Identifier: artartistsofourt04cook (find matches)
Title: Art and artists of our time
Year: 1888 (1880s)
Authors: Cook, Clarence, 1828-1900
Subjects: Painting Painters
Publisher: New York, S. Hess
Contributing Library: Brandeis University Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Library Consortium Member Libraries

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etting Sun. Although these are real distinc-tions and weU earned, it is nevertheless true that Mesdags place among the Dutch artists isnot with the first: he owes something to his social position—his means are independent andhe lives very handsomely at the Hague—and also something to his own strong character andhelpful disposition: he is a leader in the art-circle at the Hague, and exerts a healthful influ-ence on the younger men about him. His art deals almost exclusively with the sea and thelife of the people who live by it: the sailors and fisherfolk whose ways he has ample oppor-tunity to study in the pleasantly accessible sea-side villages of the Dutch coast, especially thatof Scheveningen, which is only a half-hours ride from the Hague by tram-way, or a delight- ART AND ARTISTS OF OUR TIME. 327 ful walk if one prefers it. The two pictures by Mesdag whicli we copy give a suflBtcient ideaof Ms style: direct and manly, avoiding tricks, and if without tke romantic charm of Corot
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INTERIOR OF A DUTCH CHURCH. FROM THE PICTURE BY JOHANNES BOSBOOM. or Diaz, or even so much of sentiment as is to be found in James Maris or Anton Mauve, yetsatisfies the liking we all have for truthful rendering of the every-day aspects of nature. 328 ART AND ARTISTS OF OUR TIME. On tlie Ebb is a quiet scene of sea-sliore life, in wliicli figures play a more importantpart than is usual in Mesdags pictures. The tide is going out, and the folks must wait forits coming back before they can resume their work. So they sit on the shore and whileaway the time in simple fashion—the elders in chat, and the younger ones in quiet play; anidling time, which is in strong contrast to what we shall see when the ocean, returning fromits • dinner-hour, shall set to work again, and whistle-up all hands to work with it. Theother illustration is a reproduction from a sketch by Zilcken after a painting by Mesdag,and is taken from the catalogue already referred to of the Loan Exhibition of French andDu

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