LOW COUNTRIES, ENGRAVERS OF THE. 



havf fver be.-ii turpaffed, it is in the mafterly determination 

 of the featuics, which we find in the works of Nanteuil, 

 EdeHnck, and Drevct : this gives an animation to the coun- 

 tenance, more cafily to be felt than defcribcd. From liis 

 fchcitudc to avoid the appearance of an outhne, he feems 

 freqnently tn have neglcfted the httle niarpnedes of light and 

 fhadow, which not only appear in Nature, but, like the acci- 

 dental femitoncs in mulic, raife a pleafing fenfation in the 

 mind, in proportion as the variation is jndiciaufly managed. 

 For want of attention to this eifential beauty, many of his 

 celebrated produdions have a milty appearance, and do not 

 ftrikc the eye with the force we might expeft when we con- 

 fider the excellence of the engraving." 



The biographer here certainly touches his inflrument with 

 a finger of exquifite feehng : yet, as the wild mufic which 

 fhould accompany and aid the varying fcntimcnt of mental 

 emotion, is of a diilinft charaftcr from that Lydian mea- 

 fure and thofe dulcet tones, that 



-" Sooth the foul to pleafure ;" 



fo Struttmuft not be fuppofed to mean that one particular 

 ftyle of engraving is fuited, in preference to all others, to 

 portraits of every kind, and engraved after whatever painter. 

 The prefent writer entertains little doubt but that the femi- 

 demi dillinftions which he perceives between the ftyles of 

 different engravers, analogous to thofe which are noted in 

 mufic, will one day be fo generally felt and underftood by 

 profeiibrs, and finally by the public at large, as to become 

 the fubjeft of critical admeafurement and animadverfion ; and 

 when that day of pleafure (hall arrive, the foftnefs and 

 fweetnefs, and delicate indefinity which addrefles the fancy 

 rather than the fenfe, which confers that exquifite meking 

 roundnefs to which female and infantile beauty is fo much 

 indebted ; which may be traced in the ftyle of Houbraken, 

 and which, in our own times, has played among the zephyrs, 

 the loves, and the graces of Cipriani and Bartolozzi, will 

 be as much admired, when properly introduced, as the 

 more energetic touches of manly charafter and expreffion, 

 or " little (harpncfTes" which our Englifh critic has de- 

 fcribed with a feeling fo technically juft. 



Comparifons might, doubtlefa, be feverally inftituted 

 with advantage to our critical knowledge of portrait en- 

 graving, between the Dutch artift and thofe great orna- 

 ments of the French fchool whom Strutt has named, but 

 it would perhaps lead us into too wide a field for the prefent 

 occafion. To compare him with Drevet alone : his works, 

 though lefs elaborate, are fcarcely lefs highly finifhed, and 

 are more mellow and free. Drevet feemed always approxi- 

 mating toward an ideal ftandard of perfeftion in which 

 cxaftitude fhould blend with truth and the graces, and 

 the peculiar tafte, and even the redundant ornaments of 

 Rigaud, the portrait painter of a (howy and luxurious, 

 rather than a tafteful age, are feduloufl) rendered ; Hou- 

 braken, dif^uifing every appearance of folicitude, is always 

 mallorly and free, and always like the painter after whom 

 he works, whether it be Holbein, Vandyke, or Lely. Dre- 

 vet trunfcended all his predecelTors, and left pofterity to 

 wonder at his powers of execution, and defpair of attaining 

 them -. Houbraken is more praftically meritorious ; when 

 we iee one of his portraits, we believe, as we admire it, that 

 the fame hand and mind might have accomp!i{hed many, 

 whereas, when we behold the St. Bernard, or archbifliop of 

 Paris, of Drevet, we think that fcarcely lefs than a life 

 could have been bellowed on them, and that he who has 

 engraved thefe plates has done enough for one man, if he has 

 done no more. If Drevet appears to defy competition, he 

 does fo with a ftretch of careful attention, and a (hare of 



manual and vifual power, which we cannot but admire, where- 

 as Houbraken is always eafy, and always fuccefsful, when 

 he does not allow a lubftitute to handle his graver. He ap- 

 pears, in his works, to have lived to be eminently and ex- 

 tenfively ufefnl ; the fpeftator cannot regard one of his 

 portraits, without fuppofing that he muft, or knowing that 

 he might, have done many ; becaule he perceives that tlie 

 artiit knew tiie point where an high degree of excellence 

 might, with practical advantage, (lop (hort of the elaborate 

 precillon, and recondite beauty of executive detail, which is 

 difplayed in the portraits of Drevet. 



