gathering of such names as Israels, Mesdag, Blommers, and others at the Rijks, but the display of modern Dutch pictures at the Municipal Museum is more representative.  The greatest Josef Israels we ever saw in the style is his Jew sitting in the doorway of a house, a most eloquent testimony to Israels’ powers of seizing the “race” and the individual.  Old David Bles is here, and Blommers, De Bock, Bosboom, Valkenburg, Alma-Tadema, Ary Scheffer—­of Dutch descent—­Roelofs, Mesdag, Mauve, Jakob Maris, Jongkind, and some of the Frenchmen, Rousseau, Millet, Dupre, and others.  The Six gallery is not so accessible as it was some years ago.  No doubt its Rembrandts and Vermeers will eventually find their way into the Rijks Museum.

II

Who was Herri met de Bles?  Nearly all the large European galleries contain specimens of his work and in the majority of cases the pictures are queried.  That fatal (?) which, since curators are more erudite and conscientious, is appearing more frequently than in former years, sets one to musing over the mutability of pictorial fortunes.  Also, it awakens suspicions as to the genuineness of paint.  Restorations, another fatal word, is usually a euphemism for overpainting.  Between varnish and retouching it is difficult to tell where the old master leaves off and the “restorer” begins.  Bles, for example, as seen in the Rijks Museum, is a fascinating subject to the student; but are we really looking at his work?  The solitary picture of his here, Paradise, is so well preserved that it might have been painted a year ago. (It is an attribution.) Yet this painter is supposed to have been born at Bouvignes, 1480, and to have died at Liege, 1521.  He was nicknamed Herri, for Hendrick, met de Bles, because he had a tuft of white in his hair (a forerunner of Whistler).  The French called him Henri a la Houppe; the Italians “Civetta”—­because of the tiny owl he always introduced into his work.  He was a landscapist, and produced religious and popular scenes.  Bles has had many works saddled upon him by unknown imitators of Metsu, Joost van Kleef, Lucas, and Duerer—­who worked at Antwerp between 1520 and 1550.  Thierry Vellert was also an imitator.  In the old Pinakothek, Munich, there is a Henricus Blesius, which is said to be a counterfeit, and others are in Karlsruhe, Milan, Brussels, and at the Prado.

The circular picture in the Rijks shows us in various episodes Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden from the Creation until the Fall.  Around the edge are signs of the zodiac.  The colour is rich, the figures delicate.  The story is clearly told and is not unlike a “continuous performance.”  You see Adam asleep and over him stoops the Almighty; then Eve is shown.  The apple scandal and the angel with the flaming sword are portrayed with a vivid line that recalls the miniaturist.  A rare painter.