hands. He himself was a pure
landscape-painter, excelling in light and aerial perspective, but not
remarkable in color. Van der Neer (1603-1677) and Everdingen
(1621?-1675) were two other contemporary painters of merit.

The best landscapist following the first men of the century was Jacob
van Ruisdael (1625?-1682), the nephew of Salomon van Ruisdael. He is
put down, with perhaps unnecessary emphasis, as the greatest
landscape-painter of the Dutch school. He was undoubtedly the equal of
any of his time, though not so near to nature, perhaps, as Hobbema. He
was a man of imagination, who at first pictured the Dutch country
about Haarlem, and afterward took up with the romantic landscape of
Van Everdingen. This landscape bears a resemblance to the Norwegian
country, abounding, as it does, in mountains, heavy dark woods, and
rushing torrents. There is considerable poetry in its composition, its
gloomy skies, and darkened lights. It is mournful, suggestive, wild,
usually unpeopled. There was much of the methodical in its putting
together, and in color it was cold, and limited to a few tones. Many
of Ruisdael's works have darkened through time. Little is known about
the painter's life except that he was not appreciated in his own time
and died in the almshouse.

Hobbema (1638?-1709) was probably the pupil of Jacob van Ruisdael, and
ranks with him, if not above him, in seventeenth-century landscape
painting. Ruisdael hardly ever painted sunlight, whereas Hobbema
rather affected it in quiet wood-scenes or roadways with little pools
of water and a mill. He was a freer man with the brush than Ruisdael,
and knew more about the natural appearance of trees, skies, and
lights; but, like his master, his view of nature found no favor in his
own land. Most of his work is in England, where it had not a little to
do with influencing such painters as Constable and others at the
beginning of the nineteenth century.

[Illustration: FIG. 85.--ISRAELS. ALONE IN THE WORLD.]

LANDSCAPE WITH CATTLE: Here we meet with Wouverman (1619-1668), a
painter of horses, cavalry, battles, and riding parties placed in
landscape. His landscape is bright and his horses are spirited in
action. There is some mannerism apparent in his reiterated
concentration of light on a white horse, and some repetition in his
canvases, of which there are many; but on the whole he was an
interesting, if smooth and neat painter. Paul Potter (1625-1654)
hardly merited his gr