20 
MEMOIR OF 
Tolvetl on James IMorell, likewise a painter by pro- 
fession, to whom her mother had been married 
some tune after the death of her first husbmid. 
'fhis duty he is said to have discharged with much 
solicitude and affection, and was rewarded by the 
rapid progress of his yomig relative. That the best 
means of instruction might be afforded to one who 
held out the promise of much future excellence, he 
placed her imder the charge of Abraham Mignon, 
with whom she continued for a considerable time. 
She appears first to have practised miniatm-e 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 historj ’ ; 
a subject which she found so fiadtful 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, tiU 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 
