B E R 



27G 



HER 



Holland. The Dwdogne being navigable enables the in- 

 habitant! to keep up constant communication with the 

 towns of Libotirne and Bordeaux. Population in 

 5966 for the town, or 8557 for the whole commune. Bcr- 

 frerac i< the seat of a tub-prefect, and has a tribunal de 

 premiere inittinrf, or subordinate court of justice, and a 

 tribunal de commerce, or court of reference for mercantile 

 dispute*. 



The arrondissemcnt of Bergcrar comprehends 926 square 

 miles, or 592.640 acres, and had in 1832 a population of 

 116,897. It is subdivided into thirteen cantons and into 

 167 communes. 



This town was the birthplace of the MartVhal de Biron, 

 an eminent soldier in the war of the league, and one of the 

 chief supporters of Henry IV.; also of his son the Due de 

 Biron, who was beheaded for treason in the reign of that 

 prince. (Dictionmtire ISnivertel de la France; Malte- 

 Brun.) 



BERGHEM or BERCHEM, NICHOLAS, whose fa- 

 mily name was Van Haerlem, was born at Hnerlem in 

 162'-!. He received his first instructions from his father, a 

 painter of still life, of no remarkable talent. Afterwards he 

 became the pupil successively of Van Goyen, Mojaart, Jan 

 Wils, and Weeninx. During his early practice he frequently 



Cted sea-ports and shipping, and his works of that period 

 a strong resemblance to those of the last mentioned 

 master ; but subsequently he devoted himself almost exclu- 

 sively to landscape. The works of Berchcm have not the 

 high ideal character which distinguishes those of Claude and 

 Gupar Poussin : they evince, however, great liveliness of 

 fancy, a judicious taste in selection, and a mastery in pen- 

 cilling which has not often been equalled. His landscapes 

 are usually enriched with architectural ruins and picturesque 

 groups of figures and cattle ; and these compositions, al- 

 though evidently made up of materials selected at different 

 times and from various sources, are so happily arranged 

 and have such an air of truth, that it is difficult t believe 

 that they were not copied directly from nature. Berchem 

 had an executive power which never missed its aim ; his 

 touch is cqua41y free and discriminating, whether expressiii!; 

 the breadth and richness of masses of foliage, the lightness 

 and buoyancy of clouds, the solidity of rocks and buildings, 

 or the transparency of water; and his distances are gra- 

 duated, both in relation to lines and tints, with admirable 

 truth of perspective. In his style of colouring he aimed 

 rather at a subdued harmony than at sparkling vivacity ; 

 and he frequently gave great grandeur to his effects by 

 broad masses of shadow, whose negative quality he per- 

 fectly understood and expressed. Ho painted with extra- 

 ordinary dispatch, but his works betray no traces of negli- 

 gence ; his finishing stops at the exact point which unites 

 accuracy with freedom. 



AY h ile HiTL'hem's reputation was at its height he was 

 commissioned by the burgomaster of Dort, Vanderhulk, to 

 paint a picture in competition with his distinguished contem- 

 porary, Jan Bath. The price stipulated for each picture 

 was 800 guilders, and a considerable sum, in addition, was 

 to be awarded to the successful competitor. Bcrghem 

 painted a magnificent range of mountain scenery, with 

 appropriate figures and numerous cattle. Jan Both selected 

 nn Italian landscape, filled with classical imagery, and 

 glowing with the brilliancy of atmosphere peculiar to that 

 .-Country. The pictures were finished and placed in juxta- 

 position, and the burgomaster, having attentively examined 

 them, declared that he found both performances so ad- 

 mirable, and their respective merits so equal, that it wa.s 

 impossible to decide between them. He then generously 

 presented each artist with a sum equal to that which had 

 been promised as a premium for the superior performance. 

 Berghem was indefatigable in the practice of his art, usually 

 painting, even during the rummer months, from sunrise 

 tillsunet: yet such was his reputation that he found it 

 difficult, even by this unwearied diligence, to satisfy the 

 demand for his pictures. Descamps, in his lives of the 

 Flemish painters, gives a long list of Berghem's pictures ; 

 there is a prodigious number of them in Holland, and they 

 are frequent in English collections. Some fine specimens 

 are in his Majesty's collection and at Dulwich College. 

 Many of his works have been finely engraved by Vi-s-in-1-. 



