fUNE, 1904 VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 PRICE, 15 CENTS 
 
 VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 PART 54 VOLUME 5 
 
 3ate3anD<iulldC[onipanii 
 42C[(|aunc!i^tet 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATED 
 MONOGRAPHS: ISSUED MONTHLY 
 
 PART 54 
 
 JUNE, 1904 
 
 VOLUME 5 
 
 fJtvmttv of 5ielft 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 Plate I. The Lady with the Pearl Necklace 
 
 Plate II. The Music Lesson 
 
 Plate III. The Coquette 
 
 Plate IV. Young Woman Opening a Casement 
 
 Plate V. View of Delft 
 
 Plate VI. The Lace-maker 
 
 Plate VII. A Girl and her Lover 
 
 Plate VIII. Young Woman Reading a Letter 
 
 Plate IX. A Lady at a Spinet 
 
 Plate X. The Painter in his Studio 
 
 The Life of Vermeer of Delft 
 The Art of Vermeer of Delft 
 
 Berlin Gallery 
 Royal Gallery, Windsor 
 Brunswick Gallery 
 Metropolitan Museum, New York 
 The Hague Gallery 
 Louvre, Paris 
 Royal Gallery, Dresden 
 Ryks Museum, Amsterdam 
 National Gallery, London 
 Czemin Gallery, Vienna 
 
 Page 
 Page 
 
 Criticisms by Biirger, Lemcke, Bredius, Alexandre, Wedmore, Van Dyke, 
 Woltmann and Woermann, Peltzer , 
 
 The Works of Vermeer of Delft : Descriptions of the Plates and a List of Paintings 
 
 Vermeer of Delft Bibliography 
 
 Half-ton* ingravings by Foljom if Suntrgrtn : Boston. Prtss-wori by the Evtntt Priti : Buttn 
 
 Page 36 
 Page 4a 
 
 PUBLISHERS' ANNOUNCEMENTS 
 
 SUBSCRIPTIONS: Yearly subscription, commencing with any number of the 1904 volume, $1.50, payable in 
 advance, postpaid to any address in the United States or Canada. To foreign countries in the Postal Union, $3.00. As 
 each yearly volume of the magazine commences v/ith the January number, and as indexes and bindings are prepared 
 for complete volumes, intending subscribers are advised to date their subscriptions from January. Single numbers of 
 the 1904 volume, 15 cents each. Single numbers dated prior to January, 1904, ao cents each. 
 
 EXPIRATION OF SUBSCRIPTIONS : The date when a subscription expires is printed on the address label 
 of each magazine. The change of this date becomes a receipt for remittance. No other receipt is sent unless requested. 
 
 REMITTANCES : Remittances may be made by Post-office money-order, bank cheque, express order, or in post- 
 age stamps. Currency sent by mail usually comes safely, but should be securely wrapped, and is at the risk of the 
 sender. 
 
 CHANGES OF ADDRESS: When a change of address is desired both the old and the new addres«s should b« 
 given, and notice of the change should reach this office not later than the fifteenth o f the month to affect the suc- 
 ceeding issue. The publishers cannot be responsible for copies lost through failure to notify them of such changes, 
 
 BOUND VOLUMES AND BINDINGS : Volume 1, containing Parts 1 to xa inclusive, Volume a, containing 
 Parts 1 3 to a4 inclusive. Volume 3, containing Parts 35 to 36 ir :lusive, and Volume 4, containing Parts 37 to 48 inclu- 
 sive, bound in brown bucjcram with gilt stamps and gilt top, $3.75 each, postpaid ; bound in green half-morocco, gilt 
 top, $4.35 each, postpaid. Subscribers' copies of Volume i. Volume a, Volume 3, or Volume4 will be bound to order in 
 buckram, with gilt stamps and gilt top, for $1.50 each ; or in half-morocco, gilt top, for $a.oo each. Indexes and half- 
 titles for binding Volumes z, a, 3, and 4 supplied on application. 
 
 BATES & GUILD COMPANY, PUBLISHERS 
 42 CHAUNCY STREET, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 4 huttrti at ih, Helton l'o,i.,thc, a, St. ,nj-; i Mail M.itttr. Ccftright, iQOJ, h BJtti V Guild . -"n/jn.. S.ir.n 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 iff oik ^OMQi ^ ©tfttr ^owo:s 
 
 EDITED BY JANE BYRD R A D C L I F F E - W H I T E H E A D 
 
 THE most remarkably complete, comprehensive and interesting collection of English, Scottish, 
 Irish, German, French, Scandinavian, Polish and Russian, Italian, Spanish and American 
 songs ever gotten together. In addition to the folk songs are : 
 
 Songs of Patriotism of Various Nations, 
 Carols, Rounds, Catches, 
 
 Nursery Songs, Lullabies, etc., 
 
 showing the most thorough knowledge, intense enthusiasm, and excellent musical training, and 
 judgment in gathering, selecting and compiling, on the part of the author. A treasury of melody 
 and of musical expression found only in songs of this class, delightful to the adult lover of music 
 and especially adapted for the young. 
 
 PRICE — 226 pages, folio size, bound in board cover with cloth back, $2.00 
 Sent prepaid on receipt of price 
 
 OLIVER DITSON COMPANY, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 Chas. H Ditson & Co., New York J. E. Ditson & Co., Philadelphia 
 
 LHABERSTROH'&SON 
 
 DECOMTIVE'PAINTING 
 
 Jpedalh/ S)mjfned 
 Custom 'durniturc 
 Jntcrior%od ^ish 
 Soreiqn and 2)omestic 
 
 hampers 
 SxLlmivcVpholstemoftujp 
 ®mpene^-mllJmri^iiyj 
 9PARK-ST'B0ST0N-MAS5 
 
 BRAUN'S 
 CARBON 
 PRINTS 
 
 FINEST AND MOST DURABLE 
 IMPORTED WORKS OF ART 
 
 ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND direct 
 reproductions from the original paintings 
 and drawings by old and modern masters in the 
 galleries of Amsterdam, Antwerp, Berlin, Dres- 
 den, Florence, Haarlem, Hague, London, Ma- 
 drid, Milan, Paris, St. Petersburg, Rome, 
 Venice, Vienna, Windsor, and others. 
 
 Special Terms to Schools 
 
 BRAUN, CLEMENT & CO. 
 
 249 Fifth Avenue, corner 28th Street 
 NEW YORK CITY 
 
 In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 ^Exercise Your Skin 
 
 ICeep up its activity, and aid its natural changes, 
 not by expensive Turkish baths, but by Hand 
 Sapolio, the only soap that liberates the activities 
 of the pores without working chemical changes. 
 Costs but a trifle. 
 
 qThe Perfect Purity 
 
 of Hand Sapolio makes it a very desirable toilet 
 article; it contains no animal fats, but is made 
 from the most healthful of the vegetable oils. It 
 is truly the '^Dainty Woman's Friend." Its use 
 is a fine habit. 
 
 In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 ^nmm of Belft 
 
 DUTCH SCHOOL 
 
MASTEHS IX ABT PLATE II 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT A CIE 
 
 [21o] 
 
 VEHMEEK OI' IJELKT 
 THE MUHIC LESSON 
 HOYAL GALLPJKY, WINUSOK 
 
Digitized by tlie Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/vermeerofdelftduOOverm 
 
ASTERS IX AKT PLATK TJl 
 
 O-OIRAPH BY THE BERLIN PHOTOGRAPHIC CO. 
 [217] 
 
 VEJKMKKH OK I)KT,FT 
 TIIK COQUKT'I E 
 BKUN'SWICK GALfyEIty 
 
VK^iMKKK OK IJEIjKT 
 
 MASTERS ISr ART PLATE IV YOUNG WOMAN OPENING A CA8EMK,\ 
 
 PHOTOGRATH 8V CHARLES 8ALLIARD METHOPOLITAN MUSEUM, NEW TOHIi 
 
 C219] 
 
MASTEHS m AET PLATE VI 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT & CIE 
 [223] 
 
 VEHMEEH OK I)ET>I' 
 THE LAGE-MAKKH 
 liODVKE, l'Al{IS 
 
HASTEfiS m ART PLATE VII 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH BY BRAUN, CLEMENT & CIE 
 [225 J 
 
 VEHMEEK OF J)Kr>KT 
 A GIKL AND iIKH IJJVKI! 
 HOXAL GALLEKY, DKESJJ). 
 
ASTEKS IBT ART PLATE VIII 
 Photograph by braun cLiwENx & cie 
 [227 J 
 
 VEKMEEK OK DKLKT 
 TOUNG WOMAN KEADfNG A LETTER 
 KYKS MUSEUM, AMSTERDAM 
 
tASTERS IN AHT PLATE IX 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL 
 [229] 
 
 VEKMEEK OF DELFT 
 
 A JjAT)Y at a spinet 
 
 NATIONAIi GAIiliERY, liONDON 
 
MASTEES I]sr ART PLATE X 
 
 PHOTOGRAPH BY HANFSTAENGL 
 
 C 231 ] 
 
 VKKMEKH OF DELFT 
 THE PAINTEK IN HIS STIJ 
 CZEKNIN GAIiLEKY, VIEX 
 
f 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 "Ftvtnttx of 3Btlft 
 
 BORN 1632 : DIED 1675 
 DUTCH SCHOOL 
 
 "TT^EW things are more unaccountable in the history of art," writes Sir 
 r Walter Armstrong, "than the vicissitudes which have attended the re- 
 nown of the fascinating painter, Jan Vermeer of Delft. Famous in his life- 
 time, filling honored posts in his native city, accepted as a leader by his fel- 
 low-artists, and as the maker of desirable pictures by those who had money 
 in their pockets, an almost complete obhvion seems to have overtaken him 
 before he had been fifty years in his grave. In 1667, when Vermeer was no 
 more than thirty-five years of age, he was named in Dirk van Bleijswijck's 
 elaborate description of Delft (« Beschrijving der Stad Delft') as an artist who 
 did honor to the city; Arnold de Bon, Bleijswijck's editor, celebrated him 
 in verse as one of those who could console his fellow-townsmen for the loss 
 of the painter Karel Fabritius; and yet Arnold Houbiaken, in that 'Great 
 Theater of the Netherlandish Painters' ('De groote Schouburg der Neer- 
 landsche Konstschilders') published in 1718, in which he was kind to so many 
 insignificant personalities, passes over Vermeer in silence, and sets an exam- 
 ple which was followed by every one who wrote on Dutch art for something 
 like a century and a half. 
 
 "It is humiliating to have to confess that, in all probability, the total neg- 
 lect of a great artist was due to nothing in the world but this omission of 
 his name by Houbraken, and yet Vermeer's pictures were there to proclaim 
 his value. Many, no doubt, were given to others, especially to Pieter de Hooch ; 
 but enough were left to show that a great master had gone under, and was 
 waiting for some one with wit and energy to pull him up." 
 
