7
Two Landscape Drawings y Rembrandt by the same material. The colours of the of the road, the tree stems, the boats'and the sky cannot in consequence jar with one another or introduce emphasis into inappropriateplaces. If we imagine for a moment what the design would look like were it carried out with a full palette of colour, we shall see that the contour of the great group of trees would inevitably dominate the com- position, and give it just the impression of heaviness which the artisthas so successfully avoided. For his emphasis Rembrandt is thus entirely dependent upon light and shade, and the effect chosen is one where that emphasis must be of the gentlest. It is a shimmering summer's day, with no strong contrasts of tone, so the pen is used delicately, that the infinitely varied gradations of the main masses of foliage and buildings in the middle distance may be expressed and yet kept light and aerial: space and distance being added by the opposition of the fierce scratches by L- : footpath to the right and the forcible handling of the logs and boat to the left. Not the least wonderful feature of the drawing is the flexibility of Rembrandt's touch. His method owes much of its vigour and vitality to its swiftness. This swiftness in turn demands a calligraphic stroke-- and calligraphy, even with very great artists, comes near to monotony. Rembrandt has his place among the world's greatest draughtsmen, just because his touch never becomes a mere trick of hand, but remains infinitely various, conforming every instant to the texture, or character, or struc- ture of the thing he is representing. Even the swiftest and slightest of his drawings is packed with minute observation, and only reveals the greater part of its secrets to those who have the patience to examine it carefully. As illustrations of such eloquent shorthand these apparently simple drawings from the Chatsworth collection could scarcely be bettered. STEPHEN H., MEDALLIST AND e BY G. F. HILL HE medallistwho is generally called 'Stephen of Holland' signs himself on his medals STE-, STE" H, STE H F" or STE H FEC. The re- sponsibility for the explana- tion of these abbreviationsas Stephanus Hollandus (sic) ecit seems to rest with George Vertue. He has been followed, practically without question, by later writers. For Vertue, who knew only the medals of Englishmen by this artist, it was perhaps natural to suppose that Stephen, a Dutchman, working in England, expressed his Dutch nationality by the letter H. I do not know whether Dutchmen of the sixteenth century used such a barbarism as Hollandicus (or the like) instead of the classical Batavus; but it seems to me incredible that Stephen, when he signed himself STE H" on medals of Netherlandersmade in the Netherlands, before he paid his visit to England, should describe himself as 'Stephen of Holland.' It is only reasonableto suppose that H conceals a surname, or more probably a place-name; that it means ' Hollander' is a supposition that need only be con- sidered when some documentary evidence in its favour is discovered. It is hardly worth while to speculate on the nature of the surname or place- name. It has, indeed, been suggested that it was Van Hollandt,' but it is very much to be doubted whether such a suggestion would have been made had not English writers already spoken of the artist as 'Stephen of Holland.' Much of the confusion which at present prevails about the identity of this medallistis due to Horace Walpole, whose carelessuse of the materials which lay before him in the MS. collections of George Vertue makes his' Anecdotes of Painting' a trap of the most dangerous kind for the unwary. If a publisher could be found for the work, no more valuable service could be done to the history of art in England than the re-writing of the' Anec- dotes' on the basis of the MS. and other materials which are now available. We may begin by extracting from Vertue'snotes the gist of the passages bearing on the subject. We learn from him, first,3 that '. . . Stevens, a painter who lived in the beginning of Queen Elisabeth,' painted several family pictures (of the Lumley family), and that among the accounts of that family were receipts of this Stevensfor pictures which in Vertue's time were in the possession of Lord Scarbrough. Vertue himself one, well drawn and painted, 'on board.' The duke of Devonshire also possessed among his old family pictures some done by '. . . Stephens a painter.' It is to be noted that Vertue leaves a blank before the artist's name. It seems probable, therefore, that the evidence before him did not give more than ' Stephens ' or something similar ; he assumed 1 By Pinchart, who, in the 'Rev. Beige de Numismatique,' 186o, p. 178, says thata family of that n vme occupied a highl position in the fifteeath (sixteenth ?)century at Utrecht, wh:lre Stephen made many medals. 2 Or-considering how easy it is to miss a passage in the seven volumes of .MS.--I should say such passages as I have b.e l able to find in the courseof a not too leisurelyperusal. I omit anythingwhich does not add to our presentknowledgeof Stephen's wark, or help to explainthe current state of opinioa abouthim. 3 Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 23070, fol. 26b. 355
![Posidium in Syria / [G.F. Hill]](https://static.documents.pub/doc/80x56/577ca7171a28abea748c3080/posidium-in-syria-gf-hill.jpg)
