Everdingen, Aldret Van

, the nephew of the former, was born in Alkmaer, in 1621. Having first attended to the instructions of Roland Savery, he afterwards greatly improved by those of Peter Molyn, whom at last he surpassed in skill. He delighted most in the grand scenes of nature, or rather her more romantic features, such as rocks, torrents, and cataracts, which he executed with great freedom and variety of touch. In his time he had no superior; but Jacob Ruysdael followed him immediately, was indeed partly contemporary with him, and in his own style left him far behind in the brilliancy and force of his colours and execution, and the choice of his forms. However, Everdingen is highly deserving of great praise for the care which he took to make himself acquainted with the effects of nature, and the truth with which he marked them. He made a voyage up the Baltic, and was much gratified by and made much use of the scenery, which the romantic coasts of that sea, and of Norway, (which he also visited) afforded him. He died in 1675, and left behind him a great number of drawings, both of real views and compositions, which are very freely wrought. He was thought not to succeed so well in large works as in smaller ones, those coming more within the management of the neatness of pencilling, which characterizes his style of execution. The latter are very highly and very deservedly valued in Flanders and Holland. 2

2

Pilkington.—Strutt.—Deschamps, vol. II.