LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

[Man with a Fur Cap]Rembrandt[Frontispiece]
From a photograph by Braun, Clément & Cie.
FACING PAGE
[Couple Drinking]Jan Steen[21]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Portrait of the Artist]Gerard Terborch[28]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Landscape with Fence]Jacob van Ruisdael[37]
[Landscape with Oak]Jan van Goyen[44]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[The Jolly Toper]Frans Hals[54]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Portrait of Nicolaes van der Meer]Frans Hals[59]
[Reunion of the Officers of St. Andrew]Frans Hals[67]
[The Syndics of the Cloth Guild]Rembrandt[78]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Sortie of the Banning Cock Company]Rembrandt[81]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Portrait of Elizabeth Bas]Rembrandt[87]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels]Rembrandt[90]
[The Supper at Emmaus]Rembrandt[96]
From a photograph by Braun, Clément & Cie.
[Peasants Round a Hearth]Adriaen van Ostade[110]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Old Woman Spinning]Nicolaes Maes[114]
[Old Woman in Meditation]Gabriel Metsu[116]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Lady at the Clavichord]Caspar Netscher[125]
[The Despatch]Gerard Terborch[127]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Officer Writing a Letter]Gerard Terborch[129]
[Girl at the Window]Johannes (Jan) Vermeer[132]
[Head of a Girl]Johannes (Jan) Vermeer[135]
[The Cook]Johannes (Jan) Vermeer[138]
[The Artist in His Studio]Johannes (Jan) Vermeer[141]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[The Inn]Jan Steen[144]
[Portrait of Paul Potter]Bartholomeus van der Helst[163]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Family of Admiral Pieter Pietersz]Thomas de Keyser[166]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[The Young Bull]Paul Potter[179]
[The Avenue, Middelharnis, Holland]Meindert Hobbema[190]
[View of Haarlem]Jacob van Ruisdael[193]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[Oak-wood]Jacob van Ruisdael[194]
[The Mill near Wyk-By-Duurstede]Jacob van Ruisdael[199]
From a photograph by Franz Hanfstaengl.
[The Jewish Cemetery]Jacob van Ruisdael[200]

THE STORY
OF DUTCH PAINTING

CHAPTER I
THE END OF THE OLD

ON the 25th of October, 1555, Charles V abdicated the imperial crown, ceding Spain and the Netherlands to his favorite son, Philip II. The event proved to be the prologue of a drama, which in its immediate aspects involved the decay of Spain and the growth of Holland, but in its wider significance was to be the beginning of a new era.

For the modern world dates from the seventeenth century, and its pioneers were the Hollanders of that period. Practically everything that we recognize to-day as characteristic of the modern spirit in politics, religion, science, society, industry, commerce, and art has its prototype amid that sturdy people; being either the cause or the product of their struggle for independence and their self-development. Nor, in paying honor to the Dutch, need we attempt to suggest that they were the inventors of these characteristics. Most of the latter were, so to say, in the air. In the progress of things they had been evolved. But our debt to the Hollanders is that they attracted them and gave them practical application, and thus set the world upon a definite path of new progress. It is particularly with the newness of their art that we are here concerned, but we will try to study it in its relation to the material and mental environment of the nation itself, of whose newness it was so immediate a product and so manifest an expression.