94 Pure Ceruse. — Deaths. 



PURE CERUSE. 



M. Van Mons states, that it" lead ashes be dissolved in s 

 sufficient quantity oi dilute nitric acid, assisted by a gentle 

 heat, and the solution be tiltcred, and then precipitated by 

 chalk brought to an impalpable powder by levigation, thfl 

 precipitate, when washed ;ind dried, will be the purest and 

 niost beautiful ceruse possible. 



DEATHS. 



On Tuesday, the 24th instant, died at his house in Great 

 Titchficld-strexit, in the 63d year of his age, Mr. Wiiliam 

 Byrne, a distinguished landscape engraver. He was edu- 

 cated under an uncle, who engraved heraldry on plate; but 

 having succeeded in a landscape after Wilson, so as to ob- 

 tain a premium from the Society for the Encouragement of 

 Arts, it was regarded as the precursor of talent of a superior 

 order, and he was sent to Paris, at that time the chief se- 

 nnnary in Europe for the study of engraving, for improve- 

 ment. In Paris he studied successivelv under Aliaaiet and 

 Willc; from the former of whom he imbibed the leading 

 traits of that style of engraving which he afterwards adopted 

 as his own : under the latter he engraved a large plate of a 

 storm, after Veruet ; but tlie manual dexterity of Wille was 

 alien to his mind, and probably contributed not much to 

 his improvement, though he always spoke of Wille's in- 

 structions with respect. 



When he returned to England, the success of Woollett 

 as a landscape engraver had set the fashion in that depart- 

 ment of the art; but Byrne disdained to copy what he did 

 not feel ; perhaps scorning the influence of fashion in art, 

 preserved the independancc of his style, and continued to 

 study, and to rcconnncnd to his pupils, Nature, Vivarcs, 

 a;ul the best examples of the French school. 



His larger performances are after Zuccarelli and Both : 

 but his principal works (containing probably his best en- 

 gravings) are the Antiquities of Greai: Britain, after Hearne ; 

 a set of Views of the Lakes, after Farington ; and Smith's 

 Scenery of Italy. His chief excellence consisting in his 

 aerial perspective, and the general effect of his chiaro-scuro, 

 he was more agreeably and more beneticially employed in 

 finishing than in etching ; and hence he generally worked 

 in conjunction with his pupils, who were latterly his own 

 son and daughters. His ntanners were unassuming, his 

 professional industry unremitting, and his moral character 

 exemplary. He seldom went from home, but lived in the 

 bosom of a numerous and worthy family, who arc now de- 

 ploring their loss. 



The 



