Adriaen Van de Velde's Beach at Scheveningen is 66 a little pearl of art, extremely interesting for the admirable truth of the aërial perspective and the local tints of its colour."-(J. S.) Animals in a Landscape is another pearl of the most precious quality. It is exquisite in colour. Though the animals are numerous, they are painted in miniature, for the panel is only one foot high. One of the most beautiful pictures in the gallery is Vermeer's View of Delft: "All the light which the artist saw fall upon his town, he has succeeded in concentrating at once in this picture: the broad, masterful, sure painting, the luminous colours, and the clear sky which arches over the town, all excite our highest admiration."-(B.) A late acquisition that deserves particular attention is his Portrait of a Girl, very striking in costume and colour, with marvellously painted earrings. The head of a young girl by Vermeer, with its blue turban and buff coat, its pearl earrings, is charming. And the View of Delft' seems as fresh as the day it was painted. The long façade of the houses and warehouses and the churches and towers facing the river are rendered with a vivacity of color, a solidity in drawing and an absence of too marked literalism which prove that this gifted artist had more than one style. The envelope is luscious; there is air, though it be stagnant. Down-stairs is an allegorical subject, The New Testament,' which is not very convincing as a composition, but warm in tint. The 'Diana and Her Companion' must have inspired Diaz and many other painters. But the real Vermeer, the Vermeer of the enamelled surfaces and soft pervasive lighting, is at Amsterdam.”—(J. G. H.) Vigorous in colour and striking for its knowledge of chiaroscuro is the Adoration of the Magi, once attributed to G. van den Eeckhout, and now known to be the work of Salomon Koninck. One of the Magi has a rich golden mantle and another one of red. Snyders has two large compositions of fine decorative effect: in the Stag Hunt, Rubens painted the landscape; and in the Kitchen, the female figure. A beautiful picture of Flowers by Abraham Van Beyeren, also one of Fish and Lobster, are noteworthy examples of this genre. Shells, by Balthasar Van der Ast, is also both curious and interesting. THE RIJKS MUSEUM AMSTERDAM THE Gallery of Pictures in the Rijks Museum consists of about 2000 paintings, the nucleus of which was formed by the Prince of Orange. In 1798, the National Museum was opened at the House in the Wood, near The Hague; and in 1808 was removed to Amsterdam, to the Palace on the Dam. The collection was greatly enriched from various sources. In 1814, the pictures were removed to the Trippenhuis, and in 1885 to the Rijks Museum. Among the special bequests are the Van der Hoop Collection (1854); the Dupper (1870); the Bicker (1879); the Van de Poll (1880); and the second Van der Hoop (1880). The Rijks Gallery is distinguished above all others for the number of "Corporation " pictures it contains, and pictures of assemblages of notabilities at banquets, and in military companies. The three most important of these, which are also the most important in the gallery, are Rembrandt's Night Watch and Syndics, and Van der Helst's Civic Guard Banquet and Captain Roelof Bicker's Company. Next to these come: Frans Hals's Captain Reael's Company of Arquebusiers; Karel du Jardin's Directors of the House of Correction; Govaert Flinck's Company of Arquebusiers; N. Elias's Banquet of Captain J. Backer's Company; Santvoort's Manageresses of the Amsterdam |