 No one appeared, however, to undertake the task until about fifty years 
 ago, when E. J. T. Thore, a celebrated French critic, better known by his 
 pseudonym "W. Burger," struck by the beauty of Vermeer's pictures and 
 fascinated by their seductive charm, constituted himself the long neglected 
 painter's champion, and devoted much time and study to the revindication 
 of his fame. The various public and private galleries of Europe were now 
 searched for examples of Vermeer's art, and although Burger sometimes 
 claimed for his favorite painter pictures which it has since been proved were 
 
 [233] 
 
24 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 not his work, it should always be remembered that it is owing to this French 
 writer's enthusiasm and zeal that one of the greatest of the Dutch masters 
 was rescued from the oblivion into which he had so strangely fallen. 
 
 In his attempts to ascertain facts concerning the life of Vermeer — "the 
 Sphinx," as he called him — Burger met with but scant success, and it was 
 not until after his death that through the researches of M. Henry Havard, 
 who carefully examined the parish registers and archives of the town of Delft, 
 as well as the record-book of the painters' Gild of St. Luke, the meager in- 
 formation that we have of the artist's life was learned. 
 
 Jan, or Johannes, Vermeer (pronounced Yahn Fair-mair) was born at Delft, 
 Holland, in October, 1632. His name is frequently written "Van der Meer," 
 of which, indeed, Vermeer is only a contraction; but as the latter is the form 
 in which the name was written during the painter's lifetime, and the way 
 in which he himself signed it in the record-book of the painters' Gild of St. 
 Luke, it has been adopted here. In whatever way it be written, however, 
 the words "of Delft" are usually suffixed, in order to distinguish the painter 
 from others of the same name — by no means an uncommon one in Holland 
 — from Jan Vermeer, or Van der Meer, of Utrecht, and from the two Ver- 
 meers, or Van der Meers, of Haarlem. 
 
 Of the parentage of Jan Vermeer of Delft we know only that his father, 
 Reynier Janszoon Vermeer, was a citizen of Delft, belonging to the bour- 
 geoisie, or middle class; that his mother was Dingnum Balthasars ("the daugh- 
 ter of Balthasar"); that the house they lived in was in the Vlamingstraet of 
 Delft; and that his mother died a widow, and was buried in the Nieuwe Kerk 
 (New Church) of the town on February 13, 1670. 
 
 From whom Jan Vermeer received his instruction in art has been the sub- 
 ject of much speculation. At the time of his probable apprenticeship, Delft 
 was rich in painters of more or less note, among whom was one Leonard 
 Bramer, presumably a relative of Vermeer's and a somewhat showy artist, who, 
 M. Henry Havard is inclined to think, was Vermeer's earliest master, al- 
 though no evidence of such a connection is to be traced in the two men's 
 works. 
 
 Burger's belief that the Delft painter at one period of his career studied 
 under Rembrandt, whose influence he notes principally in Vermeer's only 
 dated work, a painting of life-sized figures, now in the Dresden Gallery (plate 
 vii), cannot be substantiated, especially as there is no evidence that Vermeer 
 ever lived in Amsterdam, or came into personal contact with Rembrandt, but 
 every probability, indeed, that his whole life was spent in his native Delft. 
 
 The artist to whom Vermeer shows himself most nearly akin is undoubtedly 
 Pieter de Hooch, his senior by only two years. In spite of some technical 
 differences in their work, there is sufficient similarity to suggest that an inti- 
 mate connection may have existed between the two painters after De Hooch's 
 establishment in Delft in 1655; and it has been thought that the two young 
 artists may both have received instruction from one and the same source — 
 from a painter of Amsterdam and a pupil of the great Rembrandt, who in 
 
 [2341 
 
VERMEER OP DELFT 
 
 25 
 
 1652 settled in Delft. This painter, Karel Fabritius, is, indeed, generally re- 
 garded as the master of Jan Vermeer. Rich, well-born, talented, and with all 
 the prestige which life in the great city of Amsterdam, and intimacy with the 
 leading artists of the ^ay assembled there, gave him, Fabritius quickly acquired 
 fame in the city of his adoption, and it may well be that Jan Vermeer became 
 a pupil of so prominent a painter, or at any rate that he was influenced by 
 him. 
 
 When in the year 1654 occurred the tragic death of Karel Fabritius, who, 
 while painting in his own house, was killed by the explosion of a powder- 
 magazine, Jan Vermeer, then twenty-two years of age, was already a fully 
 fledged and independent artist, inscribed on the books of the Gild of St. Luke 
 at Delft as a master. That he was at this time poor is evidenced by the fact 
 that when admitted to the gild he was obliged to pay by instalments the mod- 
 est sum of six florins incumbent upon him as the son of a bourgeois in be- 
 coming a member of the society; and that it was fully three years before he 
 found himself in a position to make the final payment. 
 
 Poverty, however, had not deterred Vermeer from marrying, and the same 
 year in which he attained to the distinction of membership in the painters' 
 gild, that is in 1653, when only twenty-one, we find it recorded that he was 
 married to Catharina Bolenes, a young woman of Delft. 
 
 In 1662 Vermeer was elected to the honorable position of "Hooftmann," 
 or dean, of the Gild of St. Luke at Delft, an honor which was again con- 
 ferred upon him in 1670. This fact alone would prove that he had acquired 
 I a certain celebrity, and it is interesting to find in the journal of a French trav- 
 I eler and art lover of that day, Balthasar de Monconys, further testimony of 
 his established fame. This writer records that when visiting Delft in August, 
 1663, he saw the painter Vermeer, whose vogue was then so great that he 
 had no works of his own in his studio, and that to see one of his pictures 
 Monsieur de Monconys was obliged to go to the house of a baker who pos- 
 sessed a single figure painted by Vermeer, for which the owner had paid no 
 less a sum than six hundred livres, equivalent to about one hundred and fifty 
 dollars, — a large amount in those days, 
 i Vermeer's circumstances had evidently undergone a change, and his pros- 
 ' perity is further shown in the picture which he painted of himself in his stu- 
 ! dio, now in the Czernin Gallery, Vienna (plate x). This, the only authen- 
 tic representation of the artist that exists, shows him richly attired and 
 at work in a well-appointed room in no way suggestive of the straitened 
 means which had necessitated the payment by instalments of his fee of ad- 
 mission to the Gild of St. Luke, of which later he became one of the lead- 
 ing members. 
 
 In the full tide of his success, however, we find Vermeer's death recorded 
 in the registers of Delft. Under what circumstances it occurred is not related; 
 we know only that it took place in December, 1675, when he was but forty- 
 three years of age, that he left a family of eight children, and that he was 
 buried in the Oude Kerk (Old Church) of his native town of Delft. 
 
 [235] 
 
26 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 Cije art of Wtxmm of Belft 
 
 W. BURGER <GAZETTE DES BEAUX-ARTS' 1866 
 
 SCHOOLS of painting are, as a rule, hierarchies, but that of Holland is, 
 if I may so express it, a panarchy^ for in that country each painter is a 
 master, no matter in what particular line his specialty be shown. Van Qs- 
 tade, Berghem, Du Jardin, Paul Potter, Gerard Dou, Cuyp, Wouverman, 
 Van de Velde, Ruysdael and Hobbema, Ter Borch and Metsu, Pieter de 
 Hooch, Jan Steen, and a host of others — all are finished and accomplished 
 painters, each in his own particular style, even as were Rembrandt and Frans 
 Hals. And in this galaxy of Dutch masters Jan Vermeer of Delft takes his 
 place — the equal of the best. Like his fellow-artists, he is by nature original; 
 what he did was perfect of its kind. 
 
 What sort of pictures did Vermeer paint? In the first place, every-day 
 scenes representing the manners and customs of his time and of his coun- 
 try; to these may be added a few street scenes, painted in his native town 
 of Delft — portions of streets, or perhaps the outside of a house; and finally, 
 landscapes in which the air seems to circulate and the light to vibrate as in 
 nature itself. 
 
 Some score of Vermeer's figure pictures have come down to us, which 
 may well be classed in the same category with those of Metsu, of Ter Borch, 
 of Jan Steen, and of Pieter de Hooch. But Vermeer has more accent than 
 Metsu, more character than Ter Borch, more distinction than Jan Steen, 
 more originality than Pieter de Hooch. Having begun by painting figures 
 the size of life, as in the *Girl and her Lover' in the Dresden Gallery, the 
 small personages of his later pictures have retained a certain ease in their 
 pose and freedom in the way in which they are rendered, and although no 
 larger in scale than those of Ter Borch's little panels, they are painted with 
 all the breadth and amplitude of Rembrandt. 
 
 Vermeer's salient quality, however, one that is even more striking in his 
 work than is his feeling for form and expression, is his treatment of light. 
 In his paintings the light is never artificial but always normal, always true 
 to nature. Entering the picture from one side, it permeates the entire can- 
 vas, so that it actually seems to emanate from the painting itself, and the 
 uninitiated might easily be deceived into the belief that some ray of the sun 
 had penetrated between the canvas and the frame. 
 
 Rembrandt's color is golden in the flesh-tones and brown in the shadows; 
 but Vermeer's lights are silvery in tone and his shadows pearl-color. There 
 is no absolute darkness in his pictures — no slurring, no juggling. Light is 
 everywhere, and even the chair, table, or spinet in shadow, stands as clearly 
 revealed as if beside a window. But, at the same time, each object has its 
 just amount of shade, and its reflections merge into the surrounding luminous 
 atmosphere. It is to this faithful portrayal of light that the harmony of Ver- 
 meer's colors is attributable. In his pictures, as in nature, antipathic colors, 
 for example his favorite blues and yellows, never jar. He harmonizes tones 
 
 [230] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 27 
 
 which are in themselves discordant, passing from the tenderest minor key to 
 the richness of a full major chord. 
 
 Brilliant, strong, delicate, and varied, at times surprisingly original and odd, 
 and always invested with a certain fascination as indefinable as it is rare, Ver- 
 meer possesses all the qualities of the bold colorist to whom light is an inex- 
 haustible magician. — abridged from the French 
 
 CARL LEMCKE <JAN VERMEER AUS DELFT" 
 
 JAN VERMEER OF DELFT was a painter of light and of sunshine. 
 His chief aim was to fix upon his canvas the fleeting moment. What 
 Frans Hals had done in portraiture, painting with unsurpassable skill and 
 in the twinkling of an eye a passing expression of the human face — a smile, 
 a laugh — that Vermeer as a landscape and genre painter delighted to do in 
 regard to light. In his pictures time is never stationary — fixed for all eter- 
 nity, as in the canvases of Rembrandt or Ruysdael — but rather, a moment, an 
 instant, gleams and sparkles in the sunshine, and even the many shadows, 
 which have lost their sharp outlines, seem by their delicate, unsteady con- 
 tours to proclaim the living, moving qualities of light. Rembrandt, as we 
 know, painted light in darkness, causing it to glow upon some one object or 
 to bathe another in its waves; Vermeer, on the other hand, loved to paint 
 darkness against light. 
 
