BISSCHOP
Winter in Friesland
Christoffel Bisschop.—Christoffel Bisschop is the Dutch colorist par excellence. He entered the studio of Schmidt in Delft, and worked at The Hague under Huib van Hove. He also studied in Paris with Le Comte and Gleyre, and in 1855 established himself in The Hague. A visit to the quaint town of Hindeloopen charmed his artistic eye, and henceforth the peasants, with their gay costumes, and the brightly painted furniture and quaint houses, have furnished themes and settings for his pictures.
H. W. Mesdag.—Born in Groningen in 1831, Hendrick Willem Mesdag was destined to follow the family business of banking. Art, however, claimed him; and after painting for several years as an amateur he started work in Brussels in 1866. Except for the criticisms of Roelofs, Alma-Tadema, and other artists, Mesdag may be said to be self-taught. In 1869 he removed to The Hague, so that he could be near Scheveningen, for he had found his special talent. "I must go and live near the sea," he said, "gaze upon it daily, not only for weeks, but for months and years; watch and study its every movement, this ever-changing element, this amazing, stupendous work of the Almighty!" In 1870 he exhibited at the Paris Salon, and his Breakers in the North Sea received the gold medal. His fame was now established. France has decorated Mesdag more than once, and one of his sea pictures hangs in the Luxembourg.
His Style.—Mesdag is a realist, and with broad, bold strokes of the brush he portrays what he sees and feels. He depicts the ever-changing ocean in all its moods, at all times of day and in all seasons; and the life of the fisherfolk on the shore and in the fishing-boats is also treated with sympathy. His Calm Sea by Sunset, painted in 1878, and Fishing-boats at Sea and Beach, the two latter painted in 1895, belong to this gallery.
"High up in the scale, and standing somewhat apart, is Henry William Mesdag, the marine painter. Into a branch of art which had been treated in so masterly a fashion in former centuries by Willem van de Velde and Van Capelle, not to speak of Lodewijk Backhuysen and Bonaventure Peeters, he introduced a thorough reform. In the beginning of the century he was preceded by men of note, such as Schotel, Waldorp, Meyer, Greive, Van Heemskerck, Van Beest, Van Deventer; but their chief aim was to remain true to the tradition of the great period. They painted pretty little ships sailing on calm seas, their white sails catching a gentle breeze and reflecting the rays of the sun; or again they would paint large vessels, driven before a gale over mountainous waves. But the one was as artificial as the other; their water was like glass, their ships as if made of tin, their skies seemed cut out of oilcloth, and not one showed that he felt any love for the sea.
"Mesdag was the first to paint the sea as it is, the turbulent, restless, omnipotent, unlimited sea, that free, majestic, and mysterious element which cannot be brought within any formula, but can only be rendered in its tossing and pitching, peopled by its 'children of the sea' living on its shores or drifting on its billows. He studied every movement of the waves, every tint of the water, every change in the ever-changing sky; he bade good-bye to large vessels, huge castles of the sea, and took to painting small ships and fishing smacks, the cottages, so to speak, of the ocean. His painting is as broad and manly as the element wherein he moves and the space it covers; not as soft and transparent as the works of landscape painters,—those who give us meadows and downs,—but yet a revelation."[29]
MESDAG
Sunrise on the Dutch Coast
Other Works in the Stedelijk by Modern Artists.—Other works by modern artists worthy of attention are: Canal in Amsterdam and Sinking Piles for the Erection of a House, by G. H. Breitner (1857); Te Deum Laudamus, Groote Kerk at The Hague, Oude Kerk at Amsterdam, Groote Kerk at Edam, and Barn-floor in Guelderland, by J. Bosboom (1817-91); Mother and Child, by B. J. Blommers (1845); Arrival of the Water Gueux at Leyden, by C. Rochussen (1814-94); Episode from the Siege of Leyden, Battle at Castricum, and Mellis Stoke Presenting his Rhymed Chronicle to Floris V., Count of Holland, by K. Klinkenberg (1852); River Scene in Winter, by L. Apol (1850); Scheveningen in Rainy Weather, by S. L. Verveer (1850); Queen Fredegonda and St. Prætextatus, by Alma-Tadema (1836); Mary Magdalen at the Foot of the Cross, by Ary Scheffer (1795-1858); A Landscape, by H. van de Sande Bakhuijzen (1795-1860); Church at Zandvoort, View in Enkhuizen, Town Hall in Cologne, and Heeren-Gracht at Amsterdam, by C. Springer (1818-91); and A Prison of the Spanish Period, and Norwegian Women Bringing their Children to be Christened, by H. A. van Trigt (1829).
A Survey of Modern Dutch Art.—A brief survey of modern Dutch art, condensed from the learned pen of Max Rooses, will not be unwelcome, particularly as we shall meet many more examples of the modern artists.