Its appeal is more intimate than any other old Dutch landscape that I know.

I say old, because modern painters have a few scenes which soothe one hardly less--two or three of Matthew Maris's, and Mauve's again and again.

But before Maris and Mauve came the Barbizon influence; whereas Vermeer had no predecessors, he had to find his delicate path for himself.

To explain the charm of the "View of Delft" is beyond my power; but there it is.

Before Rembrandt one stands awed, in the presence of an ancient giant; before Vermeer one rejoices, as in the presence of a friend and contemporary.
The head of a young girl, from the same brush, which was left to the nation as recently as 1903, is reproduced opposite page 2.