Revising the Canon: The Collector's Point of View

Author(s): Christopher Brown

Source: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art, Vol. 26, No. 3 (1998), pp. 201-
212
Published by: Stichting voor Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties
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 201

Revising
thecanon:thecollector's
pointofview

Brown
Christopher

"Canon"is defined bytheOxford English Dictionaryas changed.It is a particular,butnot,I hope,tooprovincial

"a generalrule,fundamentalprinciple,aphorism oraxi- a viewpoint. It is,afterall,thecanonwhichhas guided
omgoverning thesystematicorscientifictreatmentofa the creationof as greatan assemblageof Dutch and
subject.""Canonical"is definedas "Of thenatureofa Flemishpaintings as existsanywhere intheworldifone
canonor rule;ofadmitted authority,excellenceor su- takestogether theNationalGallery,theRoyalCollec-
premacy; orthodox,
authoritative; accepted;standard." tion,theNationalGalleryofScotland,theWallaceCol-
wrote:"Suche as all
In 1553, T. Wilson in his Rhetorick lection,theDulwichPictureGallery,theregionaland
theworldehatheconfirmed and agreedupon,thatit is university museumsand all the greatcountry-house
authentique andcanonical." collections.It is an enormoussubjectand I can do no
Anartistic canoncanbe formulated andexpressed in morethansketchithere.
manydifferent ways.It canbe monumentalized in Paul The BritishcollectedbothDutchandFlemishpaint-
Delaroche'sgreathemisphere fortheEcole des Beaux- ingand,forthatmatter, thepaintersthemselves, from
setinstoneontheAlbertMemo-
Arts(I 84 ) orliterally theseventeenth century onwards.CharlesI had a self-
rial.In thiscontextit is worthnotingthatDelaroche's portraitbyRembrandt inhiscollectionbeforetheartist
DutchmenwereRembrandt, terBorch,vanderHelst, was30 butI doubtwhether heconsideredittobe oneof
RuisdaelandPotter;hisFlemingswereRubensandvan hisgreatest treasures. His viewofnorthern painting was
Dyck.Armstead, sculptor oftheAlbertMemorial, who a conventional one,valuingtheDutchandFlemishpri-
made thechoiceof paintersshownon thepodiumof marilyas portrait painters.Charles'spassionwas for
GeorgeGilbertScott'smemorial tothePrinceConsort, Italianpaintingand, aboveall, forVenetianpainting.
choseonlyRembrandt andRubens.A canoncanalsobe Rubenssenthisself-portrait to theyoungPrinceChar-
shownintheform ofbustsofthegreatartistsorinpainted les in I623, and as king,Charlesfetedthe Flemish
orcarvedinscriptions, as intheBarryRoomsoftheNa- painteron his diplomatic missionto Londonand gave
tionalGalleryinLondon,whichwerebuiltintheI 86os, him the commission forthe BanquetingHouse-the
orintheSainsbury WingoftheI99Os. onlygreatdecorative schemebyRubensstillinitsorigi-
The canonis also definedbywritten ofart,
histories nal setting,beautifully restoredand sadlyundervisi-
andin themid-twentieth century thePelicanHistoryof ted-and hismosttalentedassistant vanDyckcameto
arthasplayeda keyrolein theconstruction ofthecan- Londonas courtartistto Charles.Van Dyck,however,
on,justas thePropylaen serieshaddoneearlierin Ger- wasconsidered bytheKingas an honorary Italian,Ti-
manyandthevolumesofMartindidfortheDutchview tianusredivivus, ratherthanas a leadingfigureof the
oftheirownarthistory in theyearsbetweenthewars. FlemishSchool.VanDyckwasvaluedbytheBritishas
Bob Haak'srecently revisedvolumeon theGoldenAge a portraitpainterin thestyleofTitianand was deeply
has displacedMartinas thenew Dutch canonicalac- frustrated notto receivethegranddecorative commis-
countoftheseventeenth century. sionsthatweredangledin frontof him.Otherartists
The canonis also definedby thepoliciesof display broughtto London by Charles-Honthorst, Poelen-
andacquisition ofthegreatmuseums, andmysubjectis burgh-canbe seenas partofthisessentially Italianate
theBritishcanonofDutchandFlemishpainting ofthe taste.
seventeenth century-howit was formedand how it After therestoration ofthemonarchy in i 66o-many

