Vermeer_
FOUR
Less than two score of Vermeer’s pictures are known to us today, and,
of these, eight or nine are now in the United States. Any one of them
is worth a fortune. In this case artistic and commercial values go
together. Little is known about Vermeer. The dates of his birth and
death (1632-1675) have been found in his native Delft. There he lived
and worked for forty-three years. An early traveler, describing Delft,
mentions Vermeer, and states that his pictures were much sought after.
They were originally valued at six hundred livres, equivalent to about
one hundred and fifty dollars, in those days considered a large sum.
Vermeer’s family was large, and he was fairly prosperous. But after his
death, for some unknown reason, he seems soon to have been forgotten.
Houbraken, the chronicler of the Dutch painters, did not mention him,
and this neglect possibly accounts partly for the oblivion into which
his work sank.
The reason why Vermeer’s contemporary fame was not greater is not far
to seek. The Dutch artists were all finished craftsmen. De Hooch,
Terborch, and Metsu are painters of the same high rank as Vermeer.
Jan Steen, the Van Ostades, and some of the lesser men were hardly
inferior. Moreover, not only was there little traveling on the part of
the art patrons in those days, but the artist could seldom think of
moving from one town to another because he would have had to purchase
burgher-rights and guild-rights in each new place of residence. After
settling, and having once established a demand for their pictures, we
seldom find the Dutch artists moving on to evils they knew not of in
other cities. In consequence, the artist’s fame, however well-deserved,
rarely spread beyond a very limited range. Vermeer’s early death and
the small number of pictures finished by him prevented his work from
being widely known, and contributed more than anything else to its
being soon forgotten.
In 1866, interest in Vermeer revived through the publications of E. T.
J. Thore, who wrote under the pen name of W. Bûrger. The greater part
of Vermeer’s pictures consist of light-flooded interiors, with usually
but a single figure. Sometimes a “Music Lesson” will show master and
pupil, but seldom are there more than three or four figures. There are
two famous outdoor scenes--the smaller in the Jan Six Collection at
Amsterdam, the larger in the Maritshuis (marits-heuse) at The Hague.
Then there are three or four portraits, surrounded by atmosphere, and
brilliant in lighting. Lastly there are a few canvases very different
from any of these others, painted with a broad brush on a larger scale
and with great fluency. This seems to be the style towards which
Vermeer was changing when he died. Five of this artist’s pictures were
shown at the Hudson-Fulton Exhibition. The one in the Altman Collection
has suffered seriously through cleaning and restoration, and is not so
fine as the subject of this gravure.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 9. SERIAL No. 157
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.
[Illustration: IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
SALOME, BY REGNAULT]
_THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART_
_Henri Regnault_
FIVE
This picture, “Salome” (sa-lo´-mee), is the masterpiece of a French
artist of great promise who was killed in battle at the close of the
Franco-Prussian War. Born at Paris, October 30, 1843, Henri Regnault
(rane-yoe) was brought up in surroundings where the best of taste
reigned, his father being connected with the porcelain establishment
at Sèvres (sayvr). He early showed artistic promise, and after three
trials carried off the _Prix de Rome_ at the age of twenty-three. The
income from this prize, together with the additional funds which his
family provided, enabled him to travel in Spain and Morocco after he
had finished his novitiate at Rome. He had been drawn to the study of
oriental color through having come under the influence of Fortuny’s
work while at Rome, an influence which affected all of his later
pictures.
His love of color is well shown in the “Salome.” The model was an
Italian gypsy girl of the Campagna (cam-pan-yuh), and it was not until
the picture was well advanced that this title was given to it. It is
hardly as a characterization of the light-footed daughter of Herodias
that the painting charms, though the naming was apt. Its attraction
lies in the marvelous harmony of yellows, and in its daring reversal of
the Rembrandt method. Rembrandt surrounded his light with shadow--here
there is the shining black of the touseled head in the midst of gleaming silk and radiant spangles.
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