Rembrandts in London; but we have nothing quite on the same plane
of interest or mastery as the "School of Anatomy ". Holland has not
always retained her artists' best, but in the case of Rembrandt and
Hals, Jan Steen and Vermeer, she has made no mistakes. Rembrandt's
"School of Anatomy," his "Night Watch," and his portrait of Elizabeth
Bas are all in Holland. I can remember no landscape in Holland in the
manner of that in our National Gallery in which, in conformity with the
taste of certain picture buyers, he dropped in an inessential Tobias
and Angel; but for the finest examples of his distinction and power
as a painter of men one must go to The Hague and Amsterdam. In the
Mauritshuis are sixteen Rembrandts, including the portrait of himself
in a steel casque, and (one of my favourites) the head of the demure
nun-like and yet merry-hearted Dutch maiden reproduced opposite the
next page, which it is impossible to forget and yet difficult, when
not looking at it, to recall with any distinctness--as is so often
the case with one's friends in real life.

If any large number of visitors to Holland taken at random were asked
to name the best of Rembrandt's pictures they would probably say the
"Night Watch". But I fancy that a finer quality went to the making
of the "School of Anatomy". I fancy that the "School of Anatomy"
is the greatest work of art produced by northern Europe.

To Jan Steen and his work we come later, in the chapter on Leyden,
but of Vermeer, whom we saw at Delft, this is one place to speak. Of
the "View of Delft" there is a reproduction opposite page 58, yet
it can convey but little suggestion of its beauty. In the case of
the picture opposite page 2 there is only a loss of colour: a great
part of its beauty is retained; but the "View of Delft" must be
seen in the original before one can speak of it at all. Its appeal