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202 CHRISTOPHER BROWN

Cuyp,Riverlandscape
I Aelbert withhorseman
andpeasants.
London,NationalGallery

of the Royalistshad spenttheirexile in the Nether- had notbeen availableat thattimeand had notbeen
lands-therewas a recognition of theDutch achieve- purchased byCaptainWilliamBailliein about1760 for
mentingenrepainting, especiallythatofthefijnschilderstheMarquessofBute,wouldthestockofCuyphaveris-
(Charlesii is saidtohaveinvitedDou toLondon),land- en as highas it was to do in Britain?In theevent,this
scapeandmarinepainting. AftertheRampjaarofI672, outstanding and uncharacteristicallyambitiouswork
so-calledbecauseofthedisasters ofan economiccrisis waswidelyadmiredandbegana vogueforCuypwhich
andtheFrenchinvasion oftheRepublic,thevande Vel- wassatisfied whentheSlingelandCollection, whichin-
descameto liveandworkinLondon.OtherDutchand cludedno fewerthan38 worksbytheartist, wassoldin
Flemishartists-AlexanderKeirincxand Jan Sibe- Dordrechtin I785. Almostall thosepaintings cameto
rechts,forexample-came to Britainto painttopo- Britainandtherewereso fewremaining in theNether-
graphicalviewsandcountry-house portraits. landsthatwhentheRijksmuseum wishedtobuyitsfirst
The eighteenth centurywithits tasteforClaudian majorworkbyCuypin I965 (fig.2), it had to do so in
ideal landscapeand paintingsboughton the Grand Britain.
Tour(whichrarely tookintheNetherlands) waslargely In thefounding collectionof theNationalGallery,
antipathetic to "those drudgingmimicsof Nature's whichopenedin I824, the collectionformedby the
mostuncomely as HoraceWalpolecharac- bankerJohnJuliusAngerstein,
coarseness," weretwoDutchpaint-
terizedDutchpainters.Rembrandt's individualgenius ers,Rembrandt and Cuyp,and twoFlemishpainters,
wasexcusedfromthisgeneralcondemnation-his place RubensandvanDyck.Angerstein's tastewasessentially
inthecanonhasneverwavered-andlaterintheeight- thatofthepreceding generationand is verysimilarto
eenthcentury-inabout I760 to be precise-another thetasteof Noel Desenfanswhenhe was creatingthe
figurejoined him,AelbertCuyp. The reputation of collectionnowat Dulwichin the I790s: bothadmired
Cuypin Britainprovidesan important exampleofthe Rembrandt theItalianate
hisportraits),
(especially land-
roleoffashion andaccidentintheformation ofa canon. scapists(Berchem,Both,but aboveall Cuyp) and the
IfhisRiverlandscape withhorseman andpeasants (fig.i) (Dou, vanMieris).Flemishpainting
leadingfijnschilders

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 thecanon:thecollector's
Revising pointofview 203

