Anecdotes of Painters, Engravers, Sculptors and Architects and Curiosities of Art (Vol. 3 of 3), S. Spooner [e novels for free .TXT] 📗

fond of display, he kept a splendid establishment, and his

sumptuous table was frequented by persons of the highest distinction.

He often detained his sitters to dinner, where he had an opportunity to

observe more of their peculiar characteristics, and retouched their

pictures in the afternoon. Notwithstanding his distinguished success, he

does not appear to have been satisfied with eminence in portrait

painting; and not long after his marriage with Maria Ruthven,

granddaughter of Lord Gowrie, he went to Antwerp with his lady, on a

visit to his family and friends, and thence proceeded to Paris. The fame

which Rubens had acquired by his celebrated performances at the

Luxembourg, rendered Vandyck desirous to execute the decorations at the

Louvre; but on arriving at the French capital, he found the commission

disposed of to Nicholas Poussin. He soon returned to England, and being

still desirous of executing some great work, proposed to the king

through Sir Kenelm Digby, to decorate the walls of the Banqueting House

(of which the ceiling was already adorned by Rubens), with the History

and Progress of the Order of the Garter. The sum demanded was £8000, and

while the king was treating with him for a less amount, the project was

terminated by the death of Vandyck, December 9th, 1641, aged 42 years.

He was buried with extraordinary honors in St. Paul's cathedral. His

high living had brought on the gout during his latter years, and luxury

had considerably reduced his fortune, which he endeavored to repair by

the study of alchemy. He left property amounting to about £20,000. In

his private character, Vandyck was universally esteemed for the urbanity

of his manners, and his generous patronage to all who excelled in any

science or art, many of whose portraits he painted gratuitously.

 

 

 

 

WILLIAM VAN DE VELDE, THE ELDER.

 

 

This eminent Dutch marine painter was born at Leyden, in 1610. He drew

everything after nature, and was one of the most correct, spirited, and

admirable designers of marine subjects. He made an incredible number of

drawings on paper, heightened with India ink, all of them sketched from

nature with uncommon elegance and fidelity. His talents recommended him

to the notice of the States of Holland, and Descamps says they furnished

him with a small vessel to accompany their fleets, that he might design

the different manoeuvres and engagements; that he was present in

various sea-fights, in which he fearlessly exposed himself to the most

imminent danger, while making his sketches; he was present at the severe

battle between the English and Dutch fleets, under the command of the

Duke of York and Admiral Opdam, in which the ship of the latter, with

five hundred men, was blown up, and in the still more memorable

engagement in the following year, between the English under the Duke of

Albemarle, and the Dutch Admiral de Ruyter, which lasted three days. It

is said that during these engagements he sailed alternately between the

fleets, so as to represent minutely every movement of the ships, and the

most, material circumstances of the actions with incredible exactness

and truth. So intent was he upon his drawing, that he constantly exposed

himself to the greatest danger, without the least apparent anxiety. He

wrote over the ships their names and those of their commanders; and

under his own frail craft _V. Velde's Gallijodt_, or _Myn Gallijodt_.

 

 

 

 

VAN DE VELDE AND CHARLES II.

 

 

After having executed many capital pictures for the States of Holland,

Van de Velde was invited to England by Charles II., who had become

acquainted with his talents during his residence in Holland. He arrived

in London about 1675, well advanced in years, and the king settled upon

him a pension of £100 per annum until his death, in 1693, as appears

from this inscription on his tomb-stone in St. James' church: "Mr.

William van de Velde, senior, late painter of sea-fights to their

Majesties, King Charles II. and King James, died in 1693." He was

accompanied by his son, who was also taken into the service of the king,

as appears from an order of the privy seal, as follows: "Charles the

Second, by the grace of God, &c., to our dear Cousin, Prince Rupert, and

the rest of our commissioners for executing the place of Lord High

Admiral of England, greeting. Whereas, we have thought fit to allow the

salary of £100 per annum unto William van de Velde the Elder, for taking

and making draughts of sea-fights; and the like salary of £100 per annum

unto William van de Velde the younger, for putting the said draughts in

color for our particular use; our will and pleasure is, and we do hereby

authorize and require you to issue your orders for the present and the

future establishment of said salaries to the aforesaid William van de

Velde the Elder and William van de Velde the Younger, to be paid unto

them, or either of them, during our pleasure, and for so doing, these

our letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge. Given under

our privy-seal, at our palace of Westminster, the 20th day of February,

in the 26th year of our reign."

 

Many of the large pictures of sea-fights in England, and doubtless in

Holland, bearing the signature _W. van de Velde_, and generally

attributed to the son, were executed by him from the designs of his

father. Such are the series of twelve naval engagements and sea-ports in

the palace at Hampton Court, though signed like the best works of the

younger van de Velde; they are dated 1676 and 1682.

 

 

 

 

WILLIAM VAN DE VELDE THE YOUNGER.

 

 

This eminent artist was the son of the preceding, and born at Amsterdam

in 1633. He had already acquired a distinguished reputation in his

native country for his admirable cabinet pictures of marine subjects,

when he accompanied his father to England, where his talents not only

recommended him to the patronage of the king, but to the principal

nobility and personages of his court, for whom he executed many of his

most beautiful works. "The palm," says Lord Orford, "is not less

disputed with Raffaelle for history, than with Van de Velde for

sea-pieces." He died in 1707.

 

 

 

 

THE YOUNGER VAN DE VELDE'S WORKS.

