A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery, Volume I, Foreign Schools

The picture was formerly in the Orleans collection, whence it was purchased by Mr. Willett in 1792 for £150. It next passed into the collection of Mr. Henry Hope, at whose sale in 1816 it was bought for 59 guineas by Samuel Rogers, the poet. "In the atmosphere of St. James's Place," says a chronicler of the works from the Orleans Collection which passed into the possession of Rogers, "they may safely be said to have been worshipped with a purer incense than they ever received before. We may be pardoned for recalling a few of them. Foremost was a Raphael, one of the master's sweetest compositions, the Child standing with one foot on his mother's hand. It had been reduced by ruthless rubbings to a mere shadow, but the beauty was ineffaceable: hanging – how well remembered! – in the best light on the left-hand wall in the drawing-room. Then two glorious Titians – one of them, Christ appearing to the Magdalene" (Quarterly Review, Oct. 1888). The picture last mentioned is also now in the National Gallery (No. 270) which possesses further from his collection, Nos. 269, 271, 276, 279. At his sale in 1856 the Raphael was bought for 480 guineas by Mr. R. J. Mackintosh, son of the historian, who exhibited it at Manchester in the Art Treasures Exhibition of 1857; it was also shown at the Old Masters in 1902. From him it passed to Miss Eva Mackintosh who has now (1906) presented it to the nation. In the British Museum there is a cartoon of the picture.

2078. THE HARBOUR OF TROUVILLE

Louis Eugène Boudin (French: 1825-1898).

A view from within the harbour looking out to the open sea "between the piers." Signed and dated "E. Boudin, '88," with the title on the back in the artist's handwriting, "Entre les jetées, Trouville." This picture by a fine sea-painter was presented by the National Art Collections Fund.

2081. LULLI AND HIS FELLOW MUSICIANS AT THE FRENCH COURT

Hyacinthe Rigaud (French, 1659-1743). See 903.

Jean Baptiste de Lulli (or Lully) was the celebrated composer (1633-1687) for whose music Louis XIV. had a great predilection. For him the King created a new company of musicians called Les Petits Violons or La Bande des Seize. Lulli composed also the incidental music for Molière's plays. The portraits of Lulli, says a contemporary, are fairly like him, but he was smaller and stouter than they show.

2082. A FLORENTINE LADY; on the reverse, A SYMBOLIC ANGEL

School of Botticelli (Florentine: 1447-1510). See 1034.

The portrait is supposed to represent the unknown artist's wife; the angel holds an armillary sphere.

2083. PORTRAIT OF DR. BATTISTA FIERA

Lorenzo Costa (Ferrarese: 1460-1535). See 629.

The portrait, "warts and all," of a theologian, physician, and poet of Mantua. So he is described under the engraving of this picture, which is the frontispiece to a book published at Padua in 1649 and entitled Baptistae Fierae Mantuani Medici sua aetate clarissimi Coena notis illustrata a Carolo Avantio Rhodigino. The portrait, a chef d'œuvre of a painter whose portraits are rare, was shown at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1894.

2084. A YOUNG MAN IN BLACK

Florentine School.

"This picture has been attributed to Piero Pollajuolo and to the painter known as 'Amico di Sandro'" (National Gallery Report, 1906).

2085. BIANCA CAPELLO

School of Bronzino (Florentine: 1502-1572). See 649.

2086. THE GATE WITH A ROUND TOWER

2087. A PASTORAL LANDSCAPE

Francesco Zuccarelli (Florentine: 1702-1788).

This painter of decorative landscape was much employed in England, and during a sojourn here from 1752 to 1773 he became one of the foundation members of our Royal Academy.

2088. CHRIST TEACHING

Bernardino Luini (Lombard: about 1475-1533). See 18.

The face, attitude, and design are the same as in the Christ of No. 18; but the beautiful expression is absent.

2089. MADONNA AND CHILD

Lombard School: 16th century.

Fresco on plaster; not unlike the work of Beltraffio.

2090, 2091. ANGELS

Moretto (Brescian: 1498-1555). See 299.

Companion figures, with wreaths of roses, inscribed (on the first) Ave Regina, (on the second) Coelorum.

