New-York tribune., 1900-11-25


Knowles. Quarto, PIP. ll5 Philadelphia; j. b.
LippincOtt & Co.
To the great exhibition which was the salient
feature in the celebration at Antwerp last year
of the 30Oth anniversary of the birth of
Van Dvck contributions were made by most
ot the great museums and private collec-
tions of Europe. Some worthy souvenir of the
occasion has been wished for by every student
of art who has realized its Importance, and
such souvenir have in the handsome vol
published under the auspices of the EXhi-
bition Committee, with the cooperation Of Max
Rooses a gentleman well qualified to provide
a textuaI accompaniment to the brilliant
productions. In a score Of pages he traverses
with sufficient comprehensiveness and with ad-
mirable Judgment the life of the painter. For
each plate he has further provided a page or
two of descriptive and critical text He is a
devotee of the painter of course, but not
thoughtless one.
He does not hesitate. for example, to point out
Van Dycks weakness, of those who
could not say you nay He took every portrait
for which he had an order. says the historian, Ito
the cost Of his health and to the detriment, per
haps. of his art" When Charles l summoned
him to his Court in 1862 he not only granted
the painter generous annual income. but paid
him for each commission executed. and pro-
vided him with Il dwelling suited to his dignity
He gave him. in short, every consideration that
a Court painter could ask. But Van Dyck
worked with the cagerness and continuity of an
avaricious jour neyman. Within four months of
his arrival he had painted ten portraits. Dill
gence of his chief virtues, but although
no doubt, it is 4 good quality in artist one
regrets sometimes that he did not give himself
more leisure: that he did sacrifice something
Of his Incompatible facility TO a more deliberate
practice of his art He might have produced
more masterpieces and fewer pictures that just
fall short of deserving that epithet Yet when
we have taken account of his hOrtCOmings, as
in duty bound to do. when have
separated the wheat from the chaf. it Is testi
mony to the power and brilliance of his genius
that the chan of Van Dyck is superior to the
wheat of all but the very greatest masters.
We are not inclined to accept the views of
NJ. Rooses as to the value Of the great Flem-
ings religious compositions. 1t Is true that
"his intense feeling and the impressive manner
in which all religious and sacred subjects
touched him to the quick were developed to 4
greater extent than in the nature OF his illus
trious master" He had more instructive refine
ment than Rubens and Divinity takes n
nob!er aspect in his paintings than in any OF
the works OF his fellow countryman and friend
But there Is in Van Dyck just the drop Of
terialism which Is sufficient to communicate n
certain subtle earthness to even his sonsi-
lively felt studies of Scrptural themes. and for
the finest Towering of his genius We must look
to his portraits. In these the matcriaIjs1n to
which we refer IS in happy harmony with the
worldly splendor nf the pclSunatcs whom II was
his fortune chiefly to commemorate: he needed
IN TINS sphe~e consummate taste rather than
profound spirituality, and he had it, We are
all agreed that birth is criterion in the mat
ter of genius, which may spring from the com
monest soil, yet 1t is difficult to resist the
temptation to account for a great deal in the
art of Van Dyck by a reference to the fact that
as NJ. Rooses reminds us, he born "of the
hiuest blood" His biographer speaks of ..hs
loVe or the eminent" 1t was gentleman's an
preclatlon of the qualities of his eouaIs If
was some time before he threw off altogether
the pressure Of his nationality; certain heavi
ness goes with the brancy of his earlier
works. as M Rooses is careful to note But If
on the other hand, some Of his later portraits po
dangerously near to the other extren,e-tba
haste which has been mentioned causing hin, - |
paint some of his canvases too airily too thin,v
making his models seem to be lacking in ,,,,o,o |
ana bone'-there is all along the line tba noto |
OF arlstocracy in Van Dyck's work
distinction was in his blood: elegance 1os |
lhseparable from his portraits at least oyen |
"heh the masculine vigor of his technique and
the rude exhiiaration of his spirit showed thern
serves In the rather too robust strain which |
we may trace in number of the earlier portrai+s |
aforesaid In short, taking the portraiture of |
van Dyck as whole, it may be said to vary in |