796. A VASE OF FLOWERS.
Jan van Huysum (Dutch: 1682-1749).
Jan was the son and pupil of Justus van Huysum, a painter of Amsterdam. By close study Jan attained great fame as a flower-painter. The principal florists of Holland supplied him with their choicest productions as subjects, and his reputation soon spread throughout Europe. "Whilst still young he became rich and honoured, and reached the summit of fortune. The prices noted in the sale catalogues of the eighteenth century, which are altogether out of proportion to those realised by other works, reveal to us with what infatuation this finished master, so delicate, erudite, and careful, was regarded" (Havard: The Dutch School, p. 264). He usually arranged his flowers in elegant vases, of which he finished the ornaments in the most careful manner. He was fond also of introducing a bird's nest with eggs. Both of these characteristics may be seen in the picture before us. The care with which he rendered every detail is remarkable. "As to you, dear old Jan Van Huysum," writes an artist of our own day, "you have edified me beyond expression. You teach me that a man can't be too careful as to his work, be it what it may. Your pearly dewdrops on the fresh gathered green things of the earth refresh me. Your tiny ants on the petals of the pink teach me in their minute contemplation to be like the star, Ohne Hast, Ohne Rast. How cool, and calm, and cheerful, and confident you are, Jan!" (Letters of James Smetham, p. 173). "The world is so old," says Ruskin, "that there is no dearth of things first-rate; and life so short that there is no excuse for looking at things second-rate. Let us then go to Rubens for blending, and to Titian for quality, of colour; to Veronese for daylight, and Rembrandt for lamplight; to Buonarroti for awfulness, and to Van Huysum for precision. Any man is worthy of respect, in his own rank, who has pursued any truth or attainment with all his heart and strength" (Letter to Liddell in the Memoir of the Dean, by H. L. Thompson, p. 224). Other pictures by Jan Van Huysum may be seen in the Wallace Collection and the Dulwich Gallery.
Signed, and dated 1736-1737. Notice the bird's nest, with the greenfinch's eggs.
797. A MAN'S PORTRAIT.
Cuyp (Dutch: 1620-1691). See 53.
This excellent portrait serves to remind us that, unlike most of his fellow landscape painters, Cuyp could paint his own figures. Indeed we have seen that he sometimes painted them in other landscapes, see No. 152. The picture is signed "Aetatis suae 56, 1649. A. Cuyp fecit." Cuyp is one of the most various of all the Dutch masters. "What universality in the hand that could paint skies more glowing than those of Both, clouds as vaporous as those of Van de Cappelle, water more luminous than Van de Velde's, cattle as true to nature as Paul Potter's, horses better than Wouverman's, horsemen more distinguished than Vandyck's! Sometimes, too—and there is a noble example in our National Gallery—we find Aelbert Cuyp painting portraits, not in the stiff precise way that the father painted them, but with a freedom of touch and a brilliancy of colour that place him between Van der Helst and Rembrandt" (Quarterly Review, October 1891, and Fromentin's' Les Maitres d'autrefois, "Hollande," ch. viii.).
798. CARDINAL RICHELIEU.
Philippe de Champaigne (French: 1602-1674).
A painter of historical subjects and portraits, he was born at Brussels, but went to Paris at the age of 19. He was employed by Du Chesne, the painter royal, to work at the Luxembourg in concert with Nicolas Poussin. Du Chesne was of mediocre talent and jealous disposition, and Champaigne and Poussin soon left him. The two men were mutually attached, and in after years Champaigne discoursed at a session of the Academy on the merits of his friend Poussin. Champaigne returned to Brussels, but was recalled in 1627 to succeed Du Chesne. He executed many works for the churches and royal residences and also for Cardinal Richelieu's palace. He became an original member of the French Academy in 1648, of which he was also Professor and Rector. Towards the end of his life, his fame began to pale before that of Le Brun. His religious and historical works, of which there are several in the Louvre, are apt to leave the modern spectator cold; but his portraits are excellent.