GERBRAND

VAN DEN

See also:

• GERBRAND VAN DEN EECKHOUT (1621-1694)

EECKHOUT (1621-1694)  , Dutch painter, born at Amsterdam on the 19th of August 1621, entered early into the studio of Rembrandt . Though a companion pupil to F . Bol and Govaert Flinck, he was inferior to both in skill and in the extent of his practice; yet at an early period he assumed Rembrandt's manner with such success that his pictures were confounded with those of his master; and, even in modern days, the " Resurrection of the Daughter of Jairus," in the Berlin museum, and the " Presentation in the Temple," in the Dresden gallery, have been held to represent worthily the style of Rembrandt . As evidence of the fidelity of Eeckhout's imitation we may cite his " Presentation in the Temple," at Berlin, which is executed after Rembrandt's print of 163o, and his " Tobit with the Angel," at Brunswick, which is composed on the same background as Rembrandt's " Philosopher in Thought." Eeckhout not merely copies the subjects; he also takes the shapes, the figures, the Jewish dress and the pictorial effects of his master . It is difficult to form an exact judgment of Eeckhout's qualities at the outset of his career . His earliest pieces are probably those in which he more faithfully reproduced Rembrandt's peculiarities . Exclusively his is a tinge of green in shadows marring the harmony of the work, a certain gaudiness of jarring tints, uniform surface and a touch more quick than subtle . Besides the pictures already mentioned we should class amongst early productions on this account the Woman taken in Adultery," at Amsterdam; " Anna presenting her Son to the High Priest," in the Louvre; the " Epiphany," at Turin; and the " Circumcision," at Cassel . Eeckhout matriculated early in the Gild of Amsterdam . A likeness of a lady at a dressing-table with a string of beads, at Vienna, bears the date of 1643, and proves that the master at this time possessed more imitative skill than genuine mastery over nature . As he grew older he succeeded best in portraits, a very fair example of which is that of the historian Dappers (1669), in the Stadel collection . Eeckhout occasionally varied his style so as to recall in later years the " small masters " of the Dutch school .

Waagen justly draws attention to his following of Terburg in " Gambling Soldiers,' at Stafford House, and a " Soldiers' Merrymaking," in the collec, tion of the marquess of Bute . A " Sportsman with Hounds," probably executed in 1670, now in the Vander Hoo gallery, and a " Group of Children with Goats " (1671), in the Hermitage, hardly exhibit a trace of the artist's first education . Amongst the best of Eeckhout's works " Christ in the Temple " (1662), at Munich, and the " Haman and Mordecai " of 1665, at Luton House, occupy a good place . Eeckhout died at Amsterdam on the 22nd of October 1674 .