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cay, which he placed in a conspicuous situation, forming a beautiful object by contrast and the minute attention to the finishing. Sandy roads and clayey banks, luxuriant herbage and wild flowers, are found in most of his pictures of this period. The colouring in his second manner is rich and transparent, and the handling remarkably free, but finished without the appearance of labour. His later pictures, though exhibiting a master mind, betray negligence in many instances; are frequently coarse in execution, and heavy in colour. The figures and animals in his pictures are chiefly by Adrian Van de Velde and Lingelbach; some have those of Philip Wouwerman; others of Schellincks, Solemacker, and John Wouwerman; and a few the beautiful aquatic birds of Wyntrack. Most of the writers respecting him, have stated that he died in 1670; that is not correct, for there are pictures by him with the dates 1671 and 1673; it is now supposed that he died in 1677. None of his contemporaries seem to have adopted his style of painting, nor of composition, in their landscapes, though he must have had many admirers among them; nor does there appear any imitation in those of later painters, until we arrive at the early landscapes of our own Gainsborough, where it is pretty manifest. There are copies of Wynant's pictures sometimes to be met with, but they betray themselves by their heaviness; some by the elder Reinagle are among the best, if the imitations of Gerard van Nimeguen be excepted.

JAN HACKAERT, OR HAKKERT.

THE finished cabinet pictures of this master are very few, and the incidents of his life but little known. It is supposed that he was born at Amsterdam about 1635 or 1636. The master under whom he studied is not mentioned, but it is certain that he associated much with Adrian Van de Velde and Jan Lingelbach, as the greater number of his landscapes are enriched by their animals and figures; some few are enlivened by Berchem and Helt Stoccade. Judging by the scenery which his pictures present, he must have visited Germany and Switzerland in early life, and stored his portfolio with those picturesque objects of which he afterwards availed himself in his beautiful compositions. Several of his

pictures exhibit mountainous districts and forest scenery; the sketches for which must have been made in his foreign excursions. When he returned and settled in his own country, the Hague woods became his favourite resort for study. The scenes which he selected there, though far from romantic, he made both interesting and beautiful by his delicate mode of representation, and by the gleams of sunshine penetrating the foliage, and gilding the trunks of the tall and slender trees. The contrast of light and shade is introduced with consummate effect, and produces a deli-. cious feeling in the mind of the observer. Unfortunately for posterity, he was much employed in decorating the mansions of his wealthy countrymen with large views, furnished from his portfolio; perhaps to him more profitable and less laborious than the highly finished cabinet pictures now so much coveted, and only to be obtained at princely prices. His penciling is light, and his colouring warm, both having some affinity to the style of Jan Both. The great rarity of the fine cabinet pictures of Jan Hackaert may be estimated by the fact, that only twenty-five are enumerated in Smith's Catalogue Raisonné of the works of the Dutch and Flemish masters; and these are all that gentleman, in his indefatigable inquiries and researches among public galleries abroad, and private collections at home, could find worthy of being described and recorded. See Volume the Sixth and Supplement. It is said that he died in 1699, but this is uncertain; his pictures bear no dates. It is remarkable that the landscapes of Hackaert, ornamented by the best cattle and figure painters of his time, should have had no direct imitators or analogists; nor is it related that he had any scholars: it would be difficult to copy his works with success. As an imitator, perhaps, Gerard van Nimeguen may be mentioned as approaching the nearest.

NICHOLAS BERCHEM.

THE life of Berchem, or Berghem, was so entirely devoted to his professional pursuits that it affords but very few circumstances for the biographer. He was born at Haerlem in 1624, and received instruction from his father, (who was called Peter van Haerlem,) from Van Goyen,

and lastly from Jan Baptist Weenix. The landscapes he painted have so much the scenery of Italy, and the figures and some of the animals are so different from those of his own country, that he must have travelled to that more picturesque region, though it is not recorded. An artist who spent his whole life in Holland could not paint such pictures from imagination. His predilection for more romantic and picturesque scenery than his own country presented may have been instilled by his last and best instructor; for his earliest landscapes bear a strong resemblance to that master in the style, colouring, and execution, and are generally denominated his Weenix manner. They are discriminated by their red and yellow tints, and by a loose and hasty manner of handling. His latter pictures, in every respect, show the hand and skill of a proficient. In design, composition, and colouring, he may be deemed perfect, though he paints occasionally with such freedom that none but a master in art would dare. How indefatigable he was in his studies is shown in the variety of his compositions. It would have been sufficient honour for one painter to have produced so many beautiful landscapes embellished with cattle so exquisitely drawn and grouped, and with figures so graceful and picturesque; but Berchem was ambitious to excel in other departments of art, and was as successful as ambitious. He painted marchings of armies, battles, and banditti; hunting and hawking parties, seaviews and sea-ports, winter and moonlight scenes; and each appears as though it had been his peculiar object of study. It was only in historical and mythological subjects that he did not equal himself. He died in 1683. In Smith's Catalogue Raisonné will be found a full description of upwards of four hundred authentic pictures by this master; also an account of the royal and noble galleries in which many of them are at present located; the prices which they have obtained in public sales during the last seventy or eighty years, and the increasing value that is put upon them.

