l we are now considering.

BARTHOLOMEW VAN DER HELST, born in Amsterdam, 1613, died there 1670. He
is by far the most renowned of the Dutch portrait-painters of this
period. Although nothing is known as regards the master under whom he
studied, it is probable that if Hals was not actually his teacher, his
works were the models whence Van der Helst formed himself. We see this
in the portrait of Vice-Admiral Kortenaar at Amsterdam, where the
conception of forms, and the unscumbled character of the strokes of the
brush, recall Hals. The same may be observed in two larger pictures with
archers in the Town Hall at Haarlem, where the inartistic arrangement
and monotony of the otherwise warm flesh tones point to the earlier time
of the painter. By about the year 1640 his character was more fully
developed. His arrangement of portrait-pieces with numerous figures
became very artistic and easy, his tone excellent, and his drawing
masterly. This standard of excellence he retained till about 1660. The
following are principal pictures of this period:--A scene from the
Archery Guild of Amsterdam in 1639, including thirty figures. The
celebrated picture inscribed 1648, an Archery Festival commemorating the
Peace of Westphalia, and consisting of a party of twenty-four persons,
at Amsterdam. The chief charm of this work consists in the strong and
truthful individuality of every part, both in form and colour; in the
capital drawing, which is especially conspicuous in the hands; in the
powerful and clear colouring; and finally, in a kind of execution which
observes a happy medium between decision and softness. In 1657 he
executed the picture of the Archery Guild known by the name "het
Doelenstueck" at Amsterdam Gallery. This work represents three of the
overseers of the Guild, with golden prize vases, and a fourth supposed
to be the painter himself. It is almost surpassed by a replica on a
smaller scale executed in the following year, which is now in the
Louvre. At all events, this picture is in better preservation, and
offers one of the most typical examples of portrait-painting that the
Dutch School produced.

II

REMBRANDT VAN RYN

But the greatest of all the Dutch painters, in some ways the greatest
painter that has ever lived, was REMBRANDT VAN RYN (1606-1669). Beside
him all the rest seem merely commonplace, and their works the product of
this or that demand, according to their different times and
circumstances, execut