The Story of Dutch PaintingCaffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
History
The Story of Dutch Painting
Caffin, Charles H. (Charles Henry)
Painting, Dutch
The School of Leyden boasts the great name of Rembrandt, who, however,
moved finally to Amsterdam in 1631, when nearing his twenty-fifth year.
After him the names that appear in the School of Leyden are: Dou, Steen,
Metsu, Mieris, and Van Goyen; all of them, the last named only excepted,
genre painters. Dou studied with Rembrandt, who was seven years his
senior, during the last three years of the latter’s stay in Leyden. He
himself became the teacher of Gabriel Metsu, who, however, was also
influenced by Frans Hals, and also, after his move to Amsterdam, where
he died, by Rembrandt. Dou was also the instructor of Frans van Mieris.
Steen, on the other hand, the greatest of the Leyden group, escaped the
influence of Dou, becoming, as we have seen, a pupil of Van Ostade at
Haarlem, and later of Van Goyen, after the latter had moved to The
Hague. Van Goyen, though born in Leyden, is associated also with the
Haarlem School, for after he had had several masters, including Van
Swanenburch, in Leyden, he served apprenticeship to the Haarlem painter
Esaias van de Velde. Moreover, by the time that he had mastered his art,
he settled in The Hague. Thus the characteristic of the School of Leyden
remains its genre.
The names from our list that the School of Delft includes are those of
Mierevelt, Fabritius, Van Aelst, Palamedesz, De Hooch, and, most
distinguished of all, Vermeer. Mierevelt, as a portrait-painter, found
better opportunities for his art at the seat of government, and became a
member of the Guild of Painters of The Hague. Carel Fabritius was early
attracted to Amsterdam by the fame of Rembrandt, and only returned to
work in Delft during the last four years of his short life of
thirty-four years. Van Aelst, also, the still-life painter, after
oscillating between Delft and Florence, finally settled in Amsterdam. So
did the portraitist and painter of fashionable genre, Palamedesz. He
derived help at first from Mierevelt and was influenced by Hals, and in
1621 his name appears as a member of the guild in Delft, but he spent
the latter part of his life in Amsterdam. This city also absorbed De
Hooch, who, before he finally settled there, had been influenced by
Rembrandt. In fact, his participation in the School of Delft was limited
to the two years in which he was a fellow-member of the guild with Jan
Vermeer. They were of the same age, but Vermeer was his senior in the
guild by two years, and it is scarcely to be questioned that the
influence of his refined feeling and exquisite craftsmanship must have
affected De Hooch considerably. In contrast to the flux of change that
characterized the lives of the other members of the Delft School is the
consistency of Vermeer’s attachment to the city of his birth. We shall
discuss his art later. Here it is enough to recall that his only teacher
was Carel Fabritius; but that his art, as it developed, was individually
his own, conspicuously unique, and so admirable that when one speaks of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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