2092, 2093. ST. JOSEPH AND ST. JEROME

Moretto (Brescian: 1498-1555). See 299.

2094. IL CAVALIERE

Moroni (Bergamese: 1525-1578). See 697.

2095. A MAN IN BLACK

Alvise Vivarini (Venetian: painted 1461-1503). See 1872.

A fine portrait, hitherto attributed to Antonello da Messina, but now assigned to Vivarini, on the analogy of similar busts attributed by Mr. Berenson to that painter.

2096. THE MAN WITH A BEARD

Romanino (Brescian: about 1485-1566). See 297.

2097. THE LADY WITH THE CARNATIONS

Paris Bordone (Venetian: 1500-1570). See 637.

2098. S. MARIA DELLA SALUTE, VENICE

2099. THE DUCAL PALACE, VENICE

Francesco Guardi (Venetian: 1712-1793). See 210.

Excellent examples of the best manner of this painter.

2100. THE MARRIAGE OF THE EMPEROR FREDERICK I

Tiepolo (Venetian: 1692-1769). See 1192, 1193.

It is mentioned in the account of Tiepolo (under Nos. 1192, 1193) that he executed wall-decorations in the Royal Palace, formerly the episcopal residence, at Wurzburg. The present picture is almost the same in composition as one of those. The subject – the marriage of Frederick Barbarossa in 1156, to Beatrix, daughter of the Count of Burgundy – lends itself well to Tiepolo's "feeling for splendour," and swift mastery of decorative effect. The Imperial banner, emblazoned with the black eagle, is borne by a warrior. The bishops of Wurzburg were princes of the Empire.

2101. ESTHER AT THE THRONE OF AHASUERUS

Sebastiano Ricci (Venetian: 1659-1734). See 857.

An illustration of the Book of Esther (xv. 7-16); "Then lifting up his countenance that shone with majesty, he looked very fiercely upon her, and the queen fell down and was pale and fainted," etc.

2102, 2103. TOWN AND RIVER SCENES

Jacopo Marieschi (Venetian: 1711-1794).

By this painter, an imitator of Canaletto, two views of Venice were bought by the National Gallery from the Beauconsin Collection, but they were consigned to the National Gallery of Dublin.

2104. A MAN WITH A WIDE COLLAR

Enrico Fiammingo.

This painter of whom little is known, was a follower of Spagnoletto and Guido.

2105. A MAN WITH A POINTED BEARD

Annibale Carracci (Bolognese: 1560-1609). See 9.

2106. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Benedetto Gennari (Bolognese: 1633-1715).

The artist was the nephew and scholar of Guercino. He came to England in 1674, and was for some time in the service of Charles II. and James II. "I once saw," says Lanzi, "a Bathsheba of Guercino, along with a copy by one of the Gennari. The former appeared as if newly painted at the time, and the latter as if many years previously, such was its inferiority in strength of hand… Benedetto subsequently formed for himself a style in England, more polished and careful, and exemplified it more particularly in his portraits."

2107. HAGAR IN THE DESERT

Salvator Rosa (Neapolitan: 1615-1673). See 84.

2118. MADONNA AND CHILD

Giovanni Francesco da Rimini (Umbrian: dated 1406).

2127. PORTRAIT OF THE MARCHESE GIOVANNI BATTISTA CATTANEO

Van Dyck (Flemish: 1599-1641). See 49.

It has been said in our notice of Van Dyck that many of his best works are to be seen in Genoa. Two of the portraits made during his "Genoese period" are now in our Gallery; having found their way to Paris and thence to England from the palace of the Marchese Cattaneo in Genoa, and having been bought by the Trustees from Messrs. Colnaghi. The price paid for the picture before us was £13,500. The portrait has not the pathetic charm of the "Gevartius" (52), to which it now forms a pendant; but in strength and vitality it is one of the painter's masterpieces. The Marchese lives before us, instinct with nervous energy; seeming, as has been well said, "at once to interrogate the spectator, and haughtily to repel interrogation."

2129. UNE PARADE

Gabriel Jacques de Saint Aubin (French: 1724-1780).

A pupil of Boucher; painter, first of heroic and then of domestic subjects; also an etcher.