 

 

Like his father, the younger Van de Velde designed everything from

nature, and his compositions are distinguished by a more elegant and

tasteful arrangement of his objects, than is to be found in the

productions of any other painter of marines. His vessels are designed

with the greatest accuracy, and from the improvements which had been

made in ship-building, they are of a more graceful and pleasing form

than those of his predecessors; the cordage and rigging are finished

with a delicacy, and at the same time with a freedom almost without

example; his small figures are drawn with remarkable correctness, and

touched with the greatest spirit. In his calms the sky is sunny, and

brilliant, and every object is reflected in the glassy smoothness of the

water, with a luminous transparency peculiar to himself. In his fresh

breezes and squalls, the swell and curl of the waves is delineated with

a truth and fidelity which could only be derived from the most attentive

and accurate study of nature; in his storms, tempests, and hurricanes,

the tremendous conflict of the elements and the horrors of shipwreck are

represented with a truthfulness that strikes the beholder with terror.

 

The works of the younger Van de Velde are very numerous, and the greater

part of them are in England, where Houbraken says they were so highly

esteemed that they were eagerly sought after in Holland, and purchased

at high prices to transport to London; so that they are rarely to be met

with in his native country. Smith, in his Catalogue raisonné, vol. vi.

and Supplement, describes about three hundred and thirty pictures by

him, the value of which has increased amazingly, as may be seen by a few

examples. The two marines now in the Earl of Ellesmere's collection, one

a View of the Entrance to the Texel, sold in 1766 for £80, now valued at

£1,000; the other sold in 1765 for £84, now valued at £500. A Sea-View,

formerly in the collection of Sir Robert Peel, sold in 1772 for only

£31; brought in 1828, £300. The Departure of Charles II. from Holland in

1660, sold in 1781 for £82; it brought recently, at public sale, £800. A

View off the Coast of Holland sold in 1816 for £144; it brought, in Sir

Simon Clarke's sale in 1840, £1,029. A View on the Sea-Shore, 16 inches

by 12, sold in 1726 for £9, and in 1835 for £108. The picture known as

_Le Coup de Canon_, sold in 1786 for £52, in 1790 for only £36, but in

1844 it brought 1,380 guineas.

 

The drawings, and especially the sketches and studies of the younger Van

de Velde are very numerous, and prove the indefatigable pains he took in

designing his vessels, their appurtenances, and the ordonnance of his

compositions. His sketches are executed in black lead only; his more

finished drawings with the pencil or pen, and shaded with India ink. He

executed these with wonderful facility; it is recorded that he was so

rapid in his sketching, that he frequently filled a quire of paper in an

evening. Stanley says that during the years 1778 and 1780, about 8,000

of his drawings were sold in London at public auction. Some of his

choicest drawings in India ink brought, at the sale of M. Goll de

Frankenstein at Amsterdam, in 1833, and at that of the late Baron

Verstolk de Soelen, in the same city in 1847, prices varying from £27 up

to £144 each. He inherited his father's drawings, and all these seem now

to be attributed to him.

 

 

 

 

NICHOLAS POUSSIN.

 

 

This distinguished French painter was born at Andely, in Normandy, in

He was descended from a noble family, originally of Soissons,

whose fortunes had been ruined in the disastrous civil wars in the time

of Charles IX. and Henry III. His father, Jean Poussin, after serving

in the army of Henry IV., settled on a small paternal inheritance at

Andely, where he cultivated a taste for literature and the sciences, and

instructed his son in the same. Young Poussin had already distinguished

himself for the solidity of his judgment, and his progress in letters,

when a natural fondness for drawing, developed by an acquaintance he had

formed with Quintin Varin, an artist of some eminence, induced him to

solict the permission of his father to adopt painting as a profession.

 

 

 

 

POUSSIN'S FIRST CELEBRITY.

 

 

In 1612, at the age of eighteen, Poussin went to Paris in search of

improvement, where he devoted himself to studying the best works to

which he could gain access (for the fine arts were then at a low ebb in

France) with the greatest assiduity. In 1620, according to Felibien, the

Jesuits celebrated the canonization of the founder of their order,

Ignatius Loyola and St. Francis Xavier, on which occasion they

determined to display a series of pictures by the first artists in

Paris, representing the miracles performed by their patron saints. Of

these, Poussin painted six in distemper, in an incredibly short space of

time, and when the exhibition came off, although he had been obliged to

neglect detail, his pictures excited the greatest admiration on account

of the grandeur of conception, and the elegance of design displayed in

them. They obtained the preference over all the others, and brought

Poussin immediately into notice.

 

 

 

 

POUSSIN'S FIRST VISIT TO ROME.

 

 

While Poussin resided at Paris, his talents, and the endowments of his

mind procured him the esteem of several men of letters and distinction,

among whom was the Cav. Marino, the celebrated Italian poet, who

happened then to be in Paris. Marino strongly urged him to accompany him

to Rome, an invitation which Poussin would gladly have accepted, had he

not then been engaged in some commissions of importance, which having

completed, he set out for Rome in 1624, where he was warmly received by

his friend Marino, who introduced him to the Cardinal Barberini. He

however derived little advantage from this favorable notice at the time,

as the Cardinal soon after left Rome on his legation to France and

Spain, and the Cav. Marino died about the same time. Poussin now found

himself a stranger, friendless and unknown in the Eternal City, in very

embarrassed circumstances; but he consoled himself with the thought that

his wants were few, that he was in the very place where he had long

sighed to be, surrounded by the glorious works of ancient and modern

art, and that he should have abundant leisure to study. Therefore,

though he could scarcely supply his necessities by the disposal of his

works, and was often compelled to sell them for the most paltry prices,

his courage did not fail him, but rather stimulated him to the greatest

assiduity to perfect himself in the art. He lodged in the same house

with Francis du