hymist_ at
the National Gallery are a characteristic pair of his pictures, which
were sold in the collection of M. de Jully in 1769 for L164, the former
being purchased by the third Marquess of Hertford and the latter passing
into the Peel Collection. _Buying Fish_, at Hertford House, dated
1669--when the artist was nearly sixty years old, is remarkable for its
breadth of effect and brilliancy of colour.

JAN STEEN, born at Leyden about the year 1626, died 1679. He first
received instruction under Nicolas Knupler; and afterwards it is said
worked with Jan van Goyen, whose daughter he married. An extraordinary
genius for painting was unfortunately co-existent in Jan Steen with
jovial habits of no moderate kind. The position of tavern-keeper in
which he was placed by his family, gave both the opportunity of
indulging his propensities and also that of depicting the pleasures of
eating and drinking, of song, card-playing and love-making directly from
nature. He must have worked with amazing facility, for in spite of the
time consumed in this mode of life, to which his comparatively early
death may be attributed, the number of his pictures is very great. His
favourite subjects were groups like the _Family Jollification_; the
_Feast of the Bean King_; and that form of diversion illustrating the
proverb, "_So wie die Alten sungen, so pfeifen auch die Jungen_"; fairs,
weddings, etc.; he also treated other scenes, such as the Doctor's
Visit, the Schoolmaster with a generally very unmanageable set of
boys--of which is a charming example at Dublin. The ludicrous ways of
children seem especially to have attracted him; accordingly, he depicts
with great zest the old Dutch custom on St. Nicholas's Day, September
3rd, of rewarding the good, and punishing the naughty child; or shows a
mischievous little urchin teasing the cat, or stealing money from the
pockets of their, alas!--drunken progenitors.

Jan Steen is the most genial painter of the whole Dutch School. His
humour has made him so popular with the English, that at least
two-thirds of his pictures are in their possession.

A peculiar cluster of masters, belonging to the Dutch

[Illustration: PLATE XXVIII.--TERBORCH

THE CONCERT

_Louvre, Paris_]

School, was formed by Gerard Dou. However careful in execution were such
painters as Terburg, Metsu, and Netscher, yet Gerard Dou and his
scholars and imitators surpassed them in the development of that
technical finish with wh