Editing Govert Flinck (section)

==Works==

[[Image:Isaak zegent Jakob Rijksmuseum SK-A-110.jpeg|thumb|250px|''Blessing of Jacob'' (1638)]]

The earliest of Flinck's authentic pieces is a [[portrait]] of a lady, dated 1636, in the gallery of [[Braunschweig|Brunswick]]. His first subject picture is the ''Blessing of Jacob''  (1638), in the [[Rijksmuseum]] Amsterdam. Both are thoroughly Rembrandtesque in effect as well as in vigour of touch and warmth of flesh tints. The four ''civic guards'' of 1642, and ''the twelve musketeers'' with their president in an arm-chair (1648); in the [[Royal Palace of Amsterdam|Stadhuis, Amsterdam]], are fine specimens of composed portrait groups. But the best of Flinck's productions in this style is the ''[[peace of Münster]]'' in the Rijksmuseum, a canvas with 19 life-size figures full of animation in the faces, "radiant with Rembrandtesque colour," and admirably distributed. Flinck here painted his own likeness to the left in a doorway. The mannered period of Flinck is amply illustrated in the ''[[Marcus Curius Dentatus refuses the gifts of the Samnites]]'', and ''[[Solomon]] receiving Wisdom'', in the [[Royal Palace (Amsterdam)|Palace on the Dam]] at Amsterdam. Here it is that Flinck shows most defects, being faulty in arrangement, gaudy in tint, flat and shallow in execution, that looks as if it had been smeared with violet powder and rouge.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=520}}

The chronology of Flinck's works, so far as they are seen in public galleries, comprises, in addition to the foregoing, the ''Grey Beard'' of 1639 at [[Dresden]], ''[[A Young Archer]]'' from 1640 in the [[Wallace Collection]], the ''Girl'' of 1641 at the [[Louvre]], a portrait group of a male and female (1646) at [[Rotterdam]], a lady (1651) at [[Berlin]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=520}}

In November 1659 the burgomaster of Amsterdam contracted with Flinck for 12 canvases to represent four heroic figures of [[David]] and [[Samson]] and [[Manius Curius Dentatus]] and [[Horatius Cocles]], and scenes from the [[Batavians]] and [[Ancient Rome|Romans]]. Flinck was unable to finish more than the sketches.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=520}}  After his death [[Rembrandt]] was asked to fill one of the commissions, and produced his last great history picture, the ''Conspriracy of Claudius Civilis'', which the authorities rejected.<ref>[[Kenneth Clark|Clark, Kenneth]], ''An Introduction to Rembrandt'', pp. 60–61, 1978, London, John Murray/Readers Union, 1978</ref>

In the same year he received a flattering acknowledgment from the town council of Cleves and the completion of a picture of Solomon which was a counterpart of the composition at Amsterdam. This and other pictures and portraits, such as those of Friedrich Wilhelm and [[Johan Maurits van Nassau-Siegen|John Maurice]], and the [[allegory]] of ''Louisa of Orange attended by Victory and Fame'' and other figures at the cradle of the first-born son of the elector, have disappeared.{{Citation needed|date=October 2009}} Of several pictures which were painted for the Great Elector, none are preserved except the ''Expulsion of [[Hagar (Bible)|Hagar]]'' in the Berlin museum.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=520}}