Page:Hofstede de Groot catalogue raisonné, Volume 5, 1913.djvu/164

 148 CASPAR NETSCHER SECT. like the thoughtful young " Man writing a Letter " at Dresden (40) and several others in the same gallery, or like "The Lace Maker" in the Wallace Collection (48), are veritable gems of cabinet-painting. They delight the eye with their fine colour-scheme, their pleasant lighting, and their clean brushwork. They only want more intellectual quality to be placed on a level with the works of the great painters of the older generation. Netscher's painting of textures was always celebrated. He was especi- ally skilful in his admirable rendering of white satin. He was an industrious draughtsman. In the inventory of his widow's goods there is mention of hundreds of sketches, only a small portion of which survives. They are vigorously rendered with the pen or the crayon, and often washed with sepia. They contain notes of the colours and, in many cases, of the price for which the picture was commissioned. It appears that the average price of a portrait was fifty florins. Among Netscher's sons, Theodor and Constantijn, and at first also Antoni, the youngest, adopted an artistic career. Antoni afterwards went as an ensign of foot to the Indies, and died at Batavia in 1713. PUPILS AND IMITATORS OF CASPAR NETSCHER If Caspar Netscher stands on the threshold of the decadence, this is naturally the case to a much greater degree with his pupils and imitators. They have few artistic merits and therefore need only be mentioned very briefly. THEODOR NETSCHER, Caspar's eldest son (1660-1732), devoted himself entirely to life-size portraiture. He was much sought after in his own day but is now completely forgotten. CONSTANTIJN (1668-1723), a younger son, is more often noticed. His pictures, in which the smoothness of the execution and the costumes are obvious signs of a later period, are usually signed "Const. Netscher." People have often tried, by the erasure of the last four letters of the Christian name, to convert this signature into that of Caspar. A third son, ANTONI, is known only by name as an artist (see above). All the painters of small portraits in the last quarter of the seventeenth century were more or less influenced by Netscher. One may mention, for example, JOHANNES VAN HAENSBERGEN (1642-1705), FR. HAAGEN (who was working about 1685), ALEIDA WOLFFSEN (1648-1687), JOHANNES VOLLEVENS (1649-1728), DANIEL HARING (about 1636-1706), JACOB VAN DER DOES the younger (about 1654-1699), MARIA VERELST (1680- 1744), HENDRIK DOORSCHOT (about 1700), J. VAN DEUTECUM (about 1680-1690), and so on. REYNIER DE LA HAVE (about 1640 -about 1685), MATTHIJS WULF- RAAT (1648-1727), and MATTHEUS WIJTMANS (1650-1689), imitated