Cuyp,Riverlandscape
2_Ae_bert withriders.
Amsterdam
Rijksmuseu_

2 Aelbert
Cuyp,Riverlandscape
withriders.
Amsterdam,
Rijksmuseum

is represented
byRubens,vanDyckandTeniers. ers-Philips Koninck,Jacobvan Ruisdaelbut,above
The greatperiodforthemassimportation ofDutch all,MeindertHobbema-praisedfortheirtruthto na-
andFlemish(and,ofcourse,FrenchandItalian)paint- ture.The same changein sensibility caused thefijn-
ingsintoBritainwasthefirst halfofthenineteenth cen- schildersto be criticized fortheirover-elaboration and
tury-thesale of thegreatFrench,Italianand Dutch lackof naturalness, and theirplace in the canonwas
collectionsduringthe Napoleonicperiod coincided usurpedby Pieterde Hooch and Jan Steen. Gabriel
withBritishcommercial and industrialprosperity.It Metsuand GerardterBorchmanagedto straddleboth
was a periodof buccaneering agentsand dealerswho styles.
scouredthecontinent to feedthefrenzy forcollecting This periodoftransition is mirrored inJohnSmith's
oldmasterpaintings amongboththearistocracy andthe great Catalogueraisonne oftheworks ofthemosteminent
newrich.One ofthekeyfigures wasWilliamBuchanan, Dutch,Flemish andFrench paintersinwhichis included a
whoseentertaining Memoirs, publishedin i824, givea shortbiographical noticeoftheartists,witha copiousde-
realflavorofthethrillofthechaseduringthosehectic scription oftheir a statement
principalpictures; oftheprices
years.The scaleof theseimportations was staggering. at whichsuchpictureshavebeensoldatpublicsalesonthe
As a consequence,the canonof Dutch and Flemish continent andinEngland;a reference tothegalleriesand
paintingwidenedand underwent a significant
change. privatecollections,inwhicha largeportion areatpresent;
Romanticism brought a radicalshifttowardsthevirtues and thenamesoftheartists bywhomtheyhavebeenen-
ofthe"natural"whencompared totheartificiality
ofthe graved;towhich isadded,a briefnoticeofthescholarsand
"ideal."The Italianatelandscapepainterswerecritici- imitatorsofthegreatmasters oftheaboveschools.Itisded-
zed-famouslyby JohnConstablein his lectureson icatedto Sir RobertPeel who,withSmith'shelp,was
landscapepaintingdeliveredin London in i836-for forming oneofthegreatest privatecollectionsofDutch
theirartificiality
and the "realistic"landscapepaint- paintings inBritain.Smith'sintention, as he explainsin

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204 CHRISTOPHER BROWN

Grootelindt, Six vanHillegomandBrondgeest. It is de-

votedto genrepainters: JanSteen,GabrielMetsu,Ge-
rardterBorch,CasparNetscher,Eglonvan derNeer,
Adriaenvan der Werff,Pieterde Hooch, Nicolaas
Maes, GonzalesCoques and GodfriedSchalcken.Vol-
ume5 (I834) is givenovertolandscapists:
NicolaesBer-
chem,PaulusPotter,Adriaenvande Velde,KarelDu-
jardin,Aelbert CuypandJanvanderHeyden;Volume6
(I835) is a secondgroupoflandscapepainters,
as wellas
marineandstill-life painters:
JacobvanRuisdael,Mein-
dertHobbema,Janand AndriesBoth,JanWijnants,
AdamPynaker, JanHackaert,Willemvande Veldethe
Younger,LudolfBakhuysen, JanvanHuysumandRa-
chelRuysch;volume7 (I836) Rembrandt anda "Notice
ofhisscholars;"volume8 (I837) Poussin,Claudeand
Greuze. A supplementary volumewas publishedin
I852, just fiveyearsbeforethe greatManchester Art
treasures exhibition,a breathtaking
displayof master-
pieceswhichmarksthehigh-water markofBritishcol-
lecting.

4 GerardDou,A poulterer's
shop.London,NationalGallery

3 FransvanMieris,Woman
feeding
a parrot.
London,National
Gallery

hisIntroduction, is essentially
practical:
to enableBrit-
ish collectorsto gaina knowledge of Dutch,Flemish
andFrenchpainting whichwillprevent theirignorance
beingexploitedby unscrupulous dealers."Those who
are forming cabinetswillreceivesuchusefulinforma-
tionas maysparethemconsiderable troubleand,occa-
sionally,muchvexatiousdisappointment.... The pre-
sentworkis confined tothefirst-rate
andmosteminent
masters only...;thoseofthesecondclassarementioned
as imitators
incidentally, oranalogouspainters."
On thefrontispiece ofvolumei isa portraitofGerard
Dou: the volumecontainsthe workof GerardDou,
Pietervan Slingelandt, FransvanMieris,Williamvan
Mieris,Adriaenvan Ostade,Isaack van Ostade and
PhilipsWouwerman. Volume2(I830) is devotedtoRu-
bens;volume 3 (I83I) tovanDyckandTeniers. Vol-
ume4 (I833) liststhesubscribers, amongwhomcanbe
foundall theprincipal collectors
oftheperiod,includ-
ing threein Amsterdam: Baronvan Brienenvan der

