Van Goyen's pictures are comparatively rare in English collections, but his work is seen to advantage abroad, and chiefly at the Louvre, and in Berlin, Gotha, Vienna, Munich and Augsburg. Twenty-eight of his works were exhibited together at Vienna in 1873. Though he visited France once or twice, van Goyen chiefly confined himself to the scenery of Holland and the Rhine. Nine times from 1633 to 1655 he painted views of Dordrecht. Nimeguen was one of his favourite resorts. But he was also fond of Haarlem and Amsterdam, and he did not neglect Arnheim or Utrecht. One of his largest pieces is a view of the Hague, executed in 1651 for the municipality, and now in the town collection of that city. Most of his panels represent reaches of the Rhine, the Waal and the Maese. But he sometimes sketched the downs of Scheveningen, or the sea at the mouth of the Rhine and Scheldt; and he liked to depict the calm inshore, and rarely ventured upon seas stirred by more than a curling breeze or the swell of a coming squall. He often painted winter scenes, with ice and skaters and sledges, in the style familiar to Isaac van Ostade. There are numerous varieties of these subjects in the master's works from 1621 to 1653. One historical picture has been assigned to van Goyen--the "Embarkation of Charles II." in the Bute collection. But this canvas was executed after van Goyen's death. When he tried this form of art he properly mistrusted his own powers. But he produced little in partnership with his contemporaries, and we can only except the "Watering-place" in the gallery of Vienna, where the landscape is enlivened with horses and cattle by Philip Wouvermans. Even Jan Steen, who was his son-in-law, only painted figures for one of his pictures, and it is probable that this piece was completed after van Goyen's death. More than 250 of van Goyen's pictures are known and accessible. Of this number little more than 70 are undated. None exist without the full name or monogram, and yet there is no painter whose hand it is easier to trace without the help of these adjuncts. An etcher, but a poor one, van Goyen has only bequeathed to us two very rare plates.
GOZLAN, LÉON (1806-1866), French novelist and play-writer, was born on the 1st of September 1806, at Marseilles. When he was still a boy, his father, who had made a large fortune as a ship-broker, met with a series of misfortunes, and Léon, before completing his education, had to go to sea in order to earn a living. In 1828 we find him in Paris, determined to run the risks of literary life. His townsman, Joseph Méry, who was then making himself famous by his political satires, introduced him to several newspapers, and Gozlan's brilliant articles in the _Figaro_ did much harm to the already tottering government of Charles X. His first novel was _Les Mémoires d'un apothicaire_ (1828), and this was followed by numberless others, among which may be mentioned _Washington Levert et Socrate Leblanc_ (1838), _Le Notaire de Chantilly_ (1836), _Aristide Froissart_ (1843) (one of the most curious and celebrated of his productions), _Les Nuits du Père Lachaise_ (1846), _Le Tapis vert_ (1855), _La Folle du logis_ (1857), _Les Émotions de Polydore Marasquin_ (1857), &c. His best-known works for the theatre are--_La Pluie et le beau temps_ (1861), and _Une Tempête dans un verre d'eau_ (1850), two curtain-raisers which have kept the stage; _Le Lion empaillé_ (1848), _La Queue du chien d'Alcibiade_ (1849), _Louise de Nanteuil_ (1854), _Le Gâteau des reines_ (1855), _Les Paniers de la comtesse_ (1852); and he adapted several of his own novels to the stage. Gozlan also wrote a romantic and picturesque description of the old manors and mansions of his country entitled _Les Châteaux de France_ (2 vols., 1844), originally published (1836) as _Les Tourelles_, which has some archaeological value, and a biographical essay on Balzac (_Balzac chez lui_, 1862). He was made a member of the Legion of Honour in 1846, and in 1859 an officer of that order. Gozlan died on the 14th of September 1866, in Paris.