Spectators watching a turn with the foils by two mountebanks.

2130. THE WATER LANE

Jan Siberechts (Flemish: 1627-1703).

It is very fitting that this painter, whose works in Continental galleries are rare, should be represented in ours; for it was the Duke of Buckingham, who brought him into vogue. Passing through Antwerp, the Duke was attracted by his work, and took him in his train to England, where, according to Walpole, he was much employed by the aristocracy. "Among the landscapes of the Flemish school," says an enthusiastic critic (A. J. Wauters), "there is not one of whom we think more highly. If his colouring lacks the brilliancy and the soft transparency of the tones of Rubens, it offers others both rare and unexpected at a time when the Flemish landscape was yet enslaved by conventional laws. Sieberechts boldly met the difficulties offered by open-air scenes and foreshadowed the daring colouring attempted by modern realism. His landscapes are true pastorals. He understood the art of giving his farm-girls and hinds real attitudes, taken from life; and how to make the various hues of vermilion and silver, blue and yellow of their costumes harmonise boldly together, which makes his works so charming, and gives them such a free and entirely personal character."

2133, 2134. "ROSES" AND "APPLES."

Henri Fantin-Latour (French: 1836-1904). See 1686.

2135. THE MARSH OF ARLEUX-DU-NORD

J. B. C. Corot (French: 1796-1875).

Corot is one of those original painters who bring new aspects of nature and modes of beauty into ken. He is usually classed with the Barbizon School (see p. 691), but he stands alone with a peculiarly subtle and individual note of his own. "Rousseau," he once said, "is an eagle; I am only a lark." His mood, though often tinged with melancholy, is tender, and delicate; what he loved was not the grandiose in form or colour, but rather all that was glimmering, uncertain, evanescent – such as the "shade by the light quivering aspen made," or delicate effects, at early dawn, or in moonlight. To read his letter on "the day of a landscapist"259 is the best introduction to his art. "One rises early, at three o'clock in the morning before the sun is up, one goes and sits down at the foot of a tree, one looks and waits; he does not see much at first. Nature resembles a white tablecloth, where he can hardly distinguish the profiles of some of the masses. Everything is scented, everything trembles with the fresh breeze of the dawn." And then, again, when the sun has set: "Bien! bien! twilight commences. There is now in the sky only that soft vaporous colour of pale citron. One is losing sight of everything, but one still feels that everything is there. The birds, those voices of the flowers, say their evening prayer, the dew scatters pearls upon the grass, the nymphs fly … everything is again darkened; the pond alone glitters. Good, there is my picture completed." It was only gradually that Corot reached the style upon which his fame rests. He was born in Paris of humble parents, and served for some years in a draper's shop. He was twenty-two before he was able to follow his artistic bent. He made the usual classical tour to Italy, and it was not till 1843 that he began to reveal the characteristic charm which he had found in French landscape. He painted what few eyes are wont to see and had to create the taste by which he was to be admired. But affluence came to him, and he gave as readily as he received. Many stories are told of his benevolence, and the love which he inspired is recorded in the title, "le père Corot," by which he was called. As a mark of their esteem his fellow-artists presented him with a gold medal shortly before his death. His last words were characteristic of his art and his life. It was his practice to sketch early and late in the open air, dreaming his pictures as he studied, and to "paint his dreams" in the studio. "Last night," he said as he lay on his death-bed, "I saw in a dream a landscape with a rosy sky; it will be marvellous to paint." He was seen to draw in the air with his fingers. "Mon Dieu" he said, "how beautiful that is; the most beautiful landscape I have ever seen." His old housekeeper offered to bring him his breakfast. He smiled and said, "To-day Père Corot will breakfast above."

This little picture is characteristic of one of Corot's tastes. "He loved," we are told, "water in indetermined clearness and in the shining glance of light, leaving it here in shadow and touching it there with brightness. He loved morning before sunrise, when the white mists hover over pools like a light veil of gauze; he had a passion for evening which was almost greater; he loved the softer vapours which gather in the gloom." (Muther.) The picture was painted in 1871, and was purchased by Fantin-Latour at the posthumous sale of Corot's works.