 Gifted artist that he was, he had a wholly different scheme of color and a 
 different manner of painting for his interior scenes from any that he used in 
 his outdoor pictures. For these last he liked best that time of day when the 
 colors of the landscape, with its trees, houses, water, etc., are strong and deep, 
 when each separate object is clearly defined, and the whole scene in its har- 
 monious beauty affects us as does a full rich chord of music; but for his in- 
 teriors he preferred that kind of light which changes all the local colors and 
 imparts to his favorite and often painted blues and yellows a peculiar tone. 
 The room, the people in it, and the furniture as well, all seem to vibrate, so 
 to speak, before our eyes; the blue of gown or chair looks as if candle-light 
 would better suit it — as if, indeed, it must have lost some of its color in the 
 light of the sun. One might suppose that the artist wished to represent the 
 way in which things appear to us when we look with blinking eyes from dark- 
 ness into light. We question whether Vermeer had a studio with pure north 
 light; rather does it seem as if he must have preferred one facing south, so 
 that he might always have about him that magic atmosphere which he rep- 
 resents. 
 
 One of Vermeer's peculiarities is that he frequently arranges his genre 
 pictures in such a way that only half or three-quarters of his figures can be 
 seen. Whole figures, such as we see in *The Coquette' in the Brunswick 
 Gallery, are exceptional. He generally brings the figures of his foregrounds 
 close to the outer edge of the picture, and introduces the light through a win- 
 dow so that these figures, or any objects which may be in the forward part 
 of the picture, appear dark, or at any rate dim; the middle distance and the 
 background, on the other hand, are brightly lighted. We see, for example, 
 through the opening in the wall through which we are supposed to be look- 
 
 [237] 
 
28 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 ing, only the head and back of a man and the face and upper half of the fig- 
 ure of a girl, a corner of a table, and a portion of the cloth; farther back, 
 half of an open window, and directly beside it a light wall. Or, again, we 
 see in the foreground at the edge of the picture close to the frame, a table 
 on which some garments have been thrown, and a chair entirely in shadow. 
 The window is again close to the wall farther back, and near it, the light fall- 
 ing upon her, stands a lady fastening a necklace about her throat as she looks 
 into a httle mirror which hangs beside the window. The seat of the chair 
 in the foreground cuts off her figure at about the height of her knees. 
 
 The fact that Vermeer often placed the people or the furniture of his fore- 
 grounds immediately in front of the spectator prevented his pamting them 
 full-length, because of the many difiRculties that would be caused by the steep 
 rise and fall of the linear perspective of floor and ceiling. Jan Steen did not 
 trouble himself about such difiilculties; not so Jan Vermeer; he avoided them, 
 as a rule, by showing only a portion of the room, and but little — in some 
 cases nothing at all — of either floor or ceiling. It is interesting to observe 
 how he produces an effect, in many of his pictures, with horizontal lines, 
 against which only the vertical lines of a seated or a standing figure are op- 
 posed. But when all is said and done, whether we examine more attentively 
 the faces and dresses of his figures or the room in which his personages are 
 placed, the effect of the whole picture — in a word, the light, upon which the 
 artist has concentrated his attention as his chief aim and interest — always 
 remains the principal thing. Vermeer is truly a master in his manner of mod- 
 eling through the shadows in the foreground, and the strongly defined shad- 
 ows near the light; a master, too, in the way in which he gives the effect 
 of the complete and rounded form of objects by means of perspective, at the 
 same time paintiMg all those which are in full sunlight somewhat flat both 
 in form and color, and causing them, as has been said, to appear to vibrate 
 indistinctly before our eyes, just as would be the case were we looking from 
 actual darkness into light. 
 
 Now we are so accustomed to exactly the opposite sort of an arrangement — 
 to light in the foreground or in the middle distance of a picture, and to dim 
 light or darkness in the background — that pictures of the kind that Pieter 
 de Hooch and Vermeer of Delft painted are at first somewhat startling. We 
 hardly know, indeed, what to make of this effect of waving, flickering light 
 that is seen in so many of Vermeer's canvases, until we say to ourselves, "That 
 is, after ail, just the way in which such a scene would look to us, and the 
 painter has dared to so represent it.'* 
 
 As a colorist, Jan Vermeer of Delft deserves all the praise, however ex- 
 travagant, which is accorded him to-day because of his extraordinary effects. 
 And, moreover, even if Gerard Dou, Ter Borch, and others are now often 
 ranked as inferior to him, there is nothing to be said — their strength lay 
 elsewhere than in the coloring and management of light in which Vermeer 
 excelled. As a painter of light, indeed, he is unique, and in its portrayal he 
 must ever be counted among the greatest masters, always inspiring the con- 
 noisseur and lover of art with wonder and admiration. — abridged from 
 
 THE GERMAN 
 
 [238] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 29 
 
 A. BREDIUS 'LES C H E F S - D ' CE U V R E DU MUSEE D'AMSTERDAM' 
 
 VERMEER OF DELFT is a master of genre-painting. He did, it is 
 true, paint landscapes — or rather townscapes — which have never been 
 surpassed, such as^^the 'Yiew of Delft' in the Gallery of The Hague and 
 'The Street' in the Six Collection at Amsterdam, but these are exceptions 
 in his achievement. What he liked best were pictures containing one or tu^o 
 figures, at most three. These figures he placed in a room into which sun- 
 light streams through a window, generally an open window. As a rule, the 
 walls of the room are bare, covered with plaster, and illumined by an almost 
 dazzling light. These bright walls are the backgrounds for figures which are 
 invariably drawn correctly, and modeled with an astonishing effect of relief. 
 To all this is added the charm of a color-scheme beautiful, strong, and har- 
 monious. 
 
 Vermeer's manner of painting is vigorous and full of knowledge. The flesh- 
 tones alone are sometimes pale and are treated with a certain delicacy. They 
 have, moreover, in many of his pictures suffered from time and neglect. As 
 a general thing, he is fond of contrasting a certain shade of deep indigo blue 
 with a light lemon yellow. 
 
 The heads of the personages in Vermeer's pictures are full of expression, 
 very varied, and exceedingly lifeHke. His readers are all conscientiously read- 
 ing. Absorbed in their occupation, they seem to be really thinking about 
 what they are doing. In a word, Vermeer is, in his way, one of the great- 
 est painters of all time. There is nothing antiquated about his work, noth- 
 ing "out of date." Were his pictures to be seen to-day in any exhibition 
 of the best modern work of a similar kind, they would be distinguishable 
 only because of their greater perfection. — from the French 
 
 ARSENE ALEXANDRE <HIST01RE POPULAIRE DE LA PEINTURE' 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING marked differences between the works of 
 Vermeer of Delft and those of Pieter de Hooch, it is impossible to dis- 
 sociate the two painters in our minds, impossible not to draw comparisons 
 between them. There is a touch of raillery in Vermeer which is lacking in 
 Pieter de Hooch; he is colder and more reserved; he impresses you more 
 forcibly. De Hooch is the painter of happy and contented people; Vermeer 
 is rather the painter of elegance and luxury — although this statement should 
 not be made without reservations. The women of De Hooch's pictures are 
 for the most part worthy little souls, comfortably off in this world's goods, 
 but, for all that, most careful housewives. Those whom Vermeer portrays, 
 on the other hand, are pretty, idle creatures, somewhat indifferent, slightly 
 enigmatic, very frivolous, and far more concerned with their love affairs than 
 with any domestic duties. 
 
 Furthermore, the light in Vermeer's canvases, although dazzling and in- 
 explicable, is not so warm nor so bright as it is in De Hooch's. His color- 
 scheme, too, is noticeably different. Instead of strong reds, velvety blacks, 
 creamy whites, rich caramel browns, and golden sunlight, there are lemon 
 
 [239] 
 
30 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 yellows — soft and yet sharp — cold sky-blues, delicate grays, ermine whites, 
 uncompromising ebony blacks, and sunlight more pallid than De Hooch's. 
 The vivid notes which are prominent in this unusual scale by no means re- 
 fute my statement, but rather confirm it. Compare, for instance, the use of 
 red in the little 'Lace-maker' by Vermeer, in the Louvre, with the way in 
 which that color is introduced in De Hooch's 'Card-party' in the same gal- 
 lery. In the first, a bit of scarlet makes the light seem all the more cool and 
 delicate; in the last, the red of the lady's dress renders it warmer and more 
 abundant. 
 
 In the handling and management of their colors, again, there are dilFer- 
 ences equally great. Pieter de Hooch lays his color on freely; he spreads it 
 on his canvas with a broad, flowing stroke, frankly and strongly; Vermeer 
 is more mysterious, and, while carefully guarding the secret of his method, 
 betrays a more studied way of working. He tells you enough to pique your 
 curiosity, but he stops short just as you were about to discover the clue. His 
 painting, indeed, is like the women of his pictures. It smiles upon you gaily, 
 welcomes you, and beguiles you, but never does it give a complete and wholly 
 satisfactory reply to your questioning. 
 
 All these are salient differences in the work of these two painters, and yet 
 we needs must associate them in our thoughts. Vermeer, reserved and dis- 
 tant though he be, attracts and captivates as much as does De Hooch. He 
 has his moments of simplicity — -^exquisite, indeed, although studied. Man of 
 the world as he is, he is yet tender at times, even compassionate; and he, too, 
 is, in his own way, a most ardent lover of light. 
 
 Wherever you may begin your study of Vermeer, in whatsoever gallery 
 of Europe you may first become acquainted with his works, he will at once 
 disconcert you by startling contradictions. If, for instance, you first see his 
 pictures in Germany, he will seem to you — that is, if he be judged from his 
 large canvas of 'A Girl and her Lover,' in the Dresden Gallery — as almost 
 the direct opposite to what we have just described; although, as a matter of 
 fact, when his work as a whole is taken into consideration, our synthesis will 
 be found to be correct. And, indeed, if you turn from the Dresden picture 
 to the one in the Berlin Gallery, 'The Lady with the Pearl Necklace,' you 
 will at once find the Vermeer of our description. 
 
 Again, if Holland be the country where you begin your study of Vermeer, 
 he will impress you when you look at his 'View of Delft,' in the Gallery of 
 The Hague, as a virile painter, robust and warm. On the other hand, if you 
 see his picture in the Ryks Museum, Amsterdam, of the 'Young Woman 
 Reading a Letter,' he will strike you as a strong painter, it is true, but a lit- 
 tle cold, perhaps, and of marked distinction. And if he be judged by others 
 of his works in the same city — by those in the Six Collection — you will find 
 him a man of true and delicate feeling, a painter of harmonies, rich and sus- 
 tained. 
 
