Among the scholars of Gerard Dou, FRANS VAN MIERIS, born at Leyden 1635, died 1681, takes the first place. In chiaroscuro, and in delicacy of execution he is not inferior to his master. Although his pictures are generally very small, yet with their extraordinary minuteness of execution it is surprising that, in a life extended only to forty-six years, he should have produced so many. The Munich Gallery has most, then Dresden, Vienna, Florence, and St. Petersburg. The date, 1656, on a picture in the Vienna Gallery, _The Doctor_, shows the painter to have attained the summit of his art at twenty-one years of age. Another dated 1660, in the same gallery, executed for the Archduke Leopold, is one of his best. The scene is a shop with a young woman showing a gentleman, who has taken her by the chin, various handkerchiefs and stuffs. In the Munich Gallery is _A Soldier_, dated 1662, of admirable transparency and softness. Also _A Lady_ in a yellow satin dress fainting in the presence of the doctor. In the Hague Gallery is _A Boy Blowing Soap-bubbles_, dated 1663. This is a charming little picture of great depth of the brownish tone. Also _The Painter and His Wife_, whose little shock dog he is teasing; very naive and lively in the heads, and most delicately treated in a subdued but clear tone. In the Dresden Gallery are Mieris again and his wife before her portrait. This is one of his most successful pictures for chiaroscuro, tone, and spirited handling. NICOLAS MAES, already mentioned, born at [Illustration: PLATE XXIX.--GABRIEL METSU THE MUSIC LESSON _National Gallery, London_] Dordrecht 1632, died 1693, was actually a pupil of Rembrandt. His much prized and rare _genre_ pictures treat very simple subjects, and consist seldom of more than two or three figures, generally of women. The naivete and homeliness of his feeling, with the addition sometimes of a trait of kindly humour; the admirable lighting, and a touch resembling Rembrandt in impasto and vigour, render his pictures very attractive. In the National Gallery, besides _The Card Players_, are _The Cradle_, _The Dutch Menage_, dated 1655; and _The Idle Servant_: all these are admirable, and the last-named a _chef-d'oeuvre_.