Van Ostade (1610-1685), though dealing with the
small canvas, and portraying peasant life with perhaps unnecessary
coarseness, was a much stronger painter than the men just mentioned.
He was the favorite pupil of Hals and the master of Jan Steen. With
little delicacy in choice of subject he had much delicacy in color,
taste in arrangement, and skill in handling. His brush was precise but
not finical.
[Illustration: FIG. 83.--J. VAN RUISDAEL. LANDSCAPE.]
By far the best painter among all the "Little Dutchmen" was Terburg
(1617?-1681), a painter of interiors, small portraits, conversation
pictures, and the like. Though of diminutive scale his work has the
largeness of view characteristic of genius, and the skilled technic of
a thorough craftsman. Terburg was a travelled man, visiting Italy,
where he studied Titian, returning to Holland to study Rembrandt,
finally at Madrid studying Velasquez. He was a painter of much
culture, and the keynote of his art is refinement. Quiet and dignified
he carried taste through all branches of his art.
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