. Rembrandt : his life, his work, and his time. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. (Pen and wash. Heseltine Collection.) comment. The most popular among the landscape-painters werealso those who sought inspiration abroad. The painters of Biblicalor mythological figures in rocky landscapes and learned per-spectives accounted the scenery of Holland tame and so little perception of its beauties, they naturally felt nodesire to reproduce them. As has happened in every age, the CONDITION OF ARTISTS 73 most meretricious talent found the readiest appreciation amongso-called connoisseu
. Rembrandt : his life, his work, and his time. THE PRESENTATION IN THE TEMPLE. (Pen and wash. Heseltine Collection.) comment. The most popular among the landscape-painters werealso those who sought inspiration abroad. The painters of Biblicalor mythological figures in rocky landscapes and learned per-spectives accounted the scenery of Holland tame and so little perception of its beauties, they naturally felt nodesire to reproduce them. As has happened in every age, the CONDITION OF ARTISTS 73 most meretricious talent found the readiest appreciation amongso-called connoisseurs, who saw in minute finish, exactness ofimitation, and kindred tricks of facile mediocrity the highest artisticachievement. The true masters, whose nobler genius demandedfranker and more characteristic expression, had a hard struggle forbare existence. The genre painters of this period often represent very modest in-teriors as adorned with a surprising number of pictures, and recently. JOSEPH CONSOLING THE IKISONKRS. (I!riiish Museum.) published inventories of the seventeenth century prove that many aplain citizen owned a considerable collection. It might therefore beinferred that contemporary ])ainters found a good market for theirworks. But the absurd prices at which these works were valuedand sold at auction bear dismal witness to the true state of Amsterdam, as at Leyden, canvases were to be bought for afew florins, signed by masters now famous throughout the world,whose separate works command prices greater than the sum total 74 REMBRANDT of their gains in life. Many of them lived needy and neglected, anddied in misery. The shrewder among them supplemented their artby some more lucrative calling. Van Goyen speculated in old pictures,tulips, and house property ; his son-in-law Steen rented two breweries,which he turned to profitable account; Hobbema obtained the post ofganger at the Amsterdam docks ; Pieter de Hooch was reduced toserve as steward unde
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