844. MATERNAL INSTRUCTION.
Netscher (Dutch: 1639-1684). See 843.
Notice in the background, over a cupboard, hanging in a black frame, a small copy of Rubens' "Brazen Serpent," now in this collection (59).
845. A LADY AT A SPINNING WHEEL.
Netscher (Dutch: 1639-1684). See 843.
846. THE ALCHYMIST.
Adrian van Ostade (Dutch: 1610-1685).
Adrian, the elder of the two Ostades, was a pupil of Frans Hals. Later in life, he felt the influence of Rembrandt, and he painted some religious subjects. But he is best known for his scenes from peasant life. These are now greatly esteemed, and pictures which the painter himself probably sold for a few shillings now fetch hundreds and even thousands of pounds. Adrian Ostade is the contemporary of Teniers, and it is interesting to compare their respective delineations of rustic life. "The contrast lies in the different condition of the agricultural classes of Brabant and Holland. Brabant has more sun, more comfort, and a higher type of humanity; Teniers, in consequence, is silvery and sparkling; the people he paints are fair specimens of a well-built race. Holland, in the vicinity of Haarlem, seems to have suffered much in war; the air is moist and hazy, and the people, as depicted by Ostade, are short, ill-favoured, and marked with the stamp of adversity on their features and dress. The greatness of Ostade lies in the fact that he often caught the poetic side of the life of the peasant class, in spite of its ugliness and stunted form and mis-shapen features. He did so by giving their vulgar sports, their quarrels, even their quieter moods of enjoyment, the magic light of the sun-gleam, and by clothing the wreck of cottages with gay vegetation" (Crowe). Ostade was especially fond of the foliage of the vine. He is often coarse, but sometimes shows a genuine sense of humour. He had, says Sir F. Burton, "artistic qualities of a high order—consummate skill in composition and taste in arrangement; subtlety of chiaroscuro and refined delicacy of colour; appropriate, and never overstrained action in the figures, and precision, combined with breadth, of handling. His earlier pictures are the coolest in tone; those of his middle period more golden, showing gradually the influence of Rembrandt. His drawings and etchings are extremely fine." His father, Jan Hendrik, was a weaver; the children adopted the name of Ostade from a small hamlet, near Eindhoven, which their parents left to settle at Haarlem. There Adrian lived and worked, being enrolled as a member of the Civic Guard in 1636, and becoming Dean of the Painters' Guild in 1662. He was twice married; the second time, to a daughter of Jan van Goyen.
Under the three-legged stool is a paper on which is written a warning of the vanity of the alchymist's labour—oleum et operam perdis: "you are wasting your cost and pains"—a warning not unjustified in a painter's mouth, for more than one old master devoted the end of his life to the fruitless task of making gold (e.g. Parmigiano, see 33). The English painter, Romney, too, dabbled in alchemy when he was a young man, and in his declining years sketched a melodrama representing the progress of an alchymist in quest of the philosopher's stone. The picture is signed (on a shovel hanging against the wall), and dated 1661. It is, says Mr. J. T. Nettleship in a comparison between Ostade and George Morland, "a marvellous example of the atmosphère de tableau. Everything takes its place, but is also a wonder of finish. The whole picture gives you a large feeling of space and tone. And there is no bogeydom, no straining after weirdness; the whole is a common workshop, the scene of the man's daily life; he feeds well, one is sure—if he has dreams his face does not betray them, it is just the face of a born craftsman. It is impossible to look at this picture without acknowledging the influence such work must have had on Morland. But Morland never achieved such delicacy united to breadth, such finish combined with harmony of effect, though before he took the wrong turn he came near achieving it" (George Morland, p. 23).