Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 5, 1913.djvu/163

 SECT, xvni CASPAR NETSCHER 147 Holland, v. 265). Towards the end of his life he could only paint while lying in his bed. He died of gout. The feet that after 1662 Netscher probably never left Holland is of importance for the study of his work as a portrait-painter. His sitters, especially the women, are, as our catalogue shows, given the most cele- brated names of that period, such as Ninon de Lenclos, La Valliere, Montespan, Maintenon, Mancini and Mazarin, and many others, although these persons were certainly not all in Holland between 1662 and 1684. Save in the case of a few persons whom Netscher may have painted in Paris, if he made the journey homeward by the more fashionable and more expensive land route, most of these names must be the product of imagination or else Netscher must have worked from foreign portraits. The original sources of our information throw no light on the matter, and it seems preferable to suppose that portraits of unknown ladies or of homely citizens' wives have been given these famous names in order to make them more interesting. On the other hand, the accuracy of the story which has come down to us about Netscher's acquaintance with Sir William Temple, the English Ambassador, is confirmed by the fact that the portraits of Temple and his family, which Netscher painted, are still in the possession of his descendants (see Nos. 202, 274, 275)- Netscher belongs to the commencement of the period of decadence in Dutch art. Besides portraits, he also painted genre-pieces and subjects of a mythological or Biblical nature. But these subjects are treated very much like genre. The historical element in them is only secondary. One looks in vain for any substratum of a more deeply religious or historic feeling. Besides, the pictures of this group, like his genre-pieces, hover on the verge of portraiture, in that almost all the figures give the impres- sion of being portraits. Thus it is very difficult to decide whether a picture, especially if there is only one figure, belongs to the class of genre- pieces or that of portraiture. Apparently the painter gave to the figures in his genre-pieces the features of the persons in his daily surroundings, and continually caused them to sit to him as models. Netscher's passing from genre to portraiture is mentioned by Hou- braken. The demand for portraits was at that time greater, and the pay was higher than for genre-pieces. Netscher was just the man to meet the wishes of the great world. He knew how to flatter and beautify his models, especially the women. He could reproduce their elegant dresses admirably, and by all kinds of allegorical accessories he could make them into shepherdesses, nymphs, nay, even goddesses. Thus he achieved a great success. His portraits of women are more numerous, to a significant degree, than those of men. Character is not to be found in them, but only feminine elegance and affectation, together with consummate tech- nique. Despite this, they definitely belong to the commencement of the period of decadence in Dutch painting. On the other hand, his genre-pieces at least the simple and natural examples may still be regarded as work of the Dutch school in its prime. After Ter Borch, Metsu, and Vermeer, they add nothing new, but they maintain a very respectable standard of merit. Little pictures