 Moreover, every one of these works reveals a different technique; unctuous 
 in the Dresden picture, his painting is smooth and satiny in those of Berlin 
 
 [240] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 31 
 
 and the Ryks Museum, while in that of The Hague, and in those of the 
 Six Collection, Amsterdam, it is grainy, almost rough. But no matter how 
 it varies, it is always well-nigh impossible to analyze, and in the whole of 
 Vermeer's work, with its many differences of feeling and of treatment, with 
 its frankness and its reticence — and all these extremes are expressed in an 
 infinitely small number of pictures — the same man is recognizable through- 
 out, always captivating, always entrancing. 
 
 Of the man himself, however, almost nothing is known. Out of the mea- 
 ger facts that have been learned concerning his life, any romance you please 
 might be woven. But after all is said it comes down to this, that Vermeer 
 of Delft was a very great painter, and that whatever may have been his en- 
 vironment, or from whomsoever he may have received his instruction in art 
 — all that is of minor interest compared with the way in which we see his 
 development and note the manner in which his knowledge bore fruit. . 
 
 In Vermeer of Delft we have a marked instance of the slight value which 
 men put upon even the greatest art until fashion has indorsed it. During his 
 lifetime Vermeer received his share of appreciation. He was regarded and 
 sought out as one of the celebrities of his native town; but immediately after 
 his death oblivion fell like a pall over the man and his works. . . . These 
 works, however, works which have puzzled critics and are the despair of the 
 most intrepid artists, are in themselves great enough to compensate us for 
 our ignorance of his Hfe and character. So slight an effort does there appear 
 to be in these patiently executed pictures that it would seem as if it had been 
 mere pastime for the painter to cover, in the few of his works which have 
 come down to us, an immense field, ranging as it does from the light and 
 playful side of life to the serious and grave — from the frivolous intrigues of 
 a coquette to the deep peace of a little town sleeping like a lizard in the sun. 
 
 ABRIDGED FROM THE FRENCH 
 
 FREDERICK WEDMORE <THE MASTERS OF GENRE PAINTING* 
 
 THE habitual practice of Jan Vermeer of Delft was of a wider range 
 than that of Pieter de Hooch. It is true that, unlike De Hooch, he 
 rarely painted stories — was usually, though not always, content to place in 
 his interiors a single figure. But in these interiors, whether of the rarer kind, 
 as where there are two figures and some approach to a story, or of the com- 
 moner kind, where there is but one, and no story attempted but the story of 
 a life very patient in its daily task — in these interiors it was less the play of 
 the pure and vivid sunshine than of the milder daylight, under all conditions, 
 that concerned and interested Vermeer. He has never, that I know, reached 
 the gem-like quality of De Hooch's sunshine; but he is more preoccupied 
 with problems not less difiScult — the effect of light upon light, of reflected 
 light on shadowed space, the effect of one thing's luster on such luster or 
 texture as may happen to be near it. This De Hooch notes, and Nicolaes 
 Maes notes, and both wonderfully, but neither, perhaps, with quite the keen- 
 ness, quite the attention, of Vermeer of Delft. 
 
 [241] 
 
32 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 JOHN C. VAN DYKE 'OLD DUTCH AND FLEMISH MASTERS* 
 
 IN subject both De Hooch and Vermeer occasionally painted townscapes; 
 but they were chiefly devoted to the interior, w^ith light coming in at the 
 windows and illuminating a few figures. It was a subject common to the 
 Dutch genre-painters; and yet De Hooch and Vermeer handled it quite dif- 
 ferently from the others. They were more elevated in feeling, more select 
 in types, architecture, surroundings, more brilliant in color, more transpar- 
 ent in light. But Vermeer was not so extensive or elaborate in composition 
 as De Hooch, and possibly could not handle a complicated scene so well. 
 He seldom painted a large interior with groups. A single figure in a corner 
 of a room, with a window and sunlight, was his usual theme. The arrange- 
 ment was simpler, but the mental point of view was not essentially differ- 
 ent from that of De Hooch. His concern was for the material and the pic- 
 turesque more than for the psychological or the intellectual; and his con- 
 ception was usually summed up in sunshine, shadow, and color. He saw 
 beautiful harmonies in such things, and he told of them with great vivacity 
 and spirit. 
 
 In the disposition and adjustment of objects in his pictures he made some 
 use of line, and usually opposed straight lines to curved ones, as was the prac- 
 tice of De Hooch and others. Deep shadow as a means of composition he 
 did not frequently use. He laid a veil of light and shadow like his con- 
 temporaries; but it was thinner, less apparent to the eye, than with, say, Os- 
 tade or Metsu. His light was clear, and seemed to have the intensity of real 
 sunlight; and, as a result, his color was bright, with a gay surface quality 
 about it. De Hooch was fond of golden sunlight, and warm, rich notes of 
 red and yellow; Vermeer's tones, if not opposed, were different. He was 
 fond of all colors, reds and Naples yellow included, and he used them know- 
 ingly; but he at first preferred a silvery tone, and employed that most un- 
 manageable of all cool colors, blue. A number of his pictures, indeed, have 
 something like a blue envelop about them — as, for example, the admirable 
 little picture by him in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. We know 
 that Gainsborough, as opposed to Reynolds, was fond of this hue, but he used 
 it (in his *Blue Boy' and elsewhere) purely for the sake of blue as a color. 
 In Vermeer's pictures one is inclined to think it was used for another pur- 
 pose. It heightened the effect of light. Vermeer evidently had an inkling of 
 what the modern impressionists have discovered; namely, that there is less 
 luminosity in white than in blue. White is dead, flat, opaque; while blue, 
 thinly laid, is transparent, vibrant, scintillating. There was certainly no painter 
 of the time, not even Rembrandt with his sharp contrasts, who gained greater 
 height of light than Vermeer; and something of it was due to his use of blue. 
 
 There is nothing peculiar or personal about either his drawing or his mod^ 
 eling. His line is clear, concise, well understood, at times beautiful in its 
 simplicity; and his modeling has solidity, strength, and character; but this 
 may be as truly said of any trained painter of the Dutch school. In brush- 
 work he was decidedly individual; and yet, if the connection could be traced, 
 
 [242] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 33 
 
 he might be thought in this respect a follower of Hals, wide apart as their 
 handlings seem at first blush. He was Hals in little. The same staccato qual- 
 ity, the same quick touch, the same flat modeling, appear in the only life-sized 
 work by Vermeer now in existence — a somewhat repainted group of figures 
 at Dresden. In the small panels he usually painted, this handling is materi- 
 ally modified by the regard for size, and yet a study of the picture at the 
 Metropolitan Museum will disclose the crisp stroke so characteristic of Hals. 
 This kind of brush-work is peculiar only to his early pictures. Later on he 
 seems to have changed his manner (and something of his blue tone) in ac- 
 cordance with fashionable dictation, and painted a smooth surface with pale, 
 varied colors, as in the little 'Lace-maker' of the Louvre and in the 'Lady 
 at a Spinet' in the National Gallery, London. 
 
 There are very few of Vermeer's pictures left to us, and some of them are 
 not altogether good; but at his best he is a very charming painter, winning 
 as the French Chardin, and just as frank in spirit. He is a poet, but, again, 
 like almost all of the Dutchmen, he is so only in the poetry of materials, 
 such as light, color, atmosphere, and values. 
 
 ALFRED WOLTMANN AND KARL WOERMANN 'GESCHICHTE DER MALEREI' 
 
 JAN VERMEER OF DELFT is celebrated as a landscape and genre 
 painter. His subjects are of the utmost simplicity and are taken direct from 
 nature. Sometimes he represents the streets of Delft; sometimes he shows 
 us a room in one or another of the houses of his native town, in which he 
 places a young girl, or, it may be, a pair of lovers; and once he painted a 
 study of life-sized figures. 
 
 The extraordinary charm of Vermeer's pictures, that about them which 
 for the past fifty years has given him the high position which he occupies 
 among Dutch painters, lies wholly in their marvelous technique — in the 
 painter's free and knowing brush-work, which is as far removed from any 
 excessively rough breadth of stroke as it is from too smooth a finish; and 
 above all does it lie in his conception and treatment of light and color. In 
 his outdoor scenes the light is strong and glowing, but in his interiors Ver- 
 meer understands how to introduce the light in such a way that these pictures 
 are invested with a delicate and poetic beauty — a beauty of chiaroscuro — 
 peculiarly his own. 
 
 His paintings of this description are distinguishable from those of Pieter de 
 Hooch, with which they have frequently been confounded, in the first place 
 because of their greater simplicity in the arrangement of the room— in Ver- 
 meer's compositions, for example, we see only one apartment, whereas Pieter 
 de Hooch shows us several opening into one another — and in the second 
 place because of the color-scheme, which, as a rule, is very difl^erent from that 
 employed by De Hooch. Vermeer's favorite colors are blue — a tender, cool, 
 moonlight blue — and a pale lemon yellow; these are sometimes placed in 
 opposition, and again are blended with the most delicate touch imaginable 
 into a perfect harmony of tone. — from the German 
 
 [243] 
 
34 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 ALFRED PELTZER * M A L W E I S E UND STIL IN DER H O L L A N D I S C H E N KUNST' 
 
 THERE is no spot on Vermeer's canvases devoid of living, moving light; 
 no spot where even darkness is dull and lifeless. In every shadow some 
 color is astir, and in every corner, no matter how remote, light, penetrating 
 and all-pervading, is ceaselessly at work producing color. Delicately and trem- 
 ulously this light waves and shimmers, in the ever-changing effect of the magic 
 play of chiaroscuro, from the darkest shadows to the most luminous bright- 
 ness. Here we see light painted in light, there darkness in darkness, and 
 all things are united by imperceptible transitions. Reflections, acting and re- 
 acting, subtly connect a hundred separate objects, and bring into harmony all 
 the varying shades and gradations of the different colors. At the same time 
 there is no actual ^^sfumato^^ spread like a veil of varnish over the canvas. 
 No, Vermeer would have scorned any such expedient to obtain a color effect, 
 for he was master of a far higher artistic power. Graciously he allowed the 
 clear bright colors to have free play, but even in their play he was watchful 
 to see that no discord or interference should occur, but that by the unceas- 
 ing and interchanging effect of light all should be brought into perfect accord. 
 
 Vermeer never attempts to depict separate masses of light in any fixed or 
 defined limits. In his interior scenes, for instance, we do not find any line 
 of sunbeams bounded by a window-frame and held in some one definite form; 
 nor are there in his landscapes single rays of the sun, such as we see in many 
 of Ruysdael's pictures. Light on his canvases is diffused overall — the soft, 
 quiet, even, sun-steeped light of day. Whence it comes we scarcely ques- 
 tion; enough that it is there, and that it lives and moves. With such abso- 
 lute fidelity to nature, indeed, is it portrayed, that its course as it gleams and 
 glides back and forth upon the picture might easily be followed, and we are 
 lost in amazement at the masterly skill with which the painter has represented 
 this most subtle of all the workings of nature. . . . 
 
