LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



pifture by himfelf, in 4(0. ; Peter Snayers, afler Vandyke, 

 ill folio; "Abraham iacrilicinj; Ifaac," a brge upright, 

 after Rubens ; " Tiie twelve Months of the Year," after 

 John Wildens ; and a fet of eight landfcapes, after Paul 

 Bril, all of quarto dimcnfions. Thefe, wij:h the " Acade- 

 mie dp I'Epce" of Thibault, which was publiflacd at An- 

 twerp, will probably afford fufficient fpecimens of the 

 various talents of this engraver. 



Antonio Waterloo was born among the fcenes which he 

 fo admirably reprcfcnted, in the fiiburbs of Utrecht, in the 

 year 1618. Tiie events of jiis life are very little known, 

 but none who have talle and fenlibility to appreciate his 

 merits, can read and rcflcft on that little, without wonder 

 and regret. Though born to a comfortable patrimony, and 

 bleffcd with an excellent genius, he died in a miferablc ftate, 

 as is reported, in one of the liofpitals of Utrecht, at the 

 age of forty ! 



This feems reproachfnl either to fociety or to Waterloo 

 iiimfelf; but reproaches may well be allowed to fink in 

 filence, when we know not where they ought to attach. 

 Great talent is often eccentric, and, to all but the eye of 

 philofophy, will feem to- frtoot madly from the focial orbit : 

 that the undeviating fons of Coinmcrcc^nu'Hild turn from a 

 bright prodigy to a barometer or a weather-cock, is per- 

 fedtly natural ; meanwhile the meteor glares and expires. 

 Eartli is illumined, but are the merchants enriched ? 



Hundreds of dealers have anialTed fortunes, and others 

 will for centuries continue to amafs fortunes by felling the 

 works of an artift of our own country, who kept fcliool in 

 Bunhill row, and difpofed of his Paradife Loft for almoft 

 nothing.. Hundreds have in like manner enriched them- 

 tlves by dealing in the works of Waterloo, who languiihed 

 and died in an hofpital. 



" Father forgive them, for they know not what tliey do," 

 is a divine prayer, which intelligent Chriftians, in pity to ig- 

 norance, cannot too often repea,t. Neither know tliey whom, 

 nor what, they negleft. 



Averting our attention, then, from the private life — the 

 frail and mortal part — of this great artift, to works that will 

 live and be admired as long as engraving (liall endure, we 

 have to obferve, that he was rather an engraver who occa- 

 fionally painted, than a painter who occalionaUy engraved ; 

 for while h:s plates are numerous, hi? pi£lnres are very few. 

 For an account of his merits in the latter art, the reader is.' 

 seferred to the article Waterloo. 



If he had any tutor in engraving, it has efcaped reco)-d. 

 The woods, the winding roads and villages in the environs 

 , of Utrecht, appear to. have been hisftudy, and of many of 

 thsfe his etchings are faithful portraits, rendered with a- 

 maftcr's hand and poet's fenfibility. The frankncfs and 

 beauty of his ftyle, fhew that he read the book of nature 

 with intuitive readinefs ; and that the charaftcr which was 

 occult to others, was to him eafy and familiar. 



Gilpin fays, that " Waterloo is a name beyond any other 

 in landfcape. His fubjefts are perfe611y rural. Simplicity 

 is their charafteriftic. He feledfs a few humble objeds. A 

 coppice, a corner of a forell, a winding r(.)ad, or a itrag- 

 ghng village : ixor docs he always introduce an otTskip. His 

 compofition is generally good,, and. his light often" well dif- 

 t»-ibuted ; but his chief merit lies in execution, in which he 

 is a confummatc mafter. Every objcft that he touches has 

 the character of nature ;. but he particularly excels in the 

 foliage of trees." 