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Revising pointofview
thecanon:thecollector's 205

twooutstanding de HoochsoftheDelftperiod,a Rem-

brandtportrait,threeCuyps,threeHobbemas(includ-
inghismasterpiece, three
Theavenueat Middelharnis),
Adriaenvande Veldes,sevenWillemvande Veldethe
Youngersand fiveWouwermans. The Flemishwere
fourRubens(including the"Chapeaude paille"),seven
Teniersanda vanDyck.Onlyfiveyearslater,in i876,
theholdingofDutchpainting attheGallerywasfurther
strengthened bythebequestofWynnEllis,a successful
businessman and Free Trade LiberalMP. His collec-
tionepitomizes thetasteofa generation
ofearlyVicto-
rianbusinessmen whohad notbeen instilledwithac-
ceptedconventions aboutthemeritsanddemerits ofthe
variousschoolsofpainting andwhosimplyenjoyedthe
realismofDutchart.WynnEllis boughtwithSmith's
Catalogueraisonne' to guide him. Amonghis Dutch
paintingswerethreesuperbJacobvanRuisdaels,three
Janvan de Cappelles,fiveWillemvan de Velde the
Youngers,as well as picturesby van der Heyden,
SchalckenandBerchem.GeorgeSaltingwasa farmore
whosefirstlove was Chineseporce-
eclecticcollector,

5 GerardterBorch,Woman
playing totwomen.London,
a theorbo
NationalGallery ofa woman.
6 FransHals,Portrait London,NationalGallery

Smith'scatalogueconstituted an immensely influen-

tialcanon:itis noaccidentthatallthepainters intheca-
talogue-withthesolitary exception ofPietervanSlin-
gelandt-arenot just represented but representedin
depthin theNationalGallery.The NationalGallery's
collectionofDutchpaintings is basedon thecollections
of Angerstein and Sir GeorgeBeaumontin the first
place,butthereafter thethreepillarsarethecollections
ofSirRobertPeel,WynnEllisandGeorgeSalting.Peel
camefroma wealthy manufacturing and,when
family
he succeededin i 830, inherited John
a greatfortune.
Smithwashisprincipaladvisorin theformation ofhis
collection.Peel did notflinchfrompayinghighprices
forthepaintings he wanted:he boughtFransvanMie-
ris'sWoman feeding a parrot(fig.3) andDou's A poulter-
er'sshop(fig.4) at thesaleofWilliamBeckford's collec-
respectively.
305 andI270 guineas
tioninI823, paying
Three yearslaterhe paid 920 guineasforterBorch's
Woman totwomen(fig.5). Amongthe
playinga theorbo
77 paintingsacquiredforthe NationalGalleryfrom
Peel's heirsforL75,000in I871, 55 wereDutch, I2
Flemishand io English.The Dutchpaintings included

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206 CHRISTOPHER BROWN

ir S mT

PieterSaenredam,
TheGrote
KerkinHaarlem.London,NationalGallery

Vermeer,
9 Johannes at a virginal.
standing
Youngwoman London, Vermeer,
8 Johannes Woman London,National
seatedat a virginal.
NationalGallery Gallery