 Vermeer's interior scenes show us, as do Pieter de Hooch's, pictures of 
 Dutch home life, but they are different in their arrangement from the works 
 of that painter. He does not, for instance, depict any planes in space — no 
 vistas are given from one room into others beyond. Depth in Vermeer's pic- 
 tures is for the most part a minor matter, and consequently that illusion pro- 
 duced so often in Pieter de Hooch's scenes by means of the perspective fore- 
 shortening of tiled floors, or of side walls, does not, as a rule, exist in regard 
 to his work. The beams of the ceiling, if they show at all, do not project 
 vertically into the picture, but lie horizontally before the spectator; and, in 
 fact, the whole disposition of the room is, intentionally on the artist's part, 
 quite different from that of De Hooch. Again, we do not always find in Ver- 
 meer's work those sober and somewhat severe domestic scenes in which bare 
 walls and straight lines predominate, giving the idea of space; but, instead, 
 we are often shown soft materials — tapestry carpets, and draperies of silk 
 and plush, which are introduced into the picture as curtains, portieres, table- 
 cloths, furniture-covering, and garments — presenting themselves to our eyes 
 as masses of color, and taking away, or at any rate softening, the effect of 
 hard lines and sharply defined forms. 
 
 [244] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 35 
 
 Pieter de Hooch painted from preference and with good reason the peas- 
 ants and middle-class citizens of Holland, and sometimes the Dutch patri- 
 cians, simple in their customs and in their ways of living; but we find the 
 master of Delft quite at home in more aristocratic surroundings, in apart- 
 ments more luxurious in their appointments, as, for example, in the picture of 
 himself in his studio, where we see him arrayed in silk and satin, and where in 
 the foreground a wonderful curtain of rich colors is draped across the front of 
 his workroom. In his rendering of different materials Vermeer compares 
 favorably with any one of those famous Dutch painters renowned for the 
 miniature-like delicacy of their touch, but it is always by means of color- 
 producing hght, or still more of light and shade, that the objects in his pic- 
 tures are created before our very eyes in a way that is distinctly his own. . 
 
 Vermeer avoids all sharp outUnes, making them indistinct with the help 
 of a play of light and color at the edges of any object that he introduces in- 
 to his pictures. In this way definite contours disappear, and at the same time 
 the relation that each object bears to every other is made manifest by the 
 laws of light. He paints with soft liquid colors and often with a fine gla- 
 zing, thus making possible the most delicate transitions of light and shade. 
 Here and there he touches with a fine brush little points of high light, es- 
 pecially in his draperies and rough wall-surfaces, or on wood, where he wishes 
 to emphasize in any one kind of material numerous tiny particles of light 
 and of form. 
 
 He uses yellow freely; not, however, in its strongest tones, but always 
 in soft, tender shades, contrasting them with blue, which may be called his 
 most characteristic color. Ultramarine, indeed, and a certain almost inde- 
 scribable shade of indigo blue — a "moonlight blue," as Woermann has fe- 
 licitously called it, and which is familiar to every one who is acquainted with 
 Vermeer's pictures — are the foundation tones of the luminous darkness in 
 most of the master's works. From these blues he forms his shadows ; in their 
 dusky tones he dips those rich draperies, those heavy hangings, and thick 
 table-covers that we see in his pictures. They form, so to speak, the base 
 of his whole color-scheme, and in their various indescribable shadings they 
 are peculiar to Vermeer alone. Certain tones of yellow which he often com- 
 bines with them exactly complement his unusual blues. These yellow shades 
 are apparent in his illuminated surfaces, in the gleaming silken garments of 
 his women, and also in their tender flesh-tones — in a word, they are to be 
 found wherever through the shadowy realm of darkness some delicate, trem- 
 bling light forces itself into being. . . . 
 
 He who has but a passing acquaintance with the painter of Delft cannot 
 have any truly sympathetic understanding of his work. His pictures are so 
 calm, so peaceful, that they seem almost silent; his subjects are in themselves 
 so simple and insignificant that we scarcely give them a thought; but, as a 
 matter of fact, they are as carefully selected and as full of expression as are 
 the types of his figures, those delicate creations of his brush invested with so 
 exquisite a feeling. 
 
 Other artists may represent dramatic scenes, sensual joys, ardent love, or 
 the agonies of death, but in Vermeer's works there is an atmosphere of tran- 
 
 [245] 
 
35 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 quil peace, of calm content and innocent happiness, and when we look long 
 at his pictures — symphonies they might be called — it seems as if the har- 
 monious waves of color might in their vibrations readily dissolve into tones 
 of soft and gentle music. — abridged from the German 
 
 C!)e Wotk& of 'Fermeer of Belft 
 
 DESCRIPTIONS OF THE PLATES 
 <THE LADY WITH THE PEARL NECKLACE' PLATE I 
 
 THIS picture, now in the Berlin Gallery, was painted in Vermeer's late 
 period and is one of his most exquisite works. The subject — a lady stand- 
 ing before a mirror fastening about her throat a necklace of pearls — is of 
 the utmost simplicity. The lady is, as Muther remarks, "neither graceful 
 nor beautiful; neither in her features nor in her expression is there anything 
 striking; but in delicacy of execution and in perfect harmony of tone this 
 little picture is a marvel." 
 
 Against a pale gray background the figure of the young woman stands in 
 finely modeled relief. She wears a canary yellow jacket bordered with ermine, 
 and a gray skirt. In her blonde hair a red ribbon is tied. On the table before 
 her, which is partly covered with the ample folds of some blue drapery, are 
 a blue Japanese jar and various small articles of the toilet. The chair in the 
 foreground is upholstered in deep garnet-colored velvet, and farther back we 
 see a portion of another chair covered with flowered material, brownish olive 
 in tone. Light streams through a window in the back part of the picture, 
 touching the folds of the saff^ron-colored curtain hanging beside it, falling on 
 the face and upper part of the figure of the lady, illumining the wall, and so 
 permeating the atmosphere that even in the shadows the colors are blended 
 in a wonderful harmony. "It is a fascinating picture,' writes Arsene Alex- 
 andre, "and always to be remembered as one of the gems of painting." 
 The canvas measures nearly two feet high by one foot and a half wide. 
 
 <THE MUSIC LESSON' PLATE II 
 
 SUBJECTS such as this were very popular among the Dutch genre-paint- 
 ers of the seventeenth century, who repeatedly introduced into their in- 
 terior scenes persons engaged in playing upon musical instruments. In this 
 picture in the Royal Gallery, Windsor, Vermeer has represented a portion of 
 a room, paved with marble, and furnished in simple elegance. A table cov- 
 ered with a heavy Persian cloth, such as he frequently used among the ac- 
 cessories of his pictures, is in the foreground. Far back against a light gray 
 wall is a spinet with inlaid case, and before it, her hands upon the keyboard 
 of the instrument, stands a young girl, her head and shoulders reflected in 
 
 [246] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 37 
 
 the mirror hanging above. The gentleman beside her — her music-master, 
 according to the title of the picture — richly dressed in the fashion of the day, 
 listens attentively as he rests one arm upon the spinet and supports the 
 other upon the b^ov^ of his violoncello, which lies upon the floor near-by. 
 
 There is more story told in this picture than is usual in Vermeer's works; 
 but, after all, the chief interest lies in the effect of light as it comes through 
 the casement windows at the side, touches the two figures, and illumines some 
 of the objects in the room with its radiance, leaving others in soft dusky 
 shadow. 
 
 «THE COQUETTE' PLATE IH 
 
 THE Gallery of Brunswick, Germany, possesses this masterpiece by Ver- 
 meer of Delft which Burger has called *The Coquette,' a name so ad- 
 mirably suited to the picture that it has been adopted here rather than the 
 more prosaic^title by which it is sometimes called — *The Young Girl with 
 the Wine-glass.' The subject is unlike the majority of Vermeer's works and 
 bears a resemblance to those portrayed by Ter Borch, by Metsu, or others of 
 the Dutch "Little Masters," who were fond of representing such scenes of 
 gallantry. 
 
 Vermeer here shows us a richly appointed chamber in which three people 
 are assembled. The principal figure, the one upon which our interest cen- 
 ters, is that of the young girl seated before us. She wears a full skirt of rose- 
 colored silk, a bodice of the same with elbow-sleeves of canary yellow em- 
 broidered with gold, and turns her laughing face towards us, as she takes a 
 glass of wine from a gentleman. As he presents it to her, he gallantly bows 
 over her uplifted hand, under which he has placed his own as if gently urging 
 her to taste the wine, looking at her as he does so with an expression of un- 
 concealed admiration. He wears a mouse-colored cloak, and broad white col- 
 lar and sleeve-rufiles. In the shadow, farther back, another gentleman in 
 greenish gray embroidered doublet, apparently unmindful of the little love 
 passage being enacted so near him, is seated beside a table covered with a 
 deep blue cloth, upon which are a silver platter containing two oranges, a 
 jug of bluish porcelain, and a snow-white napkin. 
 
 Light enters the room through a half-open casement window, some of the 
 leaded panes of which bear coats of arms in stained glass. The gray wall of 
 the background, upon which hangs a picture suggestive of a portrait by Rem- 
 brandt, is partly in shadow and partly in full light; against the light and sil- 
 very portion the head and upper part of the figure of the young girl are del- 
 icately outlined, and the carved back of the chair in which she sits is distinctly 
 silhouetted. 
 
 "I know of no more delicious genre picture in the whole range of seven- 
 teenth-century Dutch art," writes Biirger, "than this one in the Brunswick 
 Gallery by Vermeer of Delft. . . . The execution is earnest; the painting 
 * tight' and without any loading, unless it may be in some little spots of high 
 light in the brighter places and in the accessories. Not even Ter Borch ever 
 painted with a more delicate touch or more exquisite harmony of color." 
 
 [247] 
 
38 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 <yOUNGWOMANOPENINGACASEMENT' PLATEIV 
 
 VERMEER'S marked predilection for blue is nowhere more strikingly 
 exemplified than in this picture, in which the whole atmosphere seems 
 permeated with his favorite hue. The young woman with her hand upon 
 the frame of a casement which she is in the act of opening, wears a dark 
 blue skirt, so dark as to be almost black in shadow, a white bodice bordered 
 and trimmed with blue, and a white kerchief covering her head and falling 
 over her shoulders. Behind a table with a variegated Persian cloth, on which 
 are a ewer and basin, brownish yellow in color, and a yellow box, stands a 
 blue chair with a cloak of lighter blue thrown over it. The wall, on which 
 a map is hanging, is a neutral gray. 
 
 The figure of the young woman, admirable in modeling and pose, the ef- 
 fect of the light coming through the window on the left, and the cool blue 
 tones of the atmospheric envelop, luminous even in shadow, are all rendered 
 with that delicacy and consummate skill peculiar to Vermeer of Delft. The 
 picture is indeed, as Sir Walter Armstrong has said, "a masterpiece of com- 
 position and chiaroscuro." 
 
