Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 2, 1909.djvu/19

 vii AELBERT CUYP 3 animals. But they give promise of the later artist, who was already succeeding in the effort to render the atmosphere, impregnated with moisture and irradiated with warm sunlight. It is easy to understand why the painting of figures and accessories attracted him more and more as an artist. His father had brought him up as a portrait-painter. He himself gradually extended his sphere of interests, and gave rein to his creative impulses. Men and animals, and especially cows, occupy more and more space on his canvases. His exact knowledge of the anatomy of the domestic animals around him, and his familiarity with their habits and many rapid sketches testify to the ardour of his studies enabled him to depict his beasts with unusual truth to life. These cows and oxen with their placid movements and their strong and simple contours contribute much to the peaceful and agreeable feeling induced by the treatment of the air and light. Then, again, the views of the Maas at Dordrecht, whether they represent a stately flotilla of gaily decorated boats in the summer sunshine or the crowds of skaters and sledge-parties in winter-time, must be counted among the most notable products of his brush. In front of these, the spectator forgets altogether the less sympathetic pictures that represent ladies and gentlemen riding or hunting, swimming their horses or exercising in the riding school, or, again, the pictures of cavalry skirmishes and sieges, the equestrian portraits, and also the few Biblical scenes. Less unpleasing on the whole than these are the still-life pieces or pictures of game and the like, of which the artist has made rich and tasteful colour-schemes. A few church interiors, too, render the play of light and the effect of atmosphere very skilfully. Even in his portraits Cuyp sometimes rises to the mastery shown in Rembrandt's early portraits witness his portrait of a man in the National Gallery. Cuyp's technique was at first somewhat dry, but speedily developed into a naturally fresh and flowing style. He often painted with extreme cleverness and ease, without being beguiled into mere artistic sleight of hand. Yet it cannot be denied that he was at times guilty of a certain looseness of handling and faults of drawing, especially in his proportions. His horses must, however, be excepted ; their remarkably small iieads were the signs of a special breed which is apparently no longer in favour. He made ample atonement for these deficiencies in the large number of his absolutely first-rate productions. The profound impression which these leave on the mind is not affected by the slighter pieces that he had to paint. His best works show the great artistic gifts, which express the simple, homely but profound nature of the artist and man who had an intense love for the homely beauties of his native soil. Only a few of Cuyp's works are dated. The earliest date, 1639, occurs in the landscape in the Besancon Museum. Apart from the group of similar landscapes distinguished by an uniform tone of straw-coloured yellow, few of the pictures can be arranged chronologically. Cuyp's mature landscapes glowing with sunlight probably date from 1650. There seems to be no pictures which, to judge from the costumes, can safely be dated later than 1670-75. It must be inferred either that Cuyp painted less in the last fifteen or twenty years of his life, or, what is less probable, that in his later works he painted the costumes worn in his