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Cornugaya Directory 06
Page 08
Wiertz (1806-1865), whose collection of works is to be seen in
Brussels, was a partial exposition of romanticism mixed with a
what-not of eccentricity entirely his own. Later on came a
comparatively new man, Louis Gallait (1810-?), who held in Brussels
substantially the same position that Delaroche did in Paris. His art
was eclectic and never strong, though he had many pupils at Brussels,
and started there a rivalry to Wappers at Antwerp. Leys (1815-1869)
holds a rather unique position in Belgian art by reason of his
affectation. He at first followed Pieter de Hooghe and other early
painters. Then, after a study of the old German painters like Cranach,
he developed an archaic style, producing a Gothic quaintness of line
and composition, mingled with old Flemish coloring. The result was
something popular, but not original or far-reaching, though
technically well done. His chief pupil was Alma Tadema (1836-), alive
to-day in London, and belonging to no school in particular. He is a
technician of ability, mannered in composition and subject, and
somewhat perfunctory in execution. His work is very popular with those
who enjoy minute detail and smooth texture-painting.
Living at the same time with these half-Italianized painters, and
continuing later in the century, there was another group of painters
in the Low Countries who were emphatically of the soil, believing in
themselves and their own country and picturing scenes from commonplace
life in a manner quite their own. These were the "Little Masters," the
_genre_ painters, of whom there was even a stronger representation
appearing contemporaneously in Holland. In Belgium there were not so
many nor such talented men, but some of them were very interesting in
their work as in their subjects. Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) was
among the first of them to picture peasant, burgher, alewife, and
nobleman in all scenes and places. Nothing escaped him as a subject,
and yet his best work was shown in the handling of low life in
taverns. There is coarse wit in his work, but it is atoned for by
good color and easy handling. He was influenced by Rubens, though
decidedly different from him in many respects. Brouwer (1606?-1638)
has often been catalogued with the Holland school, but he really
belongs with Teniers, in Belgium. He died early, but left a number of
pictures remarkable for their fine "fat" quality and their beautiful
color. He was not a man of Italian imagination, but a painter of low
life, with coarse humor and not too much good taste, yet a superb
technician and vastly beyond many of his little Dutch contemporaries
at the North. Teniers and Brouwer led a school and had many followers.
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