For were not it those large extensive quiet heatheries those rustling green woods and those quiet low meadows which inspired our great painters to bring their fascinating landscapes on the cloth?
Had not that bloomy sky and that sunny mysterious light, those soft green meadows with their multi-coloured flowers, through which the river is streaming as a silver band, had not all this a quieting influence to the agitated mind of many of us, did not it give the quiet rest and did not it whisper to you; here ...

here is it good?
And for this our country we want to be a reliable guide by the directions of which we can savely start.
With Zaandvoort we may associate Dirck van Santvoort who painted the portrait of the curious girl--No.

2133 at the Ryks Museum--reproduced opposite page 236.

Of the painter very little is known.

He belongs to the great period, flourishing in the middle of the seventeenth century--and that is all.