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Revising pointofview
thecanon:thecollector's 207

i0 CornelisvanHaarlem,Twofollowers devoured
ofCadmus bya dragon.
London,NationalGallery

lain.His largecollectionof paintings cameto theNa- theinfluence ofSmith'scanonon nineteenth and even
tionalGalleryon his deathin I9IO, and in additionto earlytwentieth century tastewas enormous.Hofstede
theoutstanding earlyNetherlandish andItalianpictures de Grootbasedhisowncanonicalvolumeson Smith's
therewasa finegroupofDutchpaintings includingtwo catalogue,addingonlyFransHals,Janvande Cappelle,
vande Cappelles,a Cuyp,threevanGoyens,twopor- AertvanderNeerandJanvanGoyen.
traitsbyFransHals (fig.6), a Maes, twoMetsus,four In I842, I8 yearsaftertheNationalGalleryopened,
JacobvanRuisdaels,a Saenredam (fig.7), sixJanSteensAnnaJamesonin herHandbook tothepublicgalleries
of
and Vermeer'sWomanseatedat a virginal(fig.8). artinornearLondonhad written: "We areas yetmost
Smith'scanonis thatof Peel and WynnEllis. Sal- poorin thefinemastersoftheDutch School.Thereis
ting'shad wideneda littleto includeartistswhowere not a singlespecimenof Hobbemaor Ruysdael.The
"rediscovered" subsequently,
notablyFransHals, Pie- specimens ofvande Veldeareinsignificant; and ofthe
terSaenredamandVermeer, allthreeofwhom,howev- beautiful conversationpiecesofterBorch,GerardDou,
er,werealreadyrepresented in theGallerybeforeSal- Netscher, Ostade,FransMierisandtheircompeers, not
ting'spicturescameto Trafalgar Square.The National one."WiththeSaltingBequestofI9IO all thesegaps-
Gallery'sotherVermeer,the Youngwomanstandingat a and manymore-had beenfilled.And yetsubstantial
virginal(fig.9), hadbeenveryappropriatelypurchased areasofDutchpainting remained unrepresentedatTra-
following thesale ofTheophileThore'sestatein I892, falgarSquare-and someremainso tothisday.
and itsfirstHals had beenacquiredas earlyas i 876- The DutchMannerists playnopartinSmith'scanon,
withinyears,thatis, of thefirstseriousattention that andindeedtheirrediscovery andre-evaluationhaswait-
Thorehadgiventothatmaster intheGazettedesBeaux- ed untilthelastfewdecades.CornelisvanHaarlemhad
Arts.The Gallery's otherpicturebySaenredam haden- been in the collectionsince I838 whenthe Duke of
teredthe collectionsomewhatless conspicuously, as Northumberland presented thelargecanvasof Twofol-
partof a giftpresented by ArthurKay. Nevertheless, lowers ofCadmusdevoured bya dragon(fig.io). It had

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208 CHRISTOPHER BROWN

i i Hendrick
Terbrugghen,
JacobandLaban,1627.
London,NationalGallery

beenin theNorthumberland Collectionat SyonHouseandmuchcopiedsinceitwaspaintedin Romein I6I7,

at leastsinceI671. I suspectthattheDuke waseagerto was boughtin I922, and his St Sebastianjoinedit in
disposeof thislarge,horrifying image.InterestinglyI930. Honthorst's
it portrait
ofhisgreatpatron,theWin-
wasoneoftheveryfewpicturesto remainin Trafalgar terQueen,wasbequeathed byLadyCravenin I965: the
Squareduringthewar-and was damagedduringthe sitterhadlefttheportrait to theIst EarlCravenon her
bombing.Recently restored,revealingitsdateof I588,
deathin I662. Therewas a particular stimulusforthe
ithasemergedas a majorearlywork.In I978 itwasjoi- purchaseof paintings by Terbrugghen in thepublica-
nedbythesameartist's PreachingofStjohn theBaptist
tionbyBenedictNicolsonofa streamofarticles on him
ofI602, whichappearedunrecorded at auctioninLon-
in theI950S whichculminated in theappearanceofhis
don.Thereis stillno Goltzius,AbrahamBloemaert monograph
or on theartistin I958. However,thereis still
KarelvanMander,although an important Wtewaelwasno DirkvanBaburenin theNationalGallery,norany-
bequeathed in I968. thingby thatfascinating Caravaggesquepainterwho
The Dutch Caravaggisti werealso absentin Smith,settledin Italy,MatthiasStom,althoughone is prom-
andin thisareagreatprogress hasbeenmade.The firstisedina future bequest.
Terbrugghen, JacobandLabanof I627 (fig.ii), was Still lifeis stillunder-represented in the National
boughtatauctioninLondonin 1926, a surprisinglyear- Gallery'scollection: onlyJanvanHuysumand Rachel
ly expressionof interest and RuyschareincludedinSmith'sCatalogue,
in thisgroupof painters, andpredicta-
furtherpaintings wereacquiredin I963 (A manplaying blybothare wellshownin theNationalGallery.The
a lute,I624) and in I983 (Theconcert). Honthorst'sMiddelburgpaintershaverecently beenshownforthe
ChristbeforePilate(fig.I2), a painting
widelyadmired firsttimeas a resultofa bequestfromEdwardSpeelman

