The Dutch in the seventeenth century had a perfect mania for these commemorative canvases, and there is not a stadhuis but has one or more.

Rembrandt's "Night Watch" and Hals' Haarlem groups are the greatest; but one is always surprised by the general level of excellence maintained, and now and then a lesser man such as Van der Helst climbs very nigh the rose, as in his "De Schuttersmaaltyd" in the "Night Watch" room in the Ryks Museum.

The Corporation pieces of Jan van Ravesteyn in the Municipal Museum at The Hague are also exceedingly vivid; while Jan de Bray's canvases at Haarlem, in direct competition with Hals', would be very good indeed in the absence of their rivals.
Among other painters who can be studied here is our Utrecht friend Jan van Scorel, who has a large "Adam and Eve" in the passage and a famous "Baptism of Christ"; Jan Verspronk of Haarlem, Hals' pupil, who has a very quiet and effective portrait (No.

210) and a fine rich group of the lady managers of an orphanage; and Cornelius Cornellessen, also of Haarlem, painter of an excellent Corporation Banquet.

In the collection are also a very charming little Terburg (No.