All the then novel theories of plein air impressionism are discussed in the Zola novel, yet the work seems clumsy after Goncourt’s Manette Salomon, that breviary for painters which so far back as 1867 anticipated—­in print, of course—­the discoveries, the experiments, the practice of the naturalistic-impressionistic groups from Courbet to Cezanne, Monet to Maufra, Manet to Paul Gauguin.  There are verbal pictures of student life, of salons, of atelier and open air.  No such psychologic manual of the painter’s art has ever appeared before or since Manette Salomon.  It was the Goncourts who introduced Japanese art to European literature—­they were friends of the late M. Bing, a pioneer collector in Paris.  And they foresaw the future of painting as well as of fiction.

XV.  MUSEUM PROMENADES

PICTURES AT THE HAGUE

There are two new Rembrandts in the galleries of the Mauritshuis, lent by Prof.  A. Bredius, director of the Royal Picture Gallery at The Hague.  Neither is an “important” picture in the professional sense of that word, but they are Rembrandts—­at least one is indubitable—­and that suffices.  The more credible of the pair is a small canvas depicting Andromeda manacled to the rocks.  Her figure is draped to the waist; it is a solid Dutch figure, ugly as the one of Potiphar’s wife (in an etching by Rembrandt), and no deliverer is in sight.  The flesh tones are rather cold, a cadaverous white, but it is a Rembrandt white.  The picture as a whole is sketchy and without charm or mystery.  Nevertheless, the lion’s paws are there.  The other shows us a woman reading at a table.  The colouring is warm and the still-life accessories are richly and minutely painted.  Not a likely Rembrandt, either in theme or notably so in treatment.  We must bow, however, to the judgment of the learned Bredius who made the ascription.  These two works are not as yet in the catalogue.  It is a pity the catalogue to this gallery is not as complete as those of the Rijks Museum.  To visitors they offer an abridged one, dated 1904.  There are since then many new pictures, notably a sterling Chardin, marvellously painted, and an excellent landscape by Van Cuyp, both loans of Dr. Bredius.

Otherwise this little collection is as choice and as entertaining as ever.  The usual tourist makes at once for the overrated Young Bull by Paul Potter and never looks at the magnificent Weenix across the room, the Dead Swan, with its velvety tones.  The head of a young girl by Vermeer, with its blue turban and buff coat, its pearl earrings, is charming.  And the View of Delft seems as fresh as the day it was painted.  The long facade of the houses and warehouses and the churches and towers facing the river are rendered with a vivacity of colour, a solidity in drawing, and an absence of too marked literalism which prove that this gifted artist had more than one style.  The envelope is rich; there is air, though it be stagnant.  Down-stairs is an allegorical subject, The New Testament, which is not very convincing as a composition, but warm in tint.  The Diana and Her Companions must have inspired Diaz and many other painters.  But the real Vermeer, the Vermeer of the enamelled surfaces and soft pervasive lighting, is at Amsterdam.