REMBRANDT
Homer
Van Ravesteyn (1572-1657).—J. A. van Ravesteyn was in The Hague what Rembrandt was in Amsterdam, Hals in Haarlem, Mierevelt in Delft, Moreelse in Utrecht, and Cuijp in Dordrecht. We have to thank him for the beautiful Shooting Meetings in The Hague Gemeente Museum, and we also have to thank him for a series of fine portraits full of character of officers in the Mauritshuis. Although he had a dangerous rival in Mierevelt, who was employed principally by the Court of the Prince of Orange, yet Ravesteyn was the official painter of The Hague. When the marksmen wanted to have their portraits painted, or when the magistracy wanted to be immortalized, it was Ravesteyn's brush that had to undertake the work. He was not very highly paid, in common with all other Dutch artists of that period.
Van Ravesteyn's Masterpiece.—His great masterpiece, the splendid shooting picture of 1618, the most important one that had been painted up to that time in Holland, brought him only 500 gulden; but in freeing him from all guard duties and from beer and wine taxes, the rulers of The Hague showed that they wanted to honor their artist.
Portraits by Van Ravesteyn.—The portraits of this magnificent portrait-painter are noble in conception and full of life and character; and in his first period were brilliant in color. Indeed, the flesh tones of his first period are even too red in his male portraits. Yet the pictures which he painted before 1625-30 are stronger and more full of spirit than the later pictures, which are cooler and flatter in the tones and softer in the painting. There is a series of twenty-three portraits of officers who are unknown.
Pot's Schützenstück.—It was not until 1886 that the great Schützenstück, a Civic Guard picture in the Haarlem Museum, which had always been so greatly admired by critics, was discovered to be the long-lost picture painted by Pot (1585-1657) in 1630, which had been falsely attributed to Van der Helst. At the date when he painted the picture Pot was so famous that the historiographer, Ampzingh, had rhymed two years earlier, 1628, "then shall also Hendrik Pot rightfully wear his crown. We wonder what his busy hand is creating to-day." He calls the Allegory of the Death of William I., the great Prince of Orange, painted by Pot in 1620, and now unfortunately lost, "a very fine and artistically painted picture." We have no means of following his development, because his pictures are rare, and seldom dated. The Hague picture shows us a young gallant in bright green costume in the gay company of three sirens and an old woman whose calling is unmistakable. The young woman on his right is in violet; the one on the left, in pink; and the third, in yellow and blue. All this is in a strongly pronounced local color. The drawing is careful and good. This is far superior in all respects to a similar picture in the Berlin Gallery. The background of this picture is a fine gray. The details are convincingly and beautifully painted. The painting of the high lights reminds us of the Hals School. The picture was probably painted about 1630, and takes a commanding place among the contemporary pictures of this style. It was bought for 1300 gulden. A similar picture hangs in the National Gallery.
Two Portraits by Frans Hals.—"The Government was happily inspired," writes Mr. Bredius, "in 1881, when it bought for The Hague Gallery two portraits by the great Frans Hals [1580-1666], who had not been represented up till that time. Yet there were and still are dissatisfied people who maintain that the authorities ought to have tried to acquire a still better example of the art of the master, these pictures of his being too trifling and not worthy of the collection," etc. But people forgot that such an opportunity does not often occur, and then that the price is often so high that the slim purse of The Hague Gallery makes a purchase not to be thought of.
"The smaller and more beautiful of the pair, the male portrait, is quite capable of giving us a good idea of the virtuosity of the portrait-painting of Hals. How fine, how self-assertive, is the attitude of this twenty-nine-year-old patrician Haarlemite! How sympathetically the costume is painted! How well are the head and hands modelled and drawn! The portraits were painted in the year 1625."
The portraits here described are of Jacob Olycan and his wife, Aletta Hanemans.
Bode's Opinion of Hals's Pictures.—In his celebrated study of Hals of this period, Bode says: