20 MEMOIR OF 



volved on James Morell, likewise a painter by pro- 

 fession, to whom her mother had heen married 

 some time after the death of her first hushand. 

 This duty he is said to have discharged with much 

 solicitude and affection, and was rewarded by the 

 rapid progress of his young relative. That the best 

 means of instruction might be afforded to one who 

 held out the promise of much future excellence, he 

 placed her under the charge of Abraham Mignon, 

 with whom she continued for a considerable time. 

 She appears first to have practised miniature paint- 

 ing ; but, at the same time, to have devoted much 

 of her attention to drawing plants and insects. To 

 the latter she soon began to shew a decided par- 

 tiality, and received much commendation for the 

 accuracy and elegance with which she coloured and 

 delineated them. By tracing the forms of insects, 

 and collecting them for representation, she was 

 naturally led to attend to their habits and history ; 

 a subject w r hich she found so fruitful in interesting 

 facts, that she began, at an early period, to collect 

 materials for a work on the subject. 



In the mean while, however, she continued to 

 exercise the more profitable occupation of portrait 

 painting, chiefly or exclusively in miniature, till she 

 reached the age of eighteen, when she was married to 

 a painter of Nuremberg, named John Andrew Graf. 

 This marriage did not prove a fortunate one. A 

 few years after it took place, Graf's affairs became 

 so much involved, and his conduct in other respects 

 so censurable, that he was obliged for a time to 