But Waterloo fometimcs compofcs ideal landfcapes of a 

 gratid and impreffive charafter, though- Hill under the influ- 

 ence of the fame prefiding fimplicily. The fcenes to whiclv 

 'tiiiffic romance, or the fobliraitics of Loly writ have ilimu» 



lated his imagination, appear to have been produced with z^ 

 little effort, as the forell glades, or rulliy and fecluded pools, 

 overhung with alders, or pidfurefque knolls, which he 

 doubtlefs drew and etched, jull as he faw them in nature. 



Of this, his " Tobias and the Angel" may ferve as an 

 inftance, of which the revejrend writer above quoted has, in 

 another place, written as follows. " The landfcape I mean 

 is an upright, near twelve inches by ten. On the near 

 ground Hands an oak, which forms a diagonal through the 

 print. The fecond diltance is compofed of a riling ground, 

 connefted with a rock which is covered with flirnbs. The 

 oak and the llirubs make a vifla, through which appears an 

 cxtenfivc view into the country. The figures, which con- 

 fift of an angel, Tobias, and a dog, are defcending a hill, 

 which formr, the fecond dillance. The print, with this de- 

 fcription, cannot be miftaken. The compofition is very 

 plealing. The trees on the fore-ground, fpreading over the. 

 top of the print, and (loping to a point at the bottom, give 

 the beautiful form of an inverted pyramid, which, in trees 

 efpecially, has often a line efTeft. To this form, the in- 

 clined plane on which the figures ftand, and which is beau- 

 tifully broken, is a good conlraft. The rock approaches- 

 to a perpendicular, and the dillance to an horizontal, line- 

 All together make fnch a combination of beautiful and con- 

 trailing lines, that the whole is very pleafing. The kecpino- 

 is well preferved. The fecond and third diftanccs are both 

 judicioufly managed. The light i& well difpofed. To pre- 

 vent heavincfs it is introduced upon tlie tree, both at the 

 top and at the bottom ;. but it is properly ii-pt down. A 

 mafs of fliade fucceeds over the fecond diftance, and the 

 water. The light breaks in a blaze, on the bottom of the 

 rock, and maffes the whole. The trees, (hrubs, and upper 

 pare of the rock are happily thrown into a middle tint. 



" Perhaps the cffeft of the diftant country might have beca 

 better, it the light had been kept down ; leavin:^ only one 

 eafy catching, light upon the tovm and the rifing ground on 

 which it Hands. 



" The execution is exceedingly beautiful. No artift had a ' 

 happier manner of exprefiing trees than Waterloo ,• and the 

 tree before us is ore of his capital worlfLS. The (hape of it 

 we have already criticifed : the bole and ramifications are as. 

 beautiful as the fivipe. The foliage is a raafter-piece. Such 

 a union of ftrcngth and lighuiefs is rarely found. The ex- 

 tremities are touched with great tendernels ;. the Itrong, 

 maffes of light are relieved into fhadovs equally ftrong ; 

 and yet eafc and f.iftncfs are preferved. The tore-ground is. 

 highly enriched ; an* indeed the wh ,le print,, and every part 

 of it, is full of art and full of nature."- 



Thefe remarks from ihs pen of Mr. Gilpin, on the To- 

 bias of Waterloo,, are fo pertinent, and fo applicable to the 

 generality of his works, that it is only neceflary to add that , 

 tlic mode in which thefe extraordinary prints v,-erc produced,, 

 i.s fimply etching, whirh he is fnppofed to have worked up 

 to fo powerful an efFeft of chiarofcuro with his etching 

 needle, by mere dint of drawing and the various pretfure of 

 his hand,, as to render aWJIoppwg out (as it is termed) of his- 

 lighter tints, unnecelfary. His plates are believed to have ■ 

 been hit in (or corroded) at one operation of the aquafortis,, 

 and not to have been touched afterward with either graver 

 or point.- 



iSome of the foreign writers on art, to whom we are in- 

 debted for defcriptive catalogues of the worlcs of Waterloo, 

 are, however, of a different opinion, and affert, that after 

 the procefs of corrolion, he ftrengtiiened and enriched his 

 tones, and efpecially the boles and branches of his trees,, 

 with the graver. 



The prcfent writer, from tlie comparifons which he has( 



been. 



