He was really one of the fine brushmen of Holland, a man greatly
admired by Sir Joshua Reynolds, and many an artist since; but not a
man of high intellectual pitch as compared with Terburg, for
instance.
Pieter de Hooghe (1632?-1681) was a painter of purely pictorial
effects, beginning and ending a picture in a scheme of color,
atmosphere, clever composition, and above all the play of
light-and-shade. He was one of the early masters of full sunlight,
painting it falling across a court-yard or streaming through a window
with marvellous truth and poetry. His subjects were commonplace
enough. An interior with a figure or two in the middle distance, and a
passage-way leading into a lighted background were sufficient for him.
These formed a skeleton which he clothed in a half-tone shadow,
pierced with warm yellow light, enriched with rare colors, usually
garnet reds and deep yellows repeated in the different planes, and
surrounded with a subtle pervading atmosphere. As a brushman he was
easy but not distinguished, and often his drawing was not correct; but
in the placing of color masses and in composing by color and light he
was a master of the first rank.
Pages:
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330