FIRST ROOM.

DUSSEL

DORP.

eye

THE first picture which strikes the JORDAENS. on entering the gallery, is a Merrymaking of Jordaens, which is by far the best picture I ever saw of his hand. There is a glow of colours throughout, and vast force; every head and every part perfectly well drawn: vulgar, tumultuous merriment was never better expressed and for colouring and strength, few pictures of Rubens are superior. There is a little grey about the women's dress; the rest are all warm colours, and strong shades.

Four whole-length pictures by Van- VANDYCK. dyck, all dressed in black; three men and one woman. They are all fine

traits, in his high-finished manner.

por

Christ with a cross, receiving the VANDYCK. four penitents, Mary Magdalen, Peter, David, and the penitent thief. This picture does no great honour to Vandyck; the head of the Magdalen is badly

DORP.

DUSSEL drawn, and David is but a poor character: he looks as much like a thief, as the thief here represented: the naked arm of Christ is badly drawn; the outline quick and short, not flowing: the only excellence which this picture possesses is the general effect, proceeding from the harmony of colouring.

GASP. DE CRAYER.

Here is an immense picture of Gaspar de Crayer, mentioned not on account of its excellence in my own opinion, but from its being in such high estimation in this country; and it is certainly one of his largest works. Though it cannot be said to be defective in drawing or colouring, yet it is far from being a striking picture. There is no union between his figures and the ground; the outline is every where seen, which takes away the softness and richness of effect : the men are insipid characters, and the women want beauty. The composition is something on the plan of the great picture of Rubens in the St. Augustins at Antwerp: that is, the subject is of

the same kind, but there is a great dif-
ference indeed in their degree of merit.
The dead and cold effect of this picture,
as well as many others of modern mas-
ters in this gallery, sets off those of
Rubens to great advantage. It would be
a profitable study for a young painter to
look from those pictures to Rubens, and
compare them again and again, till he
has investigated and fixed in his mind
the cause and principles of such brilliant
effects in one instance, and of failure
(when there is a failure) in the other.

DORP.

DE VOS,

WEENINX.

Dead game, boar and stag-hunting, SNYDERS, by Snyders, De Vos, Fytt, and Weeninx: FYTT, the Weeninx is the most remarkably excellent.

"Take up thy bed and walk," by VANDYCK. Vandyck, in the manner of Rubens. This picture appears to be painted about the time when he did that of the four penitents; it has the same defects and the same beauties.-A print by Pontius.

DUSSEL

DORP.

VALENTINE.

VANDYCK.

Soldiers playing at Moro; a duplicate of one in the gallery of the Duke of Rutland.

A Pieta, by Vandyck, in the manner of Rubens. Mr. Kraye is of opinion that it is painted by Rubens: this difference of opinion among connoisseurs shows sufficiently how much the first manner of Vandyck was like that of Rubens. He is almost the only instance of a successful imitation: however, he afterwards had a manner of his own.

St. John is blubbering in a very ungracious manner. The attitude of the Christ would be admirable, if the head had not so squalid an appearance. The whole figure of Christ is equally light; which, with the help of the white linen on the Virgin's knee, makes a large mass of light: her head and the head of Mary Magdalen make the lesser lights. St. John's drapery, which is a light red, makes the light lose itself by degrees in the ground.

DUSSEL

DORP.

SECOND ROOM.

In the next room are these admirable VANDYCK. pictures by Vandyck; St. Sebastian, Susanna, and a Pieta. The first two were done when he was very young, highly coloured, in the same manner as the Jupiter and Antiope at Mr. Dasch's at Antwerp, a picture on the same subject in the possession of Lord Coventry, his own portrait at the Duke of Grafton's, and the portrait of Rubens in my possession he never afterwards had so brilliant a manner of colouring; it kills every thing near it. Behind are figures on horseback, touched with great spirit. This is Vandyck's first manner, when he imitated Rubens and Titian, which supposes the sun in the room in his pictures afterwards, he represented the effects of common day light: both were equally true to nature; but his first manner carries a superiority with it, and seizes our attention, whilst the pictures painted in his latter manner run a risk of being overlooked.

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