jective view of nature is strongly held by artists and expressed in their works. About the same time Gaspard Poussin,' a 11613–1675. pupil of Nicolas Poussin, and Salvator Rosa,2 21615-1673. who lived in Naples, were also working on somewhat similar lines, while in Spain Velas quez was painting, amidst all his other work 1599-1660. in portraiture and allegory, such landscapes as the "St. Anthony" at Madrid, with its massive rock, its valley and river, its hills and cloudy sky; or the "Garden of the Villa Medicis"; or the "Fountain of the Tritons"; or the beautiful background to "Prince Balthazar Carlos" (see Plate 9) with its tall tree extending up one side of the picture and the leafy branches covering the space above the figure of the young Prince. These artists were followed very shortly afterwards by Cuyp,' Ruysdael," and Hobbema® in Holland, who contributed still more to emanci pate landscape art from classical subjects, and from any subjection to figure painting that remained. Ruysdael is a very distinctive link in the chain of landscape artists that connects the present with the past. (See Plate 10.) 1605-1691. 1625-1682. 61638-1709. He early became dissatisfied with painting nature for its own mere beauty, without expressing its effect on the artist. Like his con1607-1669. temporary, Rembrandt, his is one of those mysterious natures that flit across life's stage, coming no one knows whence, and disappearing in the gloom of poverty and amid the neglect of the world. These two great artists have a very similar manner of looking at life and its mysteries, and being in every way so out of the ordinary, it is little wonder that worldly success and the ways of the world were not for them. Ruysdael is the first to hear the plaintive minor chord in the harmony that rises from the earth and to feel the restless, never satisfied spirit which has become so dominant a factor in modern thought and feeling. He brings into landscape painting the strong subjective element, and looking at his pictures we can almost revive in imagination his gentle personality, through his tender and rather sad views of the flat meadows, the towns, and the bleaching-greens of his native Holland. The next great landscape artist to appear was Watteau,' in France, who painted his 11684–1721. lovely dreams with a strange creative power, and placed the figures of the gay men and women of his fantasies in idyllic scenes of remarkable beauty and charming, sparkling colour. It is in these landscapes with their delicate effects of light and sunshine, and their suggestive quality, that his great gifts. and careful study of nature are seen. His life was a short one and his constitution was weakened by constant ill-health. He seems to have painted these scenes of a fairy land where all are happy, and where sorrow and suffering enter not, as a contrast to his own experience and as a relief to his distressed heart. 3 Then the genius of art touches Constable and Turner in England. Constable was one of the creators and strong forces in the history of landscape. He was the first to give a real out-of-door, atmospheric appearance to his pictures, and he had a very vigorous and personal manner of painting. (See Plate 11.) Some of his pictures were exhibited in France and made a great impression there. A note in 1776-1837. 1775-1851. |