The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1876-03-15
THE FINE ART LECTURES.


at most of the preceding lectures. MIR.
Marsh explained briefly before commencing
his lecture the collection of photographs
which were hung at the rear of the plat
form. A part of these are from Boston,
and were secured for the occasion by Mr..
Ware, of Burlington. There was fine
proof of Trainings copy of Rembrant's
"Hundred Guilder," photographs Of Ecce
Homo, The Night Watch, picture of
Rembrandt and wife, by himself, of several
of his landscapes, and of many of his most
famous pieces. Mr. Marsh was unfor-
tunately afflicted with a severe cold.
THE LECTURE.
1t is difficult, said the lecturer, to assign
to Rembrandt his just position IN art His
historical period is still waiting to be illu-
minated by Motley, and his own life was
Rubens and Holbein and so many others in
the light of royal favor he left no treatise
or letters !; and the records of his busy aud |
productive lite are to be found only in his |
paintings. Moreover, we cannot compare
him to any other great painter-he forms |
a style for himself. If there have ever been |
perfect artists be was not one of them; but |
if inferior in some respects, in others he IS |
supreme. There are technical qualities and |
modes of conception, in which he is with |
out peer. The head of the Holland |
school, he is also within the foremost rank |
of the painters of the world, and If pain |
ter is to be judged by his creatice genius,
and by the new resources he has added |
to the domain of art, he takes place among
the first seven, who stood at the summit.
Al. - At x,.l,t ..l, al n
by side with that of the south, though per-
haps not as fully appreciated, Netherland
art from the first took the lead. In the
seventeenth century, the Holland school
became the leading school of Europe. Be-
hind the pomp and blood that crimson the
history of Flanders, the bloom of Holland
painting had been slowly maturing and
in all that great Netherland art, with its
wonderful fascination, its daring indepen-
dence, its deep love for nature, from which
has descended our English and American
| landscape painting, the art of Holland bore
| large share. While the art of Belgium
remained Catholic, and largely devoted to
ecclesiastical subjects, the Holland school,
cut off from church patronage, became
Protestant and drew more from the scenes
of its own bold and honest and prosperous
burgher-life. Its characteristics are life,
|
humanity. OF this school Rembrandt was
the acknowledged head.
| The early years of Rembrandt were next
briefly sketched. The son of Leyden
miller, his talent showed itself while he
was boy and at thirteen he entered the
studio of Leyden artist. At sixteen he
chose bis own path, and thenceforth pur-
sued his art alone. Abandoning the arti-
fetal and conventional method of the ltalo-
Dutch school, he took Nature for his
teacher. The prospect from his windows;
the streets of Leyden with the quaint fa-
cades of the houses lying dark against the
sunset sky, the churches and castles, the
broad prosaic Dutch landscape, were a
better school for the boy-artist than the
studios, and nourshed in him his love for
the picturesque. Here he learned to give
to the sky and clouds a special importance.
What strange things he saw and wrote in
the clouds is shown in the dark and
troubled sky of his "Three Trees" or in
his "Jacob's Dream" in which the massy
walls of dark cloud fall back, forming as
it were vast opening into dark noun
tain side, through which one looks into
depth after depth of solemn radiance, the
broad beams of gl0rY shining. down ut R
aud entered on his career of rcnown at Am
sterdam, then the centre of Hollands liter
AZURE, art and wealth. In the busy life of
this great city, with its picturesque beg
gars, its merchants and captains from for
egn ports, who brought their marked faces
END costumes and oriental coloring into the
misty north, his fancy found the hints and
materials to weave with the facts of his
tory and scripture into many striking
picture. In 1881, he painted his "Presen-
tation IN the Temple, his first important
picture, Friends, patrons and pupils
locked around him. Among these friends
and patrons were Professor TULIP, who
chose Rembrandt TO paint the chief sur
geons of Amsterdam, and the Burgo
master Six, patrician and poet, whose
| prlncely collection of paintings the tourist
OF today secs still treasured in the old an
cestral museum where Rembrandt was SO
| often guest Rembrandts marriage to
| the beautiful Saskia, her untimely death
| after few bright years, and the melan-
choly which stole over his life and cast a
shadow over his canvas; and his loss of
his small fortune, the accumulation of 90
years, caused by his too lavish expenditure
In collecting works of art, were briefly al
luded to.
MIR. Marsh next considered the technical
qualities of Rembrandt's art. In his draw
ing, we often look in vain for the ideal
beauty OF form of the higher Italian school,
There Is sometimes certain wiltulness
and carelessness of outline. Yet he could
depict faces as lovely as the loveliest, as
in the queenly beauty of the bride in his |
Marriage Feast of Samson" with its sub |
tle enchantment, it calm, dangerous charm.
Inc Samson, in the same painting, with its |
inuoient ease and concentrated force and |
the hgure of our Lord in the "Raising of |
Lazarus, were alluded TO as instances of |
a,ignlly aod power OF drawing. But for
nm form was of minor consequence. For
him the warmth the color, the touch that
reveals character, fire, movement, the bril-.
lance OF light and the mystery of shadow
were chief. He painted men as he saw
them, and for him every side of life, the
ugly as well as the beautiful, had its inter
rest. In expression, in power to write the
history OF lifetime in a face and reveal
viVidly The mental state he has many
rival but no superior His portraits set be-
lore us the man himself You seem to have
come upon the sitter unawaree. Thus in
his ''Five Syndics" the five are busily ex-
aiming their accounts as you, the specta-
tor enter your approach interrupts them,
lhey are somewhat surprised-at least as
much as consistent with their grave cour-
tesy-at your Intrusion. They are glad to
see you, no doubt but their business is |
evidently pressing-and if you could look
in some other time
OF the various descriptions given by
prof. Marsh of Rembrandt's many works
he executed 600 paintings and $50 etchings
we can allude to but one more-the print I
Oh Christ healing the sick (the "hundred
guilder print"). This Mr. Marsh considers
Tue finest painting in black and white that
ART has ever produced. Every head is a
study every face has its story. In the
center ia our Lord, the light of sweet
mercy and purity upon His brow; he is q
worn WIN Ills own sorrows, yet ready :
you zee MS readiness-to take upon him. :
'elf the griefs and sicknesses of the world.
around him gather all the forms of suffer
hg The air seems filled with their sighs :
lnu entreatieS. OF the nanu eo..o...f.,l | !