The Henson Journals

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Thursday, August 24th, 1911. Amsterdam.

Another brilliant day, but the air pleasantly fresh. We called at Cook's office, 83 Damrak, and recovered our letters. Here also I changed another of my circular notes, & also drew a cheque for £25 to be payable to me in Copenhagen. The cost of our travel is greater than I reckoned.

We took the street–car at the Railway Station opposite the Hotel, & were carried to the Ryks Museum, where is an immense collection of pictures. Not wasting our minds & eyes on lesser objects, we went at once to the Rembrandt Rooms, and gazed with amazement on the world–famous 'Night–Watch'. We spent an hour & a half with the pictures of the Dutch Masters mainly. They are truly amazing, more so even than the painters of Italy: for in Italy Art seems at home, but in these swamps of Holland, all the conditions of asthetic activity would seem to be lacking. Yet the little land swarmed with great painters: & the greatest, Rembrandt, takes rank with the four greatest painters of the world. What a notion of vigourous [sic] & magnificent municipal life is conveyed by those vast canvasses, from which the strong responsible faces of Dutch Burgomasters, Town–councillors, Officials &c look forth! When one remembers the heroic part [281] taken by the municipalities of Holland & Zeeland during the war of independence one neither misunderstands nor resents the prominence given to their leaders by the local painters. But it is a melancholy thought that our own municipal life is such a poor thing, untouched by romance, unaffected by art!

It is a curious speculation how far their religion affected the aesthetic self–advertisement of these excellent Dutchmen. They were presumably Calvinists: but the Calvinistic Creed has ever stiffened men's backs towards their fellows & made them lift up their heads as it were to compensate for the debasement before the Almighty which it required. Then there was the possibility of immense developments of egoism in that doctrine of personal election, which was the back–bone of the Calvinist's religion. "If God be for US, who is against us?" is a challenge which may express a superb individualism, as well as the exstatic [sic] assurance of a pardoned penitent.

In the afternoon we visited the Royal Palace, which is worth seeing. The great Reception Room especially is a noble room, 'with a roof unsupported by columns, being 98 feet in height, 118 feet long, 59 ft. broad'. We were told by the quaintly pompous guide that the Queen occupies the palace for but one week in the year.

[281]

We next visited the Zoological Gardens, which are excellently arranged. A lioness with 3 cubs was a sight to remember. The birds look specially well. In the gardens is an Aquarium, worth looking at.

Returning to the Hotel we dined, & afterwards wrote letters. I wrote to Westlake, & sent cards to Marcus Radcliffe, Reggie Still, & Reggie Woodyear. Also one to Ernest Bennett.

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