The following lilt contains the whole of the works of 

 Houbraken with which we are acquainted. 



Portraits in Folio. — A half-length of himfelf, after Quink- 

 hard, dated 1749 ; Arnold Houbraken, the father of Jacob ; 

 WiUiam VIH. landgrave of Heffe Cafill ; Jacob van 

 Hoorn, who married, for the fourth time, at the age of 

 ninety-feven, a young woman of twenty-three ; and its com- 

 panion, his laft wife, Jacoba van Scliled ; Albert Seba, of 

 Erzeel, in Ooilfrife, member of the Academy of Natural 

 Curiofities at Amllerdam ; John Burmar.n, doftor of me- 

 dicine ; Francis Burmann, of Utrecht, theologian ; Gufta- 

 vus WiUiam, baron of Imhof ; Peter Mufchenbroeck, 

 profellor of medicine at Leyden, all after Quinkhard ; 

 George, lord Anfon, after J. Wanderlaar ; Ferdinand van 

 Collen, a burgomafter of Amfterdam ; Gerard Arnoult, a 

 burgomafter ; Herman Alexander Roell, theologian, both 

 from the fame painter ; Peter Burman, profeifor at Utrecht, 

 after Herman vander My, or Myn ; Jerome Gaubius, a 

 phyfician; John Conrad Rucker, a juris confulte, both from 

 the fame painter; George I. king of England ; Thurlow, 

 fecretary to Oliver Cromwell ; and Thomas, lord Fairfax, 

 both after Cooper ; Catherine Howard, queen of Hen- 

 ry Vni. ; fir Thomas More, the chancellor, both from 

 Holbein, the toter a Tery celebrated engraving ; William 

 James Sgravefande, a mathematician, after Vandyke ; Wil- 

 liam Ruffell, duke of Bedford, from the fame painter ; 

 George Villiers, duke of Buckingham, after C. Johnfon ; 

 Sigbert Havercamp, profeffor at Leyden, after F. Mieris ; 

 Mary Stuart, conforl of WiUiam III. prince of Orange, 

 after G. Nctfcher ; John de Witt, grand penfionary of Hoi- 

 land, from C. Netfcher ; John Rodolphus Facfcli, of Bafle, 

 from J. R. Huber ; lieutenant-general Talmafh, after fir 

 Godfrey Kneller ; Anthony, duke of Shaftelbury, after fir 

 Peter Lely ; Mary Louila, of Helfe Caffel, from B. Ac- 

 cama ; Henrietta Wolters, from a pifture bv herfelf; Cor. 

 nelius Frooft, the painter of Amfterdam ; Jacob Compo 

 Weyerman, from C. Frooft ; Nicholas Verkolie, from a 

 pifture bv himfelf; Herman Schyn, fchoolmaller, from 

 Henrietta Wolters, called Van Peene, all in quarto ; Chrif- 

 tian Gottlieb Glafey, after P. Salice ; John Mannekemolen, 

 after Schouman ; the czar, Peter the Great ; William VHL 

 landgrave of Heffe Caifel ; and William, prince of Orange, 

 all of folio dimenlions. 



Hiftorical, life, after C. Frtiojl. — " The Grandmother," 

 from the cabinet of Pinto, at Amllerdam, in large folio : 

 " Avarice deceived," from the cabinet of Vander Mark, of 

 Leyden, in folio ; " The FelUval oi St. Nicholas," from 

 the cabinet of Muilman, at Amfterdam ; " The Cymbal 

 Player," a grand compofition, from the cabinet ot Vcrf- 

 churing ; '■ The Fair at Amllerdam," from the cabinet of 

 Neyman ; " Tartuffe, the Iiiipoftor," from the cabinet of 

 Braamcamps, all in large folio. And the two following for 

 the Drefden gallery ; " Daniel Barbaro," a Venetian noble- 

 man, after P. Veronefe, in ftjio ; and •' The Sacrifice of 

 Manoah," in krge folio, after Rembrandt. 



John van Vianen, of Amfterdam, was alfo a portrait 

 t 2 f ngrayer^ 



