For Dutch interiors we now have to go to the pastels of Cornelis Troost (Amsterdam, 1697–1750), whose compositions gained for him the name of the “Dutch Hogarth.” Two reproductions of interiors by this artist are shown in Plates LIV and LV. The chairs, tables, sideboards, candlestands, chandeliers, buffets and chimney-pieces in these pictures in nowise differ from those used in England during the early Georgian era.
Dutch taste ran to heaviness and over-loading in ornamentation. During the Louis Quinze period, Schubler was more in favour in wealthy Dutch houses, as he was in Germany, than were the French designers of a lighter touch.
A handsome example of Dutch carving of the early eighteenth century is shown in the mirror frame in Fig. 47. This is of carved and gilded wood, representing scrolls, leaves, flowers, a mascaron and a female figure issuing from one of the scrolls. “This kind of mirror, made to be hung upon the woodwork or tapestries of the rooms, is often of a rather heavy and inelegant execution,” writes a critic, who referring to this special example continues, “but in this specimen where the outlines are so accentuated the effect is quite happy. The hooks intended for the metal sconces in the lower part of the frame should be noticed.”
Holland was profiting so much by her mercantile ventures and, perhaps, unscrupulous trade dealings as to arouse bitter envy, jealousy and animosity. The famous despatch of Canning:
“In matters of business the fault of the Dutch
Lies in giving too little and asking too much,”
would have been investigated a century earlier by both English and French merchants if they could have forced their Governments’ hands. Thus in The Trade and Navigation of Great Britain Considered the following occurs:
“Trade with Holland: the balance paid us is thrice as much as we receive from either Portugal or Spain. But when we consider the great number of smuggling ships that are employed between this country and Holland, and the supply we have from them of pepper and all other sorts of India spice, with callicoes, muslins, India silks and romals, and other manufactures of India, coffee, tea, China-ware, and very great quantities of Hollands and fine lace, etc., it is apt to furnish the thinking part of mankind with other notions.”
Plate LV.—Interior, by Cornelis Troost.
RIJKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM.