LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATES
PAGE
[The Two Plough Horses. From the etching by Paul Potter. B. 12][Frontispiece]
[The Wife Spinning. From the etching by A. Van Ostade. B. 31] [to face 28]
[Sea Piece. From the etching by L. Backhuysen. B. 4] ” ” [52]
[Ox and Sheep. From the etching by A. Van de Velde. B. 12] ” ” [74]
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIG.
[1.][The Spectacle Seller. By Ostade. B. 29][8]
[2.][Peasant with a Pointed Cap. By Ostade. B. 3][10]
[3.][Game of Backgammon. From a drawing by Ostade. British Museum][12]
[4.][The Child and the Doll. By Ostade. B. 16][14]
[5.][Man and Woman Conversing. By Ostade. B. 37][16]
[6.][The Barn. By Ostade. B. 23][19]
[7.][The Humpbacked Fiddler. By Ostade. B. 44][22]
[8.][Peasant paying his Reckoning. By Ostade. B. 42][25]
[9.][Saying Grace. By Ostade. B. 34][27]
[10.][The Angler. By Ostade. B. 26][29]
[11.][The Tavern. By Bega. B. 32][33]
[12.][Tobias and the Angel. By H. Seghers. M. 236][36]
[13.][The Flight into Egypt. By Rembrandt. M. 236][39]
[14.][Three Men under a Tree. By Everdingen. B. 5][42]
[15.][Landscape in Norway. By Everdingen. B. 75][43]
[16.][Drinking the Waters at Spa. By Everdingen. B. 96][45]
[17.][The Cornfield. By J. Ruisdael. B. 5][49]
[18.][The Burnt House on the Canal. By Van der Heyden][51]
[19.][Fishing Boats. By R. Zeeman. B. 38][54]
[20.][Road, with Trees and Figures. By Breenbergh. B. 17][56]
[21.][Landscape. By Both. B. 3][59]
[22.][A Ram. By Berchem. B. 51][61]
[23.][Title Piece. By Berchem. B. 35][64]
[24.][The Bull. By Paul Potter. B. 1][66]
[25.][Studies of a Dog. By Paul Potter. British Museum][69]
[26.][The Cow. By Paul Potter. B. 3][72]
[27.][Mules. By K. Du Jardin. B. 2][73]
[28.][Pigs. By K. Du Jardin. B. 15][76]
[29.][A Goat. By A. Van de Velde. B. 16][78]

DUTCH ETCHERS
OF
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

INTRODUCTION

I

When, towards the close of the last century, Adam Bartsch began that monument of his industry and patience, Le Peintre Graveur, he devoted the first volumes of his twenty-one, not to the early engravers of Germany or Italy, but to the Dutch etchers of the seventeenth century. These were, in fact, the idols of the amateur of that day; and the indiscriminate praises which Bartsch lavishes on mediocre artists, like Waterloo or Le Ducq, sufficiently show how uncontested was their rank, and how fashionable their reputation.

Since then their vogue has considerably declined. Rembrandt, of whom Bartsch treated in a separate work, is perhaps more admired, more studied than he ever was. His etchings, reproduced in more or less accurate forms, are not only familiar to artists and to students, but, to a certain extent, reach even the general public. But Rembrandt’s glory has obscured the fame of his countrymen and contemporaries. Like Shakespeare by the side of the lesser Elizabethans, he stands forth alone and dazzling, and, though they enjoy a titular renown, they suffer a comparative neglect.