1553 at the
Ryks--may be seen. There are many fine examples at the Louvre. He
was always graceful, always charming, with a favourite model--perhaps
his wife--the pleasant plump woman who occurs again and again in his
work. She is in "The Breakfast" (see the opposite page).
Mention of Gerard Dou and his pupils reminds me of a little-known
satire on art-criticism written by "Vathek" Beckford. _Biographical
Memoirs of Extraordinary Painters_ it is called, among the painters
being Sucrewasser of Vienna, and Watersouchy of Amsterdam. It is
Watersouchy who concerns us, for he was a Dutch figure painter who
carried the art of detail farther than it had been carried before. I
quote a little from Beckford's account of this genius, since it helps
to bring back a day when the one thing most desired by the English
collector was a Dutch picture--still life, boors, cows, ruins, or
domestic interior--no matter what subject or how mechanically painted
so long as it was done minutely enough.
"Whilst he remained at Amsterdam, young Watersouchy was continually
improving, and arrived to such perfection in copying point lace,
that Mierhop entreated his father to cultivate these talents, and to
place his son under the patronage of Gerard Dow, ever renowned for
the exquisite finish of his pieces.
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