Steen is not the only Dutch painter who, whether deservedly or not,
won a reputation for drunkenness. At one time nearly all the artists
passed the greater part of their day in the taverns, where they became
famously drunk, fell to fighting, and whence they came out bruised and
bleeding. In a poem upon painting by Karel van Mander, who was the
first to write the history of the painters of the Netherlands, there
occurs a passage directed against drunkenness and the habit of
fighting, part of which runs as follows: "Be sober and live so that
the unhappy proverb 'As debauched as a painter' may become 'As
temperate as an artist.'" To mention a few among the most famous
artists, Mieris was a notable winebibber, Van Goyen a drunkard, Franz
Hals, the master of Brouwer, a winesack, Brouwer an incorrigible
tippler; William Cornelis, and Hondecoeter were on the best terms with
the bottle. Many of the humbler painters are said to have died
intoxicated. Even in death the history of the Dutch painters presents
a thousand incongruities. The great Rembrandt expired in misery almost
without the knowledge of any; Hobbema died in the poor quarter of
Amsterdam; Steen died in poverty; Brouwer died at a hospital; Andrew
Both and Henry Verschuringh were drowned; Adrian Bloemaert met his
death in a duel; Karel Fabritius was killed by the explosion of a
powder-magazine; Johann Schotel died, brush in hand, of a stroke of
apoplexy; Potter died of consumption; Lucas of Leyden was poisoned.
So, what with shameful deaths, debauchery, and jealousy, one may say
that a great part of the Dutch painters have had an unhappy fate.
In the gallery at Rotterdam there is a beautiful head by Rembrandt; a
scene of brigands by Wouverman, a great painter of horses and battles;
a landscape by Van Goyen, the painter of dead shores and leaden skies;
a marine painting by Bakhuisen, the painter of storms; a painting by
Berghem, the painter of smiling landscapes; one by Everdingen, the
painter of waterfalls and forests; and other paintings belonging to
the Italian and Flemish schools.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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