Still-Life Painting

Pieter Aertsen, early 16th century, one of the first absolute still-life painters, although at times introducing figures in the background of some of his pictures, painted pictures of meats, vegetables, etc., in the kitchen or larder. His large canvas in Uppsala, representing a butcher-shop with a calf's head, a side of beef, a pig's head and sausages, fowl, fish and all sorts of grue some details of what one expects to find in such a place, is typical. The canvas is overfilled, every small place is crowded, and although correct in drawing, well coloured and a picture most inter esting, it is in questionable taste.

Abraham van Beyeren (162o-75) stands out as one of the fore most painters of fish, producing well composed paintings, glowing with bright colours and glistening surfaces. The painting of wet, sparkling fish gives opportunities to the student for the study of brilliant light against the deep and rich notes in the wet fish, and as the fish very soon deteriorates in colour and form, the can vas must be painted quickly, in the heat of enthusiasm, thus bringing forth the finest results, the most spontaneous work.

Joachim Buckelaer painted fish, as did Alexander Adriassen and, in their late years, Vollon, Manet and Chase.

Jan Davidszoon de Heem and his son, Cornelius de Heem, the two most celebrated members of a large family of still-life painters, are separately noticed. Jan was one of the earliest and ablest. The realism of the individual flower or peach was more desired by these painters than the ensemble of the picture. Jan van Huysum (q.v.) reached the top as a flower painter whose style was similar to that of the de Heems.

Willem Kalf, like Willem Claesz Heda, had finer perception of tone and envelopment. Both were painters of rich objects that were executed in the adopted style of the Dutch, but with keen observation of values and tonality; they were taught by masters like Vermeer and Terborch.

Franz Snyders's large game compositions are highly decora tive, his fruit rich in colour, well drawn and painted, but over filled with details and without concentration of the motif. No air in them ! The pictures of game that his pupil, Jan Fyt, painted are well studied, realistic in the weight of deer and hare, and in the quality of the painting of fur and feathers. Jan Weenix was a highly decorative painter of dead game in luxurious surroundings, garden backgrounds with decorated vases, the implements for the hunt and its spoils.

In all this interesting still-life work it was always the manner that was considered superior to the matter, and it was always the school that called for excellence of craftsmanship. Every master had his pupils who followed his style ; father taught son, and the son taught his son ; it was a trade that had to be learned.

Without absolute knowledge of his tools and the preparation of the canvas or panel, one did not count for much in the craft. So-called "visions" were not considered in the Netherlands, as they were in Italy. Pictures that could be studied and loved at short range were called for, and the work could not be carelessly done. Therefore, something was often missing, even in this beau tiful work. It left no room for imagination. It was only for the eye—charming to look at, but nothing to dream about—and was generally the work of the painter and rarely of the artist.

Chardin.

Jean Baptiste Simeon Chardin lifted still-life to a higher plane in art than the Hollanders and Flemings of former years. Understanding their methods, he added to their technique air and light as the aim to search for. His simplicity saw beauty in his daily surroundings; his honesty rendered them with absolute truth. Every utensil in his kitchen we know—the copper water fountain, the charcoal brazier, the brass kettles, the handsome water-jar, the bread knife, as well as the large loaf of bread, the herrings, cuts of meat, onions and pieces of china. Chardin's liv ing-room we know, with the straight-backed chairs and the bird in its cage on a stand. We know the housewife with her white apron —and how splendid a white ! Chardin's whites are miracles of painting. The white jug and the white fowl in the still-life in the Boston museum are unequalled. Few painters of all time have been able to handle white pigment as Chardin could. James McNeill Whistler was among the few.

Among his earliest pictures was the "Skate," now in the Louvre. This was accepted by the academy as his diploma pic ture, simply painted and freer in treatment than other canvases of his early career. He painted a great many interiors, with one or two figures. Again and again it is the light that predominates, the atmosphere of the room or rooms, for we often look through an open door into another room, and that room full of light. Every figure has its weight, stands soundly on its feet and is well in its distance from the onlooker and from the wall behind.