 The canvas measures almost seventeen inches high by fifteen inches wide. 
 Formerly in the possession of an Irish nobleman. Lord Powerscourt, it was 
 purchased in 1887 from M. Pillet, in Paris, by the late Mr. Henry Marquand, 
 who presented it to the Metropolitan Museum, New York, where it now 
 hangs. 
 
 'VIEW OF DELFT' PLATE V 
 
 IN this picture we have a remarkable example of Vermeer's skill as a land- 
 scapist. The technique is broad, sure, and masterly; the impasto solid; 
 the touch fat and staccato; and so thoroughly modern is the treatment that 
 the painting might easily be mistaken for the work of one of the French land- 
 scapists of to-day. 
 
 "Vermeer's 'View of Delft,' " writes Arsene Alexandre, "is a masterpiece 
 of simplicity. It is strong without being brutal. The town lies before us, 
 washed by the waters of the Rotterdam canal. The red and blue roofs, the 
 houses with their pointed gables, a little bridge with a single arch, two women 
 standing on the shore in the foreground; a few steps beyond, a group of 
 people near a boat — such are the elements that make up this marvelous pic- 
 ture. But what words can express the breadth with which these different ob- 
 jects are rendered, or describe the perfect stillness of those gray waters of 
 the canal, in whose calm surface the reflections of the city's walls form great, 
 vague, greenish silhouettes. The manner in which this work is painted is 
 impossible to analyze; seemingly simple, it is yet as mysterious as art 
 itself." 
 
 "The foreground," writes Sir Walter Armstrong, "is broad almost to emp- 
 tiness, but the town beyond the canal is built up with a hand that never fal- 
 ters, guided by an eye that never shrinks. The breadth of red roof, of yel- 
 low and purple brick, of green xoliage peeping over garden walls, the shad- 
 
 [248] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 39 
 
 ows sleeping in the drowsy canals, and the blinding sunlight — playing here 
 
 upon the pinnacles of the Nieuwe Kerk, and there upon a salient gable 
 
 are set down with a combination of frankness and instinctive selection to 
 which the whole range of Dutch art scarcely affords a parallel." 
 
 The picture, which is on canvas and measures three feet three inches hi^rh 
 by nearly four feet wide, is in the Gallery of The Hague. ^ 
 
 <THE LACE-MAKER' PLATE VI 
 
 THIS little picture, formerly in a private collection in Rotterdam, was 
 acquired in 187 0 by the Louvre, where it is to-day the only example 
 of the work of Vermeer of Delft. 
 
 The young girl here represented is seated before a work-table upon which 
 the implements of her trade are arranged. With eyes intently bent upon her 
 cushion with its long bobbins, and with fingers deftly managing the pins, she 
 seems completely absorbed in her task of lace-making. Her light brown hair 
 is smoothly brushed and arranged in curls on either side. She wears a bodice 
 of lemon yellow, over which is a broad lace collar. Touches of blue and pink 
 are on her cushion, and on the table beside her are a book, and a blue pillow 
 with a striped border of red and white, and with red tassels. 
 
 The room in which the girl sits is devoid of all ornament; but the bare, 
 pearl-gray wall behind her is brilliant with the light which bathes its surface, 
 which illumines one side of her face, falls upon her yellow bodice, and 
 touches her busy little hands, so beautiful in their modeling. 
 
 The picture is on canvas and measures only about nine inches high by 
 eight inches wide. 
 
 <A GIRL AND HER LOVER' PLATE VII 
 
 THIS picture in the Dresden Gallery bears the date 1656, and is, there- 
 fore, an early work of Vermeer's, having been painted when he was 
 but twenty-four years old. The figures are life-sized; the general tone is 
 warmer and the brush-work broader and less finished than in his later works. 
 In color, too, the painting is less delicate. The lemon yellow of the girl's 
 jacket and the white of her cap stand out in bold relief against the fiery red 
 of the coat of her lover who is behind her, his face shadowed by a large gray 
 felt hat trimmed with green and yellow feathers. The older woman in the 
 background is in black, as is also the young man at the left of the picture, 
 holding a glass of wine in one hand and a guitar in the other. A black cloak 
 is thrown over the balcony behind which these figures are placed, and which 
 is covered with the heavy folds of a Persian carpet patterned in red and yel- 
 low on a gray ground. Standing at one corner of this balcony, at the extreme 
 right, is a stone jug with blue designs, forming a contrast to the rich colored 
 wine in the glass next it which the girl holds in her hand. 
 
 That this picture, which Burger considers "in composition, in character, 
 in drawing, and in color wholly Rembrandtesque," is strikingly unlike Ver- 
 meer's later conversation pieces, is clear at a glance. Strong and vigorous it 
 
 [249] 
 
40 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 certainly is, supple in technique, and harmonious in its color-scheme; but 
 those exquisite effects of light, that exceeding delicacy of touch, that inde- 
 scribably subtle blending of colors, characteristic of Vermeer's more mature 
 works, are not apparent here. It has often been called the artist's master- 
 piece; may it not rather be regarded, as a recent critic, Dr. Alfred Peltzer, 
 has suggested, as the bold and somewhat extravagant work of an exception- 
 ally gifted young artist, who painted this masterly study of hfe-sized figures 
 in all the exuberance of his as yet not wholly-developed talent? 
 
 The picture is on canvas and measures four feet eight inches high by four 
 feet three inches wide. 
 
 <YOUNG WOMAN READING A LETTER' ' PLATE VIII 
 
 IN this picture in the Ryks M-useum, Amsterdam, Vermeer has painted one 
 of his characteristically simple subjects. A young woman seen in profile, 
 and wearing a loose sack of light blue silk and a greenish gray skirt, is ab- 
 sorbed in reading a letter as she stands before a table covered with blue dra- 
 pery. Two chairs and a large map hanging on a sunlit wall complete the 
 scene. 
 
 Time has greatly injured the painting, which has suffered also from over- 
 cleaning, but its cool, tender tone of coloring, the peculiar bluish atmos- 
 pheric effect, and the wonderful lighting of the canvas entitle it to a high 
 place among Vermeer's works. It measures a little over one foot and a half 
 high by one foot three inches wide. 
 
 <ALADY AT A SPINET' PLATE IX 
 
 THIS picture in the National Gallery, London, offers an excellent ex- 
 ample of Vermeer's skill in the treatment of light. A cool general effect 
 peculiar to this artist pervades the scene, and in the smooth surface and pale 
 colors we recognize a work of his middle period. The room is paved with 
 squares of black and white marble; the wall, suffused with light from with- 
 out, is of a delicate pearly gray ; the spinet is brown, and the lady standing be- 
 fore it, her hands upon the keyboard, wears a skirt of gleaming grayish white 
 satin with a bodice of rich blue silk. In the foreground is a chair covered 
 with blue velvet, and on the wall hang two pict!;res, of which the smaller 
 one, the landscape, is framed in sparkling gold, while the black frame of the 
 other picture, which represents a cupid holding in his uplifted hand a clock, 
 forms the strongest note of color in the scene. 
 
 Unfortunately the picture has suffered in parts from over-cleaning, and the 
 gray under-painting thus revealed gives it a colder appearance than it orig- 
 inally had. In spite of this, however, it possesses great charm of light and 
 of color, and, as Mr. Timothy Cole has said, "The varied adjustment of the 
 spaces in the arrangement of the whole is a study in itself." 
 
 The picture is on canvas and measures one foot eight inches high by one 
 foot and a half wide. 
 
 [250] 
 
VERMEER OF DELFT 41 
 
 <THE PAINTER IN HIS STUDIO' PLATE X 
 
 THE only authentic representation of Vermeer of Delft the nearest ap- 
 proach to a portrait of the artist that exists—has come down to us in 
 this picture, now in the Czernin Gallery, Vienna. 
 
 The painter, dressed in a black doublet slashed with white, black velvet 
 breeches, red stockings over which are pulled a pair of loosely fitting white 
 ones, and with a black cap partly covering his long brown hair, is here shown 
 seated at an easel, mahlstick in hand, engaged in representing on his canvas the 
 figure of a young girl posing before him. She is dressed in a pale blue mantle 
 and a gray skirt edged with black. In one hand she holds a book bound in yel- 
 low, and in the other a long brass trumpet, while on her head is a wreath of 
 laurel-leaves. A map, brownish yellow in tone, hangs on the light wall behind 
 her; beneath this, at one side, is a chair covered with garnet-colored velvet, 
 and in the left foreground is a table, upon which are a plaster cast, some draw- 
 ings, and pieces of richly colored drapery. 
 
 Waagen says of this picture, "In the beautiful harmony of its colors, the 
 mellowness of its tone, and the breadth of handling which it reveals, we have 
 one of the finest works of Vermeer's maturity." Sir Walter Armstrong feels, 
 however, that it lacks the charm of many of Vermeer's earlier and simpler 
 compositions. "The passionate sincerity which is their characteristic," he 
 says, "here gives place to delight in skill. All sorts of technical difficulties are 
 met and overcome, but one cannot look at the picture without feeling that 
 as Vermeer's skill grew his passion cooled — that his sense of what things 
 were was overborne by his interest in how they looked; in a word, that he 
 rendered rather than created. . . . But after all is said, the Czernin picture 
 remains a great work." 
 
 This painting, which is in a state of excellent preservation, was formerly 
 attributed to Pieter de Hooch. It was Biirger who restored it to its rightful 
 owner, whose signature he discovered in the lower part of the map. 
 
 A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL PAINTINGS BY VERMEER OF DELFT WITH THEIR 
 
 PRESENT LOCATIONS 
 
 AUSTRIA. Vienna, Czernin Gallery: The Painter in his Studio (Plate x) — BEL- 
 xX GIUM. Brussels, Arenberg Palace: Portrait of a Young Woman — ENG- 
 LAND. London, National Gallery: A Lady at a Spinet (Plate ix) — London, 
 Owned by C. H. Bischoffsheim, Esq : Girl playing on a Guitar — London, Owned by 
 S. Joseph, Esq: The Soldier and the Laughing Girl — Windsor, Royal Gallery: The 
 Music Lesson (Plate ii) — FRANCE. Paris, Louvre: The Lace-maker (Plate vi) — 
 Paris, Owned by M. Rudolph Kann: The Sleeping Girl — GERMANY. Berlin 
 Gallery: The Lady with the Pearl Necklace (Plate i) — Brunswick Gallery: The 
 Coquette (Plate iii) — Dresden, Royal Gallery: A Girl and her Lover (Plate vii); 
 Young Woman reading a Letter — Frankfort, Stadel Institute: The Geographer — 
 HOLLAND. Amsterdam, Ryks Museum: Young Woman reading a Letter (Plate viii) 
 
 — Amsterdam, Six Collection: The Milkmaid; The Street — Amsterdam, Owned 
 BY Mr. J. F. van Lennep: Interior — The Hague Gallery: View of Delft (Plate v) — 
 UNITED STATES. Boston, Collection of Mrs. John L. Gardner: The Concert 
 
 — New York, Metropolitan Museum : Young Woman opening a Casement (Plate iv). 
 
