is reproduced opposite page 132.

At The Hague one may also see, whenever the family is not in
residence, the collection of Baron Steengracht in one of the ample
white mansions on the Vyverberg. Most interesting of the pictures to
me are Jan Steen's family group, which, however, for all its wonderful
drawing, is not in his most interesting manner; a very deft Metsu,
"The Sick Child"; a horse by Albert Cuyp; a characteristic group of
convivial artists by Adrian Brouwer, including Hals, Ostade, Jan Steen
and the painter himself; and--best of all--Terburg's wholly charming
"Toilette," an old woman combing the head of a child.

Quite recently the Mesdag Museum has been added to the public
exhibitions of The Hague. This is the house of Hendriks Willem Mesdag,
the artist, which, with all its Barbizon treasures, with noble
generosity he has made over to the nation in his lifetime. Mesdag,
who is himself one of the first of living Dutch painters, has been
acquiring pictures for many years, and his collection, by representing
in every example the taste of a single connoisseur, has thus the
additional interest of unity. Mesdag's own paintings are mostly of
the sea--a grey sea with a few fishing boats, very true, very quiet
and simple. How many times he and James Maris painted Scheveningen's
shore probably no one could compute. His best-known work is probably
the poster advertising the Harwich and Hook-of-Holland route, in which
the two ports are joined by a chain crossing a grey sea--best known,
because every one has seen this picture: it is at all the stations;
although few, I imagine, have connected with it the name and fame of
the Dutch artist and patron of the arts.

In the description of the Ryks collection at Amsterdam I shall say