SCHOLARS, IMITATORS, AND ANALOGISTS OF BERCHEM. ABRAHAM BEGYN, born in 1650, imitated Berchem both in his landscapes and cattle. It is not known that he ever

studied under the master, but his pictures evince that he made the works of Berchem his models. The resemblance, indeed, in many instances, is so strong that good judges have been deceived. But this can only occur with his smaller pictures; in those of larger dimensions there is not the same richness and vigour displayed, and an apparent timidity in the landscape betrays the imitator. He may, however, be considered the best of his class.

BEGA. Pictures of landscapes and cattle, bearing this name, have recently been discovered; they are entirely in the manner of Berchem, and are vigorously painted. Houbraken says that Begyn took up his residence at Berlin, and that he was principal painter to the Elector of Brandenburg, afterwards king of Prussia. But the painter who resided at Berlin is called by others Adrien Bega. Cornelius Bega, when disowned by his father, changed his name from Begeyn to Bega; so Abraham Begyn, when he left his country and settled in Prussia, may have adopted the same course and called himself Adrien Bega. This, however, is mere conjecture, founded on the knowledge that individual Dutch artists are often indifferently called Abraham, or Adrien; and from the circumstance that the landscapes and cattle bearing the name of Bega have a strong resemblance to those acknowledged by Begyn.

JAN VANDER MEER DE JONGHE, born at Haerlem in 1665, died in 1668, was a scholar of Berchem, and painted subjects similar to those of his master, which, though excellent, show a great difference in style; in painting sheep he is, perhaps, superior to any other of that school.

JAN VANDER BENT was a scholar of Peter Wouwerman and Adrian Van de Velde; but his landscapes, cattle, and figures are evident imitations of the works of Berchem. His pictures have considerable merit, but they have not that mastery of handling and purity of colouring that distinguish Berchem's, and are therefore readily detected as imitations, though not servile. He was born at Amsterdam in 1650, and died in 1690.

LAURENS VANDER VINNE, was a scholar of Nicholas Berchem, and painted landscapes with cattle in his manner. He also painted flowers for the botanists of the time, but his performances in that way are little known

out of Holland. He was born at Haerlem in 1658, and died in 1729.

THEODORE VISSCHER, called Slempop from his drunken habits, studied for a time under Nicholas Berchem; some of his pictures are painted in an excellent manner, and have a striking resemblance to those of his master; others, the faults that might be expected from ebriety and indolence. He was born at Haerlem in 1650, and died at the early part of the eighteenth century.

SOLEMACKER, J. F. This artist flourished at the same time as Wynants, Ruisdael, and Berchem, as is clear from the introduction of his cattle in the landscapes of the two first; but whether he was instructed by the last, as some state, is not so certain. He imitated him in the forms and grouping of his cattle, but in the handling there is not the freedom, nor in the colouring the transparency, of that master: his shadows are black, and the general appearance heavy. It may be supposed too that he was Berchem's senior, as he painted cattle in the pictures of Wynants that have no appearance of Berchem's manner, probably before he became acquainted with that master.

AUGUSTINE TYSSENS was a successful imitator of Berchem. His landscapes are enriched with ancient ruins, and enlivened with cattle and figures, correctly drawn, neatly penciled, and well coloured.

MICHAEL CARRE, born at Amsterdam in 1666, was a scholar of Berchem, but he abandoned the style of his master, and adopted that of Gabriel Vander Leeuw. His pictures, though respectable and sometimes good, are not to be mistaken for Berchem's by a connoisseur.

KAREL DU JARDIN was a scholar of Berchem, and perhaps his best, but, as he formed a beautiful style of his own, there are very few traces to be found in his works of the school in which he was first taught.

JOSHUA SHAW, born at Bellingborough in Lincolnshire in 1776, though not regularly instructed in the art of painting, became an expert copyist of the works of others. He was employed by the dealers of the time, about forty years since, to make copies of the pictures of Dutch masters then in demand, and had some success in imitating several of the smaller subjects by Berchem. They are, however, too

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