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Revisingthecanon: thecollector'spointofview 209

ofa Bosschaert flowerpieceofI6I4 (fig.I3). Recentbe-

questsofpaintings byKalf(fig.I4) andTreckhaveim-
provedthestill-lifecollection butthereis stillno early
Haarlemstilllife-no FlorisvanDijckorNicolaesGil-
lis; onlya minorPieterClaesz,a disappointing Heda
andnothing byJanDavidsz.de Heem.Thereis nothing
bythatfascinating painter,AdriaenCoorte.It is inter-
estingtonotethatstilllifeis an areawhichhasrecently
beenbuiltup intheRijksmuseum as well.In theBritish
literatureon Dutchpainting, stilllifehasuntilveryre-
cently beencritically
undervalued.
Anotherunder-represented areais thatofearlyma-
rinepainting, althoughthesuperband comprehensive
collectionat theNationalMaritime Museumat Green-
wichmakesthislessofa priority: theNationalGallery

13 Ambrosius
Bosschaert ina glassvase,I614.
theElder,Flowers
London,NationalGallery

hasnopainting byHendrickVroomorJanPorcellis, al-

thoughan outstanding earlySimonde Vliegerwasbe-
queathedbyLordRevelstoke in I929.
The HaarlemClassicists-stillinthecourseofbeing
reassessed-areunrepresented. Salomonde Bray,Pie-
ter de Grebberand Caesar van Everdingenare not
shownatTrafalgar Square.IndeedDutchhistory paint-
ing,whichtheexhibition Gods,saintsandheroes did so
muchtorediscover (atleastoutsidetheNetherlands), is
relativelyunder-represented whencomparedto land-
scapeandgenrepainting. The Rembrandt schoolis also
less wellshownthanit shouldbe: mostof the Rem-
brandtschoolpaintings wereacquiredunderfalsepre-
tenses,as Rembrandt. The recentgiftof a Gerbrandt
van den Eeckhoutwas important but thereis stillno
Aertde Gelderand bothFerdinandBol and Govert
Flinckareonlymodestly shown.Individual artists
whose
absencefromtheNationalGallery's I particu-
collection
I2 GerardvanHonthorst,
Christ Pilate.London,National
before larlyregretincludeAdamPynacker andFransPost.To
Gallery identifysuchgapsis to a significant extentto nameart-

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2Io CHRISTOPHER BROWN

114WillemKalf,Stilllifewith
thedrinking
hornoftheSt Sebastian London,NationalGallery
archers'guild.

istsandgroupsofartists whohavebeenadmitted tothe market; in somecasesopportunities havebeenmissed.

