Dutch School
of painting is a sort of “pre-Raphaelite” exactness of detail without selection. It is, in fact, photographing exactly what appears before the artist, as faithfully as his art will allow. The subjects are generally the lower classes of social life, as pothouse scenes, drunken orgies, street groups, Dutch boors, etc., with landscapes and still-life. The greatest of the Dutch masters are: for portraits, Rembrandt, Bol, Flinck, Hals, and Vanderhelst; for conversation pieces, Gerhard Douw, Terburg, Metzu, Mieris, and Netscher; for low life, Ostade, Brower, and Jan Steen; for landscapes, Ruysdael, Hobbema, Cuyp, Vanderneer, Berchem, and A. Both; for battle scenes, Wouvermans and Huchtenburg; for marine pieces, Vandevelde and Bakhuizen; for still-life and flowers, Kalf, A. Van Utrecht, Van Huysum, and De Heem.