 [251] 
 
42 
 
 MASTERS IN ART 
 
 "gTermeer of Belft 3Stt)Uograpi)p 
 
 A LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL BOOKS AND MAGAZINE ARTICLES 
 DEALING WITH VERMEER OF DELFT 
 
 THE chief sources of information concerning Vermeer of Delft are W. Burger's 
 'Musees de la Hollande' (Paris, 1858-60)5 an article in three parts* by the same 
 writer in the 'Gazette des Beaux-Arts' for 1866, and a short monograph by Henry 
 Havard entitled 'Van der Meer de Delft' (Paris, 1888), which, in the light of more recent 
 discoveries regarding the painter, supplements or corrects many of Burger's statements. 
 
 ALEXANDRE, A. Histoire populaire de la peinture: ecoles flammande et hollandaise. 
 xA. Paris [1894] — Blanc, C. Histpire des peintres de toutes les ecoles: ecole hollandaise. 
 Paris, 1863 — Bleijsvvijck, D. van. Beschrijving der Stad Delft, Delft, 1667-68 — 
 Bredius, a. Les Chefs d'oeuvres du Musee Royal d' Amsterdam. Munich [1890] — 
 Bredius, a., and Moes, E. W. Oud Holland. Amsterdam, 1883-97 — Biirger, W. 
 Musees de la Hollande. Paris, 1858-60 — Gower, R. The Figure Painters of Holland. 
 London, 1880 — Havard, H. Van der Meer de Delft. Paris [i 888] — Kramm, C. 
 De levens en werken de hollandsche en vlaamsche Kunstschilders. Amsterdam, 1861 — 
 Kugler, F. T. Handbook of Painting; the German, Flemish, and Dutch Schools. Re- 
 vised by J. A. Crowe. London, 1874 — Lemcke, Carl. Jan Vermeer aus Delft (in 
 Dohme's ' Kunst und Kiinstler,' etc.). Leipsic, 1878 — Peltzep, A. liber Malweise 
 und Stil in der hollandischen K.unst. Heidelberg, 1903 — Philippi, K. Die Bliite der 
 Malerei in Holland. Leipsic, 1901 — Van Dyke, J. C. Old Dutch and Flemish Masters. 
 New York, 1895 — Wedmore, F. Masters of Genre Painting. London, 1880 — Wolt- 
 MANN, A., and Woermann, K. Geschichte der Malerei. Leipsic, 1887-88 — Wyzewa, 
 T. de. Les Grands peintres des Flandres et de la Hollande. Paris, 1890. 
 
 MAGAZINE articles 
 
 ATHEN^UM, 1 901: The Newly Discovered Vermeer — Gazette des Beaux-Arts, 
 J\i^6^: W. Burger; Galerie Pereire. 1866: W. Burger; Van der Meer de Delft. 
 1883: H. Havard; Johannes Vermeer — Kunstkronijk, Vol. 29: E. J. T. Thore; Eene 
 studie over den Delftschen Vermeer — Portfolio, 1891: W. Armstrong; Johannes Ver- 
 meer of Delft — Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, 1868: W. Burger; Meisterwerke 
 der Braunschweiger Galerie: Das Madchen mit dem Weinglase. 1883 (Beiblatt): A. Bre- 
 dius; Ein Pseudo-Vermeer in der Berliner Galerie. 
 
 [252] 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 Masters in Art 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 SPECIAL 
 OFFER 
 
 THE CHAFFEE STUDIO 
 will send by prepaid express, 
 DURING THK MONTH 
 OF JUNK, 1904, ONLY, six 
 
 f)ictures as follows, the retail price 
 or which is Fifteen Dollars, viz :— 
 
 THREE RAPHAEL PRINTS (Platinum) 
 
 8 X lo inches in size 
 I Detail from Palladio, by Botticelli, Pitti Pal- 
 ace, Florence. 
 
 2. St. Cecilia, by Mignard, Louvre, Paris. 
 
 3. Head of St. Barbara, by Palma Vecchio, 
 
 Church of S. M. Formosa, Venice. 
 
 TWO RAPHAEL PRINTS (Platinum) 
 
 II X 14 inches in size 
 
 4. Priscilla, by Elizabeth Gardner. 
 
 5. Detail from the Assumption of the Virgin, 
 
 by Titian, Academy, Venice. 
 
 And ONE OF THE CHAFFEE WATER-COLORS 
 
 8 X 10 inches in size, selected from the 
 following subjects, viz : — 
 (a) " Rio Paradiso," a typical Venetian canal scene. 
 (i>) "Old Madonna Gateway," showings one of 
 
 the old shrines once so common in Venice. 
 (c) "Temple of Minerva," Rome, one of the few 
 remaining ruins of old Roman Temples. 
 Each subject is handsomely matted (the Water- 
 Color being in white and gold), and the six pictures will 
 be sent to any address in the United States or Canada, 
 during the month of June only, upon receipt 
 of Ten Dollars. 
 
 THE CHAFFEE STUDIO 
 I Hancock Street, Worcester, Mass. 
 
 picture-Xigbting 
 
 Is in Itself an Art. 
 
 Fine paintings are often spoiled by ineffective 
 or poor lighting. 
 
 €f)e famous f rinft M^p^tcm 
 
 is being used in a large number of the finest 
 galleries in the country, and by a great many 
 prominent collectors. Covers the pictures with 
 a strong, even light ; no glare in the eyes, or 
 spots on the picture space. 
 
 9ln fatal Higftt. 
 
 We have made a special study of picture-light- 
 ing, and are prepared to give you the best re- 
 sults attainable. Galleries, individual collections 
 or paintings succes fully lighted. Investigat'on 
 invited. 
 
 I. P. PRINK, 
 551 Pearl Street, New York City. 
 
 a partial list of the artists to be considered in ' Masters in Art' 
 during the forthcoming, 1904, Volume will be found on another 
 page of this issue. The numbers which have already appeared 
 in 1904 are : 
 
 Part 49, JANUARY . . , FRA BARTOLOMMEO 
 
 Part 50, FEBRUARY GREUZE 
 
 Part 51, MARCH . . DURER\S ENGRAVINGS 
 
 Part 52, APRIL LOTTO 
 
 Part SJ, MAY LANDSEER 
 
 PART 55, THE ISSUE FOR 
 
 WILL TREAT OF 
 
 VOL. 
 
 VOL. 2. 
 
 Part i 
 Part 2 
 Part 3 
 Part 4 
 Part 5 
 Part 6 
 Part 7 
 Part 8 
 Part 9, 
 Part 10, 
 Part ii 
 Part 12, 
 
 VAN DYCK 
 -TITIAN 
 -VELASQUEZ 
 -HOLBEIN 
 -BOTTICELLI 
 -REMBRANDT 
 -REYNOLDS 
 -MILLET 
 -GIO. BELLINI 
 -MURILLO 
 -HALS 
 -RAPHAEL 
 
 * Sculpture 
 
 Part ij 
 Part 14. 
 Part 15. 
 Part 16 
 Part 17. 
 Part 18. 
 Part 19 
 Part 20. 
 Part 21 
 Part 22 
 Part 23. 
 Part 24 
 
 RUBENS 
 —DA VINCI 
 DURER 
 
 MICHELANGELO* 
 — MICHELANGELOt 
 
 COROT 
 .— BURNE-JONES 
 — TER BORCH 
 — DELLA ROBBIA 
 —DEL SARTO 
 
 GAINSBOROUGH 
 — CORREGGIO 
 ling 
 
 VOL. 3. 
 
 Part 25.— PHIDIAS Part 31.— PAUL POTTER 
 
 Part 26.— PERUGINO Part 32.— GIOTTO 
 
 Part 27. — HOLBEIN § Part 33.— PR AXITELES 
 
 Part 28.— TINTORETTO Part 34.— HOGARTH 
 Part 29.— PIETER de HOOCH Part 35.— TURNER 
 Part 30.— NATTIER Part 36.— LUINI 
 
 § Drawings 
 
 VOL. 4. 
 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 Part 
 
 37, JANUARY 
 
 38, FEBRUARY 
 
 39, MARCH 
 
 40, APRIL . 
 
 41, MAY 
 
 42, JUNE 
 
 43, JULY 
 
 44, AUGUST 
 
 45, SEPTEMBER 
 
 46, OCTOBER 
 
 47, NOVEMBER 
 
 48, DECEMBER 
 
 ROMNEY 
 . FRA ANGELICO 
 . WATTEAU 
 RAPHAEL'S FRESCOS 
 DONATELLO 
 GERARD DOU 
 CARPACCIO 
 ROSA BONHEUR 
 GUIDO RFNI 
 PUVIS DE CHAVANNES 
 GIORGIONK 
 . ROSSETTI 
 
 %\\ tf)e abobe nameD i^^xt^ 
 are con^tautlp hcpt in ^tocft 
 
 PRICES ON AND AFTER JANUARY 1,1904 
 
 SINGLE NUMBERS OF BACK VOLUMES, 20 CENTS 
 EACH. SINGLE NUMBERS OF THE CURRENT 1904 
 VOLUME, 15 CENTS EACH. BOUND VOLUMES 1,2,3, 
 AND 4, CONTAINING THE PARTS LISTED ABOVE, 
 BOUND IN BROWN BUCKRAM, WITH GILT STAMPS 
 AND GILT TOP, ?3.7r> EACH; IN GREEN HALF- 
 MOROCCO, GILT STA.MPS AND GILT TOP, $4. -'5 
 EACH. 
 
 NUMBERS ISSUED IN PREVIOUS VOLUMES 1 
 OF 'MASTERS IN ART' ! 
 
 In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 AIR 
 
 ANY ONE 
 INTERESTED 
 ~ IN ART 
 
 or Artistic Shading, may do well to write 
 for circulars for the latest and the best. 
 
 Address AIR BRUSH MFG. CO. 
 No. 42 Nassau St., Rockford, 111., U.S.A. 
 
 €f)e llcto iorft ^cfjool of art 
 
 (chase SCHOOI.) 
 
 INSTRUCTORS 
 
 William M. Chase RoimRT Hknki 
 
 Susan F. Bissf.i.l k. i,i„s Mora 
 
 Clifford Carlton KriNNFTii HayrsMii.lkr 
 
 Dc,uc;las John Connah Klisa A. Sarc.hnt 
 
 Howard Chandler Christy Theodora W. Tmayrr 
 
 Drawing Painting:, Composition. H'ustration. Decorative 
 a-d Applied Art. Special Classes for Advanced Work in Por- 
 traiture, Miniature, Illustration, »nd in Normal Art Work 
 
 No requirements for admission to any of the classes Refer- 
 ences required of all btudents. 
 