2136. ENGRAVED PORTRAIT OF LULLY, THE MUSICIAN. See 2081

2143. LADY STANDING BY A SPINET

Jacob Ochtervelt (Dutch: died before 1710).

Jacob Ochtervelt (sometimes called wrongly Jan, and Achtervelt or Uchtervelt) was born probably at Rotterdam. He formed his style on the model of Terburg, to whom his pictures are sometimes attributed (see, for instance, an example in the Venice Academy formerly given to Terburg).

A beautiful example of a painter, by whom pictures in good condition are rare – a harmony in pink and grey and brown. There is poetical feeling, too, in the lady's attitude and the man who looks up intently at her; as also some humour in the dog turning his attention to an intruder.

2144. LA MARCHESA CATTANEO

Van Dyck (Flemish: 1599-1641). See 49.

A companion picture to No. 2127.

2162. PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST

Joseph Ducreux (French: 1735-1802).

The artist is dressed as a French Abbé, with powdered hair.

2163. THE MAGDALEN

Mabuse (Flemish: 1470-1541). See 656.

2204. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH

Hendrick Steenwyck (Flemish: 1580-1649). See 1132.

Dated 1615. The nave of a Gothic church; in the distance a funeral procession is entering the choir; beggars and dogs in the foreground.

2205. INTERIOR OF A CHURCH

Pieter Neeffs (Flemish: 1577-1661). See 924.

A night scene in a church of Renaissance architecture. On a tomb on the floor is an inscription – "632 Hier legt begraven Henri Steenwick."

2206. VESPERS

2207. AFTER VESPERS

Pieter Neeffs.

The chapel in No. 2207 is the same as that on the left in No. 2206.

2209. ULRICUS SIROSENIUS, DUKE OF EAST FRIESLAND

Cornelissen (Dutch: about 1475-1555). See 657.

The title is written on the back of the oak panel. The Duke's sword is inscribed – "Victor est qui nomen Domini pugnavit." Among other versions of this portrait is one in the Oldenburg Gallery, attributed to Lucas van Leyden. Another (in the Duke of Rutland's collection) has Dürer's monogram.

2211. JACQUELINE DE BOURGOGNE

Mabuse (Flemish: about 1470-1541). See 656.

The beautiful costume and jewellery should be noticed; the girl holds an orrery. This picture was shown in the Golden Fleece Exhibition at Bruges in 1907.

2216. "LA MAIN CHAUDE."

Jean François de Troy (French: 1679-1752).

This painter (pupil of his father, François de Troy) was employed by Louis XIV. to execute designs for tapestry in the grand style, and he carved out much decorative work. Sets of some of the tapestries from his designs are in the State Apartments in Windsor Castle. Subsequently, he adopted the style of Watteau, and painted "conversations galantes," such as in the example before us. Other specimens of his work may be seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and in the Wallace collection.

2217. ELISA BONAPARTE, GRAND DUCHESS OF TUSCANY

J. L. David (French: 1748-1825).

Jacques Louis David, the founder of the "classical school" in France and for many years the Dictator of French art, was a nephew of Boucher, from whom he received his first instruction. His celebrated "Oath of the Horatii" (1784) and "Brutus" (1789), and other works of the kind, are in the Louvre. They were not without influence on the politics of the time, and David was elected a representative of Paris in the Convention in 1792. He became a follower of Robespierre, and naturally escaped execution. Abandoning politics, he became acquainted with Napoleon, who made him his First Painter. On the restoration of the Bourbons, he sought refuge in Brussels, where he died. Many of his Napoleonic pictures are at Versailles.

A vigorous portrait-sketch of Elisa, sister of Napoleon, whom he made Duchess of Tuscany, with the titles of Duchess of Lucca and Princess of Piombino. She was born in 1777 and died in 1820. We see her here in white empire costume.

2218. MADAME MALIBRAN

J. A. D. Ingres (French: 1780-1867).

A study of the famous singer; attributed to Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, a pupil of David, who imparted a grace of his own to the Classical School.

2251. PORTRAIT OF BONA OF SAVOY

Ambrogio de Predis (Milanese: about 1450-1515). See 1661.

