Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 3, 1910.djvu/573

 xii ADRIAEN BROUWER 559 the debts which he had incurred and could not pay in cash, while promising to paint pictures for his creditors. Furthermore, he files declarations as to the genuineness of his pictures, he stands as godfather to the children of his fellow-artists, and he is mentioned in connection with the most famous of them. Rubens, who in 1632 had a picture by Brouwer, thought much of him ; at Rubens's death there were seventeen Brouwers in his gallery. Some authorities say that Brouwer died worn out by dissipation ; others maintain that he fell a victim to the plague which raged in the spring of 1638. According to Houbraken, he paid a visit to Paris shortly before his death, but the statement cannot be verified. Brouwer's art is limited to two kinds scenes from the life and doings of the lower classes and the soldiery, and landscape. In its scope, as well as in the time which he gave to it, the second kind is much less important than the first. The dozen landscapes which Brouwer painted belong to the last years of his life. Chronologically, his career falls into two periods with a gradual transition from one to the other an archaistic period and a period of ripe development, the one Dutch and the other Flemish. That the archaism of Brouwer's early years was related to the older epochs of the art of Flanders, although his youthful pictures were painted in Holland, ceases to appear singular if one remembers that, while Holland about the year 1623 had no genre-pieces of peasant life in the ordinary sense, the elder Brueghel in Flanders had been a powerful innovator in this field. Later, this curious fact is seen reversed ; Brouwer, returning to Flanders, painted pictures in the Dutch style, whereas in his early years in Holland he had painted in the Flemish style. In Holland he had grown out of his liking for strong local colour and had learned the charm of tone, which he brought back with him to his old fatherland. As dates are extraordinarily rare on Brouwer's pictures, it is hard to trace his artistic evolution in order of time, although this has often been attempted. The one assured fact is that the Munich picture named above (No. 172) was painted at Amsterdam, when Brouwer was beginning to attract attention there. The Brussels picture (No. 105) may with good reason be identified with that which, according to Houbraken, Brouwer painted while in the citadel at Antwerp in 1632-3. Furthermore, there is the date 1633 on the picture of "A Company of Peasants singing" (No. 76), at Bridge water House. Brouwer's earliest pictures appear to be very richly coloured, because of the strong tones both in the costumes and flesh, and in the surrounding landscape backgrounds and accessories. They are the last products of the school of Brueghel ; indeed, both the early pictures in the Rijksmuseum had long passed as copies or school-pieces after Pieter Brueghel. In the transition period, the general effect becomes more delicate ; only one strong tone, perhaps that of the principal figure's dress or cap in full light, now compels attention. Light green, bright red, and a bluish purple are the favourite colours. Finally, all the values are sub- ordinated to the general effect, with an obvious preference for neutral purplish-grey tones. In the technique, a rich impasto gradually gives place to a more sketchy handling. Brouwer never sought to represent a