 For further particulars in refercce to the Scliool. annlv to 
 DOUGLASJOHN CONNAH. Director. 
 
 57 West 57th Street, New York 
 
 SMITH (5 PORTER PRESS 
 
 SOORPMTES 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 64 FEDERAL ST 
 
 THE PILGRIMAGE ABROAD 
 
 Should be made comfortably and slowly, with a k-adcr 
 of experience and a valuable point of view, a man wortii 
 knowing, and with companions similarly mterested. 
 
 OUR SPECIALIZED TOURS 
 
 meet these requirements. The " General " Parties are 
 for those who have more general interests. Sailings, 
 May, June, and July. Write or wire for details. 
 
 BUREAU OF UNIVERSITY TRAVEL 
 201 Clarendon Street, Boston 
 
 SCHOOL OF THE 
 MUSEUM ♦ OF * FINE * ARTS 
 
 BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 INSTRUCTORS 
 
 £. C. TARBELL ) ^ 
 
 F. W. BENSON ^"'i 
 
 PHILIP HALE ) Painting. 
 
 B. L. PRATT Modeling 
 E.W.EMERSON Anatomy 
 A. K. CROSS Perspective 
 
 DEPT. OF DESIGN 
 
 C. HOWARD WALKER 
 
 DIRECTOR 
 
 SCHOLARSHIPS 
 
 Paige Foreign Scholarship 
 for Men and Women. 
 
 Helen Hamblen Scholarship. 
 
 Ten Free Scholarships. 
 
 Prizes in money awarded in 
 each department. 
 
 Twenty-ninth Year 
 
 For circulars and terms address 
 the manager 
 
 Miss EMILY DANFORTH NORCROSS 
 
 0 ORD6R. FOR, 
 
 (Toots Of 3vrm$ 
 
 eM8LA20N6D IN 
 CORR€CT STVLe 
 
 Addresses and Resolutions en- 
 grossed and illuminated for Club 
 and Society Committees. 
 
 Anaes <S. Rollinson 
 20J Broadway, New York 
 
 Send 2c. stamp for illustrated 
 catalogue. 
 
 art acatiemY of Cincinnati 
 
 SUMMER TERM 
 
 = 1904 
 
 June 15 to August 24 
 Drawing and Painting from Life. Compo- 
 sition, Anatomy, Modeling, China Painting, 
 Design. Located in Eden Park overlooking 
 the city, with opportunity for outdoor work. 
 The Art Museum and its Library are open free. 
 
 J. H. GEST, Director, Cincinnati 
 Fall Term opens September 26 
 
 FOR THE SUMMER OF 1904 
 
 Instructor, WM. M. CHASE 
 
 Opportunity will be given to work from ( / ) Landscai'K 
 AND Model Out-of-Doors and ( 2 ) The Masterpieces 
 IN THE National Gallery, London. 
 
 Prizes and Scholarship. Membership Limited. Ex- 
 penses moderate. For full information apply A T ONCE <o 
 
 C. p. TOWNSLEY, Jr., Manager 
 469 Mt. Hope Place NEW YORK CITY 
 
 In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art 
 
MASTERS IN ART 
 
 "A RAILROAD BEAUTIFUL" 
 
 Is tlic title of a g " X 12" brochure issued by the 
 Passenger Department 
 
 BOSTON ALBANY R. R 
 
 Containing Illustrations and Description of its work in Landscape Gardening 
 at Railroad Stations. (See illustrations below.) 
 
 COPIES of this Illustrated Pamphlet will be mailed on request, as also copy of << Westboimd/' con- 
 taining detailed schedules and train service from New England to all points West via New York 
 Central Lines. The Boston & Albany R.R., with its double-track system, gives the finest train service 
 
 out of New England, running through the Picturesque Berkshire Hills, the Mohawk Valley, and via 
 Niagfara Falls. 
 
 A. S. HANSON, Gen. Pass. Agt., SOUTH STATION, BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 siiKflOR£,i]iia^M)iiNiAiiy;^^ 
 
 ^^iniKHSrHOBIHQtH HEWB[6IllMD«inBinMl FROVDHEi 
 
 oston^" 
 /^i>Maine 
 
 It Railroad 
 
 (confatntij^comp/efemapsj 
 Aaoejbeen /ssued ^ 
 une/er fAe jd/Zoaf/rr^ ////e^. 
 and a//// jbe mat/ec/ ' 
 upon receipt 0/2^ m sfamps 
 
 Summer Tourist Booi^ J^e^on^dnoc 
 
 GIVING LIST OF TOURS AND RATES. HOTEL AND BOARDING HOUSE LIST. f^HtrYl'c ^ 
 
 AND OTHER VALUABLE INFORMATION. FREE. 
 
 COLORED BIRD*S EYE VIEW^ovw MT. WASHINGTON ICfnTONB 
 COLORED BIRD'S EYE VIEWo/^ LAKE WINNIPESAUKEE r^^"* " 
 
 FOR ALL PUBLICATIONS APPLY TO 
 
 PASSENGER DEPARTMENT. B.&M.R.R 
 
 BOSTON, MASS, 
 
 .J.FLANOERS,0eni PdSirdTickd A9 
 
 ^ XAKES. 
 
 RIVERS OF 
 ItEW ENOLA-ND. 
 
 MOUNTAINS or 
 T«IEW ENGLAND 
 
 SEASHORE OF 
 
 HEW ENGLAND. 
 
 PICTURESQUE 
 
 lOEW ENGLAND. 
 
 HISTORIC — MISCELLANEOUS 
 
 Tire CHARfJBS RIVER 
 
 In answering ailvertisenients, })lease mention Mastkrs in Ari' 
 
FOR EVERY ARTIST'S LIBRARY 
 
 In eight parts, 12x16 inches Complete in portfolio, $y.00 net Separate pMrts, $l.00 net, each 
 
 A series of Monographs by eminent authorities on various branches of Modem Art, illustrated by 48 
 full-page plates in colour and otherwise 
 
 Part I 
 Part II 
 Part III 
 Part IV 
 Part V 
 Part VI 
 Part VII 
 
 The Modern Aspect of Wood Engraving: By Charles Hiatt 
 
 The Modern Aspect of Artistic Lithography By Joseph Pennell 
 
 The Future Development of Oil Painting: By Percy Bate 
 The Development and Practice of English Water-Colour By Walter s. Sparrow 
 
 Etching and Dry Point By Dr. Hans W. Singer 
 
 Pastels By A. L. Baldry 
 
 The Art and Practice of Monotyping in Colour By Alfred East, A.R. a. 
 
 Part VIII The Pencil and Pen as Instruments of Art 
 
 By Charles Holme 
 
 ^•^OPINIONS OF THE C R I T I C S 
 
 The Niw York Tribune: ** The reproductions are extraordinarily good. They are throughout adequate, giving 
 perfectly the simpler textures of the early men and the far more brilliant qualities of work like that of Mr. Swan. Indeed, 
 the reproduction of the latter' s *Jaguar and Macaw' is one of the best plates of the sort we have ever seen. The publish- 
 ers have set out to secure something like facsimiles of the work selected for illustration, and they have been remarkably 
 successful in their aim. It is a handsome publication, and the price is a modest one. The collection as a whole promises 
 to be of considerable value." 
 
 The Review of Reviews: " purchasers of this interesting work obtain not only a choice collection of pictures, but also 
 an important essay in each part on some phaie of modern art, written by an acknowledged authority." 
 
 '^^'t^^X JOHN LANE, 6T Fifth Avenue, NEW YORK 
 
 The 
 
 Overland 
 Limited 
 
 California 
 
 the most luxurious train in the world, 
 leaves Chicago 8.00 p. m. daily. Less 
 than three days to San Francisco. 
 Magnificent eciuipment. Solid through 
 train. Electric lighted througout. 
 THE 'BEST OF EVERYTHING 
 
 Two other last trains leave Chicago 10.30 p.m. 
 and 11,35 P- m. dally, with through service 
 to San Francisco, Los Angeles and Port- 
 land, via the 
 
 Chicago & North-Western, 
 
 Union Pacific and 
 Southern Pacific Railways 
 
 All agents sell tickets via 
 this route. 
 Illastrated booklets oo 
 application to 
 W. B. KNISKERN, 
 Chicago, III, 
 or E. L. LOMAX, 
 Omaha, Neb. 
 OLx6 
 
 COLORGRAPHS 
 
 UR new pictures, the Colorgraphs," 
 are, as the title suggests, reproduc- 
 tions in color. The subjects have 
 i0 been carefully selected from the most 
 famous works of both ancient and modern mas- 
 ters. The " Colorgraphs" will at once be rec- 
 ognized as gems of art, for their faithfulness to 
 the originals in the depth and beauty of coloring 
 brings them close to the possible limits of repro- 
 ductive art. 
 
 COMMENDATIONS 
 
 The best carbon print faiU to give an echo of the rich har- 
 monics of color which arc the chief glory of the masterpieces 
 of pictorial art ; but in presenting to the world your new series 
 of pictures, *' The Colorgraphs,' you have rendered a great 
 service, for they reproduce the originals so faithfully both in 
 form and in color that now, for the first time, we may hope by 
 their use to lead our children to know something of the splen- 
 dor of those marvels ofthc Renaissance.— HENRY TURNER 
 BAILEY, Statt Suptrvisor *f Drawing tf Massachutitts. 
 
 I am moved by the novel excellence of your " Colorgraphs " 
 to offer you my sincere personal commendation. With a 
 knowledge of what has hitherto been done in reproduction of 
 celebrated pictures by colored process, I feel that this is a dis- 
 tinct advance.— HARRISON S. MORRIS, Pa. Acadtmy of 
 Pint Arts, 
 
 HThz Colorgraphs" are 8 x 10 inches in size, and 
 each is enclosed in a neat deckle-edged portfolio. 
 CPrice, 35 cents each. Send for circular of subjects. 
 
 W. A. WILDE COMPANY 
 
 BOSTON 120 Boylston Street 
 
 WESTERN BRANCH : 192 Michigan Ave., Chicago 
 
 In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art 
 
PIANOS 
 
 3f 
 
 HE QUARTER- 
 GRAND 
 
 It is a perfect Grand piano 
 with the sweetness and qual- 
 ity of the larger Grands — adapted to the 
 limitations of the average room. ^ It occupies 
 practically no more space than an Upright.-^ 
 It costs no more than the large Upright.-^ 
 It weighs less than the larger Uprights. ^ It 
 is a more artistic piece of furniture than an 
 Upright. ^ It can be moved through stair- 
 ways and spaces smaller than will admit 
 
 even the small Upright 
 
 S. ^ 
 
 
 
 
 MADE 
 
 SOLELY BY 
 
 
 
 
 GHICKERING ^ SONS 
 
 PIANOFORTE MAKERS : ESTABLISHED 1S23 
 
 812 TREMONT STREET, BOSTON 
 
 In answering advertisements, please mention Masters in Art 
 Printed at Tht Everett Press