canononlyrelatively recently.In I976 I organizedmy Thereis stillmuchtobe done.
firstmajorexhibition at the NationalGallery,Artin The Flemishcollection at theNationalGalleryis far
Holland. The choice was deliberate- lesscomprehensive.
seventeenth-century The fourartists inSmith'scanon-
lymadetopresent ananti-canon, thoseartistsnotrepre- Rubens,vanDyck,Teniersand GonzalesCoques-are
sentedin theGallery'scollection,whoseabsenceseem- allwellshown.I takeconsiderable prideinhavingadded
ed to me then to skew the presentation of Dutch a keyearlyRubens,theSamsonandDelilah(fig.I 5), and
paintingas a whole.AmongthemwereAsselijn, vander havingtransformed thegroupofpaintings byvanDyck
Ast, van Beyeren,AbrahamBloemaert,Salomonde whichwassurprisingly modestin I 97 I: sincethenLady
Bray,Claesz,FlorisvanDijck,vandenEeckhout, Cae- ElizabethThimbelby and Dorothy,Viscountess Andover,
sar van Everdingen, Flinck,Aertde Gelder,Nicolaes The Balbi children (fig.i6), LordJohnStuartand his
Gillis,Bartholomeus van der Helst,Kalf,FransPost, brother, LordBernard Stuart(fig.I7), and Charity have
Pynacker, Seghers,Uyttenbroeck, CornelisVerbeeck, beenadded.We nowrepresent allperiodsofhisactivity,
HendrickVroom,JanWeenix,CornelisvanWieringen although thatis nottosaythatthevanDyckcollection is
and Adam Willaerts.Some gaps have been filled;in complete.OutsideSmith'sveryabbreviated Flemish
somecasestherightpaintings havenotcomeontothe canon,thecollection is patchier.
Therearefinereligious

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Revising
thecanon:thecollector's
pointofview 2II

L-

I5 PeterPaulRubens,SamsonandDelilah.London,NationalGallery

paintings byJordaens
and a portrait butno large-scale This is notsimplya questionof rediscovery.Reputa-
genrepainting.The contemporaries of Rubenswhose tionsare also reassessed.AreEglonvan derNeer and
treatsin hisnewPeli- Jan Hackaertworthyof the companytheykeep in
workHans Vliegheso effectively
can areoftenunrepresented:thereareno paintingsby Smith'scatalogue? Is Hobbemareallythegianthe was
Boeckhorst,de CrayerorDiepenbeeck, noranybyRu- believedtobe inthenineteenth century?WeretheBrit-
JanWildensand Frans Snijders. ishcollectors
bens'scollaborators correct
to giveCuypsucha highplacein
Even moresurprisingly, JanBrueghelthe Elder and thepantheon ofDutchpainters, orwasSchmidt-Dege-
Joosde Momperarepoorlyshown. oftheRijksmuseum,
ner,director righttodeclinetobuy
The canonis constantlyevolvingand beingrefined. paintingsby him?This constantreexamination of the

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2I2

vanDyck,Theso-called
I6 Anthony London,National
Balbichildren. 17 AnthonyvanDyck,Lord_JohnStuartandhisbrother,
Gallery LordBernard
Stuart.London,NationalGallery

canontakesplace in surveys,monographs and-very wouldliketo closeby payingtributeto twogiants:to

importantly-in exhibitions.Blankertlookedagainat HansVlieghe,whohascausedmetolooktimeandagain
theItalianate
landscapepainters inUtrecht in I968; Pe- withappreciation andadmirationatFlemishartistswho
terHechtdid a greatservicein reassessing sightaredeepinthelongshadowscastbyRubens
thefijnschil- atfirst
dersat theRijksmuseum in I989, praisingthemin the andvanDyckbutarein factdistinct anddistinguished
termsin whichtheywereappreciated bycontempora- artistic intheirownright;andto Seymour
personalities
riesandearlycollectors.
The Bamboccianti stillawaitan SlivewhosePelicanI wasmyBibleas a curatorbegin-
exhibitionwhichpaysfulltribute to theirachievement. ningmycareerandwhosePelicanII displayshisremark-
The marketrespondsto thesereassessments. Smith ableability tocomefreshlytohissubject,toreassessand
wouldhavebeen incredulous thatmoonlitlandscapes revisehisowncanon,which,it mustbe said,is notal-
byAertvanderNeernowcommandpricesmanytimes waysa qualitytobe associatedwithgiants.
inexcessofthosefetchedbyEglonvanderNeer'shigh-
lyfinishedgenreandhistoryscenes. THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM
In thisprocessofrevisingthecanonwe aredwarves OXFORD
on the shouldersof giants,and thisparticular dwarf

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