Bcrifhem own etchings and drawings were exceedingly 

 beautiful and are eagerly sought after. A descriptive 

 logue of them was published by Henry de \\ inter at Am- 

 sterdam in 1767. Tliu following is a list of the principal 



etchings : Six plates of cows, in the title print, a milk- 

 maid, marked rU-rgbem, fecit; six of sheep, in the title 

 print, a woman on a stone; six goats, in the title print, a 

 man sitting with a dog : eight of sheep and goats, in the 

 title print, a man ; five larger plates, upright, one dated 

 all market! Berghem, fee. ; four smaller plati-* of 

 different animals, lengthways, marked N. B. : MX cf the 

 heads of sheep, goats, &.c., scarce. 



Single prints etched by Bergbem : A cow drinking, 

 Berghcm, Ice . 1680; a cow watering, Bcrghem. inv. i >. 

 fine and scarce ; a landscape, with two cows 1> ing an., 

 standing by, Berghem, fee.; a landscape, with . 

 men riding on an ass, N. Berghein, fee. ; a landscape, with 

 a woman bathing her feet in a brook, and a man behind 

 leaning on a stick, with animals and figures, a ruin in the 

 distance; a boy riding on an ass, speaking to another boy 

 who is playing on the bagpipes, called the bagpiper : land- 

 scape, a man playing the llute, and a woman sitting ; land- 

 scape, a man standing and a woman suckling an infant, 

 very fine and scarce. 



Berghem made a large collection of prints and draw 

 chiefly by the Italian masters, which, after his death, . is 

 sold for a considerable sum. He died in 1683, aged fifty- 

 nine. (Descamps; Bryan.) 



BERGMAN, TORBERN OLOF, a distinguished che- 

 mist, was born on the 9th of March, 1735, at Cathu- 

 rinberg in West Gothland, of which district his father, 

 Berthold Bergman, was receiver of the revenues. After 

 acquiring at school some knowledge of languages, botany, 

 and natural philosophy, he was sent at seventeen years of 

 age to the university of Upsala, and was intended by his 

 father for the church or the bar. He soon, however, mani- 

 fested his dislike for both these professions, and after some 

 opposition he was permitted to pursue the studies for which 

 he had a decided preference, and he eventually devoted his 

 time to mathematics, physics, and natural history. 



He paid very considerable attention to botany, and espe 

 ci.illy to grasses and mosses ; he studied entomology with 

 success, and having collected several insects previously un- 

 known in Sweden, and some even quite new, he sent speci- 

 mens of them to Linnasus at Upsala, who was much grati- 

 fied with the present. The first paper which he wrote, and 

 which was printed in the Memoirs of the academy of Stock 

 holm for 1 756, contained a discovery of considerable im 

 portance, inasmuch as Linnaeus, who did not at first credit 

 the accuracy of his statements, afterwards mentioned them 

 in the most flattering terms. In some ponds not far from 

 Upsala a substance was observed, to which the name of 

 coccus aquaticus was given, but its nature was unknown ; 

 Linnteus conjectured that it might be the ovarium of some 

 insect. Bergman ascertained that it was the ovum of a 

 species of leech, and that it contained from ten to twelve 

 young animals. 



Although mathematics and natural history occupied the 

 greater part of his time, he continued to prosecute the study 

 of natural history as an amusement. In 1758 he took his 

 master's degree, taking astronomical interpolation for the 

 subject of his thesis ; and soon after he was appointed 

 magister doctnt in the university of Upsala, and while in 

 this situation he wrote several ingenious papers, for ex- 

 ample, on the aurora borealis, the rainbow, twilight, &c. 

 In 1761 he was appointed adjunct in mathematics and phy- 

 sics, and his name is among the astronomers who observed 

 the first transit of Venus over the sun in 1761, whose re- 

 sults deserve the greatest confidence . he also made some 

 important observations on the electricity of the tourmaline. 



In 1767 Wallerius resigned the professorship of chemistry 

 in the university of Upsala, and strenuously exerted him- 

 self to place a pupil or relation of his own in the chair 

 which he had quitted. Although it does not appear to ha\o 

 been previously known that Bergman had much attended 

 to chemical science, yet he immediately offered himself as 

 a candidate, and to prove his fitness for the place, he pub- 

 lished two dissertations on the manufacture of alum ; and 

 notwithstanding the opposition of the ex-professor, Berg- 

 man succeeded him. 



After his appointment he was assiduously occupied with 

 the duties of his office, and he frequently published disser- 

 tations on important branches of chemistry. In 1771 Berg- 

 man married a widow lady, Margaretta Catharina Trast, 

 daughter of a clergyman in the neighbourhood of Upsala. 

 H<> had two sons by her, both of whom died when in: 

 Urn lady survived her husband, and on condition of giving 



