greatly preferred by most critics to the Bull, is the Mirrored Cow, known generally by the French title, La Vache qui se mire. This was painted in 1648, and represents a beautiful landscape on a hot summer day. The meadows are flooded with sunshine; a limpid pool on the border of a forest is shown in the foreground, where cows, goats, and sheep are lying or standing under the shade of the trees. Two cows and a sheep stand in the water and are reflected there; one cow is drinking, and the other has her back to the spectator and is idly standing in the mud. Boys and men are swimming or playing on the banks, and two have evidently finished their bath. On the right is a farmhouse with some cows. One of these an old woman is milking, and a man stands by with his arm over the cow's back. In the middle distance a coach and six horses with lackeys is seen, and in the background the spires and towers of Rijswick are basking in the sunlight. The castle of Binkhorst is visible, and Delft lies on the horizon.

PAUL POTTER
La Vache qui se mire

Criticism of these two Pictures.—Burger very wittily said that La Vache qui se mire was a chef d'œuvre, and not a hors d'œuvre, like the Bull. And Sir Joshua Reynolds noted: "Cattle finely painted by Potter, remarkable for the strong reflection of one of them in the water: dated 1648." "How bright, how sunny is this landscape!" exclaims Dr. Bredius. "How splendidly are all these animals drawn and modelled! The whole composition is beautiful and full of charm." It is painted in the small size which Potter usually preferred, and is one of his greatest creations.

Other Pictures by Potter, his Father, and Van der Helst.—The third picture by Potter, painted four years later, is also ranked among his best works. Like the two others it represents cattle in a meadow.

A portrait of Paul Potter by Van der Helst, painted shortly before his death (January 27, 1654), hangs near his masterpieces. It is the only work by which Van der Helst is represented in The Hague Gallery.

A picture by Paul Potter's father, Pieter Symonsz Potter, Shepherds with their Troops, signed and dated 1638, is owned by the Mauritshuis, but a better work is his Straw-Cutter in the Rijks.

Rembrandt.—The Hague Gallery is particularly rich in works by Rembrandt (1606-69). The Rijks Museum is the place to study the great productions of his middle and last periods; but The Hague Gallery is strong in works of his first period, owning no less than five painted during the first ten years of his career.

The Anatomy Lesson.—First, let us look at the most important work of Rembrandt in this gallery, The Anatomy Lesson by Dr. Tulp (1632), which made Rembrandt the most sought-after painter of his time.

Rembrandt was barely settled in Amsterdam and had painted only a few pictures there when the famous Amsterdam surgeon, Dr. Nicholaes Tulp, gave him the order to represent him with his students at an operation for the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons, to be hung on the walls of their dissecting room with other works of a similar nature, such as the great anatomy pictures by Aert Pietersz (1603), by Thomas de Keijser (1618), by Claes Elias (1625), two by Mierevelt (1617), and one by Vosmaer. Rembrandt's work overshadowed them all. There is a resemblance to Vosmaer's picture and also to that of De Keijser too striking to be accidental; but Rembrandt's work shows the master's genius in the style, the arrangement of the figures, and the illumination. Bode says:

Physicians portrayed in the Anatomy Lesson.—On a paper held by Hartman Harmansz, the names of the physicians are inscribed: his own; Matthijs Kalkoen, who is leaning forward; Jakob de Wit, almost in profile, with extended neck, looking with extreme attention, with his collar almost touching the head of the corpse; below him, Jakob Blok, with fixed glance and furrowed brow; above Blok, Frans van Loenen, the only one present not a Master of the Guild; and, finally, lower down in the foreground, Adriaan Slabbraan, with his back turned to the spectator, but his head in profile; and Jakob Koolveld, entirely in profile, the last on the left. All are bareheaded, robed in black with plated ruffs, with the exception of Harmansz, who wears an old-fashioned ruff.

This work remained in the Surgeons' Hall in Amsterdam until 1828, when King William I. bought it for 32,000 florins.

Sir Joshua Reynolds saw it in Amsterdam in 1781, and thus described it: