n Holland, England, and France,
and were able to see the battles with their own eyes. The States of
Holland placed a frigate at the disposal of Van de Velde the elder;
his son accompanied him. Both made their sketches in the midst of the
battle-smoke, sometimes advancing so far among the fighting ships that
the admirals were obliged to order them to withdraw. The younger Van
de Velde surpassed his father. He painted small pictures--for the most
part a gray sky, a calm sea, and some sails--but so naturally are they
done that when one looks at them one seems to smell the salt air of
the sea, and mistakes the frame for a window. This Van de Velde
belongs to that group of Dutch painters who loved the water with a
sort of madness, and who painted, one may say, on the water. Of these
was Bakhuisen, a marine painter who had a great vogue in his day, whom
Peter the Great chose as his master during his visit to Amsterdam.
This Bakhuisen, it is said, used to risk himself in a small boat in
the midst of a storm at sea that he might be able to observe more
closely the movements of the waves, and he often placed his own life
and the lives of his boatmen in such danger that the men, caring more
for their skins than for his paintings, sometimes took him back to
land against his will. John Griffier did more. He bought a little ship
in London, furnished it like a house, installed his wife and children
in it, and sailed about on his own responsibility in search of
subjects. A storm dashed his vessel to pieces against a sandbank and
destroyed all he possessed; he and his family were saved by a miracle,
and settled in Rotterdam. But he soon grew weary of a life on land,
bought a shattered boat and put to sea again; he nearly lost his life
a second time near Dordrecht, but still continued his voyages.

The Rotterdam gallery affords very few examples of marine paintings,
but landscape painting is worthily represented by two pictures by
Ruysdael, the greatest of the Dutch painters of rural scenes. These
two paintings represent his favorite subjects--leafy, solitary spots,
which, like all his works, inspire a subtle feeling of melancholy. The
great power of this artist is sentiment. He is eminent in the Dutch
school for a gentleness of soul and a singular superiority of
education. It has been most truly said of him that he used landscape
as an expression of his suffering, his weariness, his fancies, and
that he contemplated his country with a