When we were last at The Hague the Mesdag Museum had just opened (1903).  There was no catalogue, and while the nature of this great gift to the city was felt it was not until a second visit (in 1909) that its extraordinary value was realised.  The catalogue numbers three hundred and forty-four pictures by modern artists, and there is also a valuable collection of objects of art, bronzes, pottery, furniture, and tapestries.  Philip Zilcken (a well-known Dutch etcher) in his introduction calls attention to the rare quality of the Mesdag Museum and tells us that Mr. and Mrs. Mesdag van Houten bought for their own pleasure without any thought of forming a gallery for the Dutch nation.  That came later.  W.H.  Mesdag is the well-known marine painter whose paintings may be seen in almost every gallery on the Continent.  A native of Groningen (1831), he studied under Roelofs and while in Brussels lived with his relative, Alma-Tadema; the latter is a Frieslander.  Mesdag excels in marines, painting great sweep of waters with breadth and simplicity.  His palette is cool and restrained, his rhythmic sense well developed, and his feeling for outdoors truly Dutch.  He belongs to the line of the classic Dutch marinists, to Van der Velde, Backhuizen, and Van Goyen.  His wife, a woman of charm and culture, died in the spring of last year.  She signed her work S. Mesdag van Houten.  Her gift lies in the delineation of forest views, interiors, portraits, and still-life.  Her colour is deep and rich.

A cursory walk around the various rooms on the Laan van Meerdervoort impresses one with this idea:  with what envy must any curator of any museum in the world study this collection.  Mesdag began gathering his treasures at a time when the Barbizon school was hardly known; when a hundred other painters had not been tempted by the dealers into overproduction; when, in a word, fancy prices were not dreamed of.  The Alma-Tademas are among his best, little as we admire his vital marbles and lifeless humans.  An early portrait of his wife is here.  Bastien-Lepage has a preparatory sketch for Les Foins.  Indeed, the Mesdag Museum is rich in frottis, painted-in pictures, by such men as Rousseau, Daubigny, Diaz, Vollon, Millet, Dupre.  As we admire the etchings of Mari Bauer, it was a new pleasure to see half a dozen of his paintings, chiefly scenes in the Orient.  The same misty, fantastic quality is present; he manipulates his colour, thinly laid on, as if it were some sort of plastic smoke.  Impressionistic as are these canvases, there is a subdued splendor in them all.  Bauer feels the East.  His etchings recall Rembrandt’s line; but his paintings are miles away in sentiment and handling.  Bisschop (1828-1904) is represented by a fine still-life, and among the various Blommers is one with children playing in the water and on the sands; vividly seized, this example.