ART.
THE MODERN SCHOOL OF WATER-COLOUR ARTISTS IN HOLLAND.
THERE is but little doubt that could life be breathed again into the dry ashes of some old Dutch painter, and were it possible for him to see the works in water-colours of the artists who have come after him and risen to fame in the last two decades, his surprise would be most decided and complete. And naturally so, for if we are allowed to suppose him to have lived two centuries ago, there must be an entirely unlooked- for difference between the lines of his art and the methods and subjects chosen in the present day. It is, of course, not to be imagined for a moment that in two hundred years artistic appreciation would not have altered with the fashions of the times ; but surely it could not have entered into the brain of any being that such entire originality in manipu- lation would have followed the carefully expressed works of, with but one or two exceptions, every early Dutch artist. The modern brothers of the brush appear to be more in sympathy with sadness and the dark side of life, than with happiness and good cheer as of old. No longer have we the straightforward and affectionate work that was clear in its tone, and instinct with honest, every-day life, that depicted common subjects with uncommon fidelity : now we feel that in the heart of the modern water-colour artist there is a yearning for originality in subject, in treatment, in idea. If this is not so, why must the atmosphere in his productions take so dismal a tone as to have the appearance of being wholly composed of the smoky exhalations of some great town ? Why should it be necessary, if some venerable old man is shown us, that his flesh tints also should have a dusky colour, that can only be the outcome of the artist's paint-box ? Why must we have trees that appear as if they were painted on blotting-paper, and skies as if they were the effect of an acci- dental upset of the painting-water, roughly mopped up and left to dry ? Surely here we have the certain symptoms of struggles for strange effects and unlooked-for circumstances ?
It is impossible to study a collection of works by the Dutch water-colour artists of to-day without being strongly im- pressed by this feeling. Going through an exhibition now on view in London, consisting of representative specimens from the studios of those who are considered the leading painters of their school, the first that must arrest the critical attention will be " A View of Haarlem," by J. H. Wissenbruch. In this picture the artist makes us look down a broad canal with houses on each side, crossed by a bridge, while almost in the centre of the composition, far beyond the bridge, is seen the silhouette, expressed by one wash of light-blue, of some high building with what may be a pointed bell-tower. It cannot be denied that the effect of atmosphere is arrived at in this work with an uncommon dexterity, but as this air is cleverly given, so is the tint of it curiously chosen, for it has an undeniably greenish-brown tinge. There is no feeling of reality in the houses on each side of the water, which have no solidity, and appear unfinished in drawing. The high building in the distance (the latter effect being produced with no little success) has, however, an almost grotesquely uncertain outline, which even distance could not lend to it.
" The Ferry-Boat—Winter-Time," by L. Apol, is a drawing in which snow is represented as well as it possibly can be by means of water-colour ; but the landscape strikes one as being exceedingly uninteresting. Too much can hardly be said in favour of a picture which, with that intent, brings Nature again before us as we see her every day. But when landscape is the chosen form of reproduction, it seems almost un- natural to select an example as little charming as possible, —the case with "The Ferry-Boat" surroundings, where the view seems insipid and depressed even for Holland. This apparently intentional choice of an almost unpleasant subject is seen in a drawing called " An African Fruitseller, Algiers," by P. de Josselin de Jong, where excessive desire of originality must have caused the wish to choose a most uncommonly hideous Negro, standing in perhaps a natural and truly a somewhat graceful attitude, holding a basket of oranges and lemons, whose colour, contrasted with that of the man, is very striking : but even this well-chosen effect does not atone for the repulsiveness of the face of the subject, having his mouth wide open in the act of crying out his wares. " Near the Hague," by E. van der Meer, represents a charming and fresh landscape which would be a pleasure to look at, were it not for the excessive use of a vivid and at the same time a heavy green in the grass, which, rich in colour as it undoubtedly is- in Holland, can hardly have so hard a tint as that in this sketch. The artist has added to his composition a figure which is given, for head, body, and legs, each a brushful of dingy paint, apparently hastily dashed in. There can be no doubt that the tints are appropriate, but it is too much to be asked. to consider this addition either finished or beautiful. It can only be said there is no little originality in the idea of leaving it as it is. This unfinished appearance is indefinably but decidedly to be noticed in the " Waterfall, Trollnittan," by H. W. Mesdag. Somehow, this drawing gives the idea that if it were placed, say, upside-down, what, as no one can gainsay, now appears to be water in a rushing torrent, would equally well represent what is considered a finished picture of a stormy sky, according to the traditions of the modern Dutch school of water-colour. It is impossible not to feel that it became a waterfall by accident only. " The Shepherd," by T. de Bock. In this work, is it an excessive originality, is it a strong-minded desire to out-impressionise impressionism, which has to answer for the confidence which must be the characteristic of the artist, who has, under cover of what is apparently the want of light at sunset-time, given us the most uncertain representations of sheep ever put on paper before, the most absolutely doubtful form of a shepherd, and trees with the most uncommon appearance possible to be imagined? One of the latter has five or six large green strokes like fingers added to the top of the stem, as likenesses of what must have had some grace in real life. The sky in this picture is a miracle of novel effects ; and had the whole work not been already given a name by the artist, it would have been absolutely impossible for the public to make head or tail of, at any rate, the animal life in it.
Judging from the tendency evinced by all the works in the collection, it is evident that for the future we may expect to see roughly expressed figures in scenes representing the restless daily life of the labouring man, rather than the studies, careful in every detail, of the expression on the faces of some pleasure-loving soldiers ; we shall have the weary farm-horse, rather than the cattle, sleek from the richness of the Dutch pasture. It is true that there are still painters in water-colours who see beauty in bright subjects, and who portray pleasant scenes ; but in the generality of cases, the same striving for originality seems even to enter into their work, for usually their tints are saddened by some curious tinge, and their figures seem to have the halo of a spirit light around them. This effect is very remarkable in a large work, " The Walk," by M. Maris. Two children in mediaeval dress are seen, hand-in-hand, passing through what may be a wood ; and if this is supposed to be the case, perhaps the greenish-brown mist through which the boy and girl are but dimly distinguished may to some extent be intended to re- present the soft evening light beneath the branches, covered in their thickness of midsummer foliage. There is a dreaminess in this picture which robs it of all reality, and poetical as it undoubtedly is in feeling, yet it is so utterly and entirely uncommon and unnatural, that one is perforce filled with a strongly prosaic, and therefore unsympathetic, sensation of curiosity as to what can be the real meaning of this fog around the pilgrims ; and this drives out of one's mind the nameless subtlety of poetical spirit with which this work is instinct. It is possible for the strongest and most determined workman to be carried too far in his originality of thought, and our old artist, awakened from his long sleep, would demand his rest again before he sees the men who have followed him, who work so bravely and so cleverly, carrying their modern subversive- ness to the extent of unnatural affectation.
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