This striking full-length figure of a lady, richly attired and wearing jewels, was No. 7 in the exhibition of pictures by Milanese masters at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1894. It was then described as a portrait of Beatrice d'Este.

2256. RIVER SCENE

2257. ILEX TREES, VILLEFRANCHE

Henri Harpignies (French: born 1819).

These two pictures, recently presented to the Gallery, are slight examples of the work, in oil and water-colour, of an artist who travelled with Corot and continued that master's method of interpreting nature.

2258. A WOODLAND SCENE

Georges Michel (French: 1763-1843).

A good example of an artist who has been called "the Ruysdael of Montmartre."

2281. THE VIRGIN AND CHILD

Lorenzo Lotto (Venetian: 1480-1556). See 699.

The Virgin, a pretty woman prettily dressed, is seated between St. Jerome and St. Anthony of Padua, who holds in his hand a "Madonna lily." This bright and dainty picture belongs to the year 1522 (see Berenson's Lorenzo Lotto, 1895, p. 187).

2282. THE BOHEMIANS

Philips Wouwerman (Dutch: 1619-1668). See 878.

2283. DAWN

Aart van der Neer (Dutch: 1603-1677). See 152.

2285. A FAMILY GROUP

Frans Hals (Dutch: 1580-1666). See 1021.

An important accession to the Gallery, as an example of the large portrait-groups in which Hals excelled. The composition whereby the ten figures are all brought into a group is ingenious – the part played by the direction of the elder boy's attention to the other being in this respect important – though in colour the harmony is somewhat disturbed by the emphatic lights of the lace and linen worn by each member of the group. There is individual character in all the portraits; among the figures which most compel admiration are those of the mother, full of quiet dignity, of the eldest daughter, standing on the right with a work-basket in her hand (both beautifully painted), and of the little girl seated in front. The picture unknown to the connoisseurs before its acquisition for the National Gallery – was purchased in 1908 from Lord Talbot de Malahide for £25,000.

2288. PORTRAIT OF DR. FORLENZE

Jacques Antoine Vallin (French: 1770-1838).

Dr. J. N. B. Forlenze (1769-1833) was a physician and man of fashion in Naples. He had visited England and studied under John Hunter; and practised as an oculist in Paris. This portrait was exhibited at the Salon in 1808.

2289. ATTILA: AN ALLEGORY

F. V. E. Delacroix (French: 1798-1863).

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix was the chief of the "Romantic" school in painting, which in literature was represented by de Musset, George Sand, and Victor Hugo. The Romanticists revolted against the art of the Classicists as cold, formal, and colourless. Delacroix, whose admiration was for Byron in poetry and for Rubens in painting, sought before all things passion, emotion, and colour. He had, says Silvestre, "the sun in his head and a thunderstorm in his heart, and his grandiose and awe-inspiring brush sounded the entire gamut of human emotion." He loved strong colour, and he was one of many French artists who were influenced by the sight of Constable's pictures in the Salon. His pictures were as fiercely assailed, as they were furiously painted. "It is the massacre of painting," said Baron Gros of Delacroix's "Massacre of Chios." "I became the abomination of painting," said the artist, "I was refused water and salt;" but, he added, "I was enchanted with myself," and he won his way into favour. He was born at Charenton St. Maurice, near Paris. His father, who held high office under the First Empire, had been a partisan of the violent faction during the Revolution, and, like some other revolutionaries, was more consumed with public ardour than concerned with private affairs. The boy was exposed to accidents and neglect in his childhood which make one wonder that he survived. He had poor health throughout life, and there was in him a hectic strain which was reflected in his art. In 1817 he entered the studio of Guérin, where he had Ary Scheffer (see 1169) for a fellow-pupil and antagonist, and afterwards he worked under Baron Gros. He was deeply stirred by the War of Greek Independence; and a visit which he paid to Morocco and Algiers in 1831 had the effect of enriching his sense of colour. He had a strong supporter in Thiers, through whose influence he received many important commissions for public works – in the decoration of the Louvre, the Luxembourg, and the Chamber of Deputies. Our picture was a design for the latter. These and other large works occupied him till 1855; and at last in 1857 he was admitted into the French Academy.