black lead. Two of his best prints are, Marcus Tullius Cicero, after the marble at Oxford, and The Installation of the Earl of Westmorland, as Chancellor of the University of Oxford.

MAJOR, (THOMAS.) was born in London, in the year 1719, and was, according to the account given of him by Thomas Wilson, Esq., an eminent collector of engravings, "directly descended from that Richard Major, of Hursley, whose daughter was married to the Protector, Richard Cromwell." He went, early in life, to Paris, where he studied engraving under Le Bas, and engraved several plates after Berghem, Wouvermanns, &c. During his residence at Paris, the battle of Culloden was fought, and in consequence of the capture of an Irish regiment in the service of France, the French, by way of reprisal, imprisoned such Englishmen as they could find in their own country. Major was, in consequence, arrested, and confined in the Bastille, but was released, after about three months of durance, by the interference of the governor, the Marquess d'Argenson, several of whose pictures Major afterwards engraved. On his return to England, he was appointed engraver to the Prince of Wales, and subsequently to the king, and die-engraver to the Stamp office. When the great seal was stolen, on the 24th of March, 1784, Major was commissioned to provide another, and completed one of brass in twenty-four hours. This, upon his making one of silver, was returned to him in 1792, and "was converted," says his biographer, "into a tea-urn, in which state it remains; and, as it is seldom used, produces, perhaps, less hot water than it would have done as a great seal." Major's residence in London was, successively, West Street, St. Anne's, Soho, St. Martin's Lane, and lastly, Tavistock Street, Covent Garden, where he died, in the year 1799. Major engraved in a neat firm style, and has been justly com plimented by Walpole, in the last page of his Catalogue of Engravers in England. He was intimate with Hogarth, Strange, Nollekens, and other eminent artists of his day. His principal works are, a set of twenty-four prints, entitled, The Ruins of Ræstum, otherwise

Posidonia, in Magna Græcia, after the designs of J. B. Borra; The Departure of Jacob, after F, Lauri; The Good Shepherd, after Murillo; two landscapes, after Gaspar Poussin; a landscape, with a man driving sheep, after Rubens; two Flemish Festivals, after Teniers; The Menage, after Wouvermanns; The Travellers, after N. Berghem; and portraits of John Carteret, Earl of Granville, and Cardinal Pole.

BERRY, (WILLIAM) was born in Scotland, about the year 1730, and, as a stone and seal engraver, held too distinguished a station to be omitted in the present class. He commenced business at Edinburgh, and for several years confined his views to the usual drudgery of his art; but having studied some ancient intaglios, he at length determined to venture into a higher walk. His first essay was a head of Sir Isaac Newton, which he executed with a precision and delicacy that astonished all who beheld it. The friend to whom he consigned this specimen of his talents, by showing it to others, spread abroad the name and talents of our artist; yet so ill was he repaid for the few works of this kind which were intrusted to him, that he felt it to be his duty, for the sake of his family, to confine himself to the more humble branch of his art. "When," says his biographer, "he was occasionally asked to undertake some finer work, he generally found, that, though he only demanded perhaps half the money which he could have earned in humbler work during the same space of time, yet even that was grudged by his employers; and he, therefore, felt that mere considerations of worldly prudence demanded his almost exclusive attention to the ordinary walk of his profession." He could not, however, abstain altogether from following the impulse of his genius; and in the course of a few years, he executed various heads, any one of which, it is said, would have been sufficient to gain him immortal fame among judges of excellence in this department. The

most striking of these heads were, Thomson, the poet, Mary Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell, Julius Cæsar, a young Hercules, and Mr. Hamilton of

VOL. IV.

Bangor. The whole number of heads executed by Mr. Berry did not exceed twelve, yet the beauty of his workmanship soon made his name known in the world of art, and his performances were at length compared with, and, by many distinguished cognoscenti, preferred to, those of the celebrated Picier, at Rome. This success, without relieving him from the drudgery of seal cutting, was the means of rendering that occupation still more irksome; it, however, enabled him to gain his family a subsistence, and to die unembarrassed, though in anything but affluent circumstances. He expired on the 3rd of June, 1783, leaving a numerous family, and not less respected for his private virtues than remarkable for his abilities as an artist. Of his merits and modesty, as an heraldic seal cutter, though indisputably the first of his time, the following anecdote, related in Chambers' Scottish Biographical Dictionary, will give the reader some idea:-Henry, Duke of Buccleugh, on succeeding to his title and estates, was desirous of having a seal cut, with his arms properly emblazoned upon it; but as there were no fewer than thirty-two compartments in the shield, which was of necessity confined to a very small space, so as to leave room for the supporters, and other ornaments within the compass of a seal of ordinary size, he found it a matter of great difficulty to get it executed. Though a native of Scotland himself, the noble duke had no idea that there was a man of first-rate eminence in this art, in Edinburgh; and, accordingly, he first applied to the most eminent seal engravers in London and Paris, all of whom declared it to be beyond their power. At this time, Berry was mentioned to him, with such powerful recommendations, that he was induced to pay him a visit, and found him, as usual, seated at his wheel. The gentleman, who had mentioned Mr. Berry's name to the duke, accompanied him on his visit. This person, without introducing the duke, showed Mr. Berry the impression of a seal which the duchess dowager had got cut many years before, by a Jew in London, then dead, and which had been shown to others as a pattern, asking him if he could cut a seal the same as that. After examining it a little, Mr. Berry answered him

readily that he would. The duke, at once pleased and astonished, exclaimed, "Will you indeed!" Mr. Berry, who thought this implied some doubt of his ability to perform what he undertook, was a little piqued, and turning round to the duke, whom he had never before seen, he said, "Yes, sir; if I do not make a better seal than this, I will require no payment for it." The duke, highly pleased, left the pattern with Mr. Berry, and went away. The original contained, indeed, the various devices of the thirty-two compartments distinctly enough to be seen; but none of the colours were expressed. Berry, in proper time, finished the seal, on which the figures were not only done with superior elegance, but the colours of every part so distinctly marked, that a painter could delineate the whole, or a herald blazon it, with perfect accuracy. For this extraordinary and most ingenious labour, he charged no more than thirty-two guineas, though the pattern seal had cost seventy-five.

Mr.

BASIRE, (JAMES,) was born in London, in the year 1730, and studied engraving, at first under his father, and subsequently under Richard Dalton, with whom he travelled to Rome. Nothing has been recorded of the particulars of his life, except that he was engraver to the Royal and Antiquarian Societies. He died in 1802. Among his engravings are, Captain Cook, after Hodges; Lady Stanhope, as the Fair Penitent; Lord Camden, after Reynolds; Orestes and Pylades before Iphigenia, after West; and The Field of the Golden Cloth, after the picture at Windsor. This last is the largest print that has been engraved on one plate, about twenty-seven inches by forty-seven inches. Basire was a very eminent artist in his time; but his works, in point of accuracy and finish, bear no comparison with the principal architectural engravers of the present day.

LIART, (MATTHEW,) was born at Paris, in 1736, but came to England when very young, where he was employed in engraving some plates for Mr. Boydell's collection. Such, at least, is the statement of Bryan; but Smith

asserts, upon good authority, that he was born in London, where his father was a maker of survelois, a relishing kind of sausage." He studied under Ravenet, the engraver, and drew at the Royal Academy, where he gained a silver medal for the drawing of a figure from the life. He also obtained a prize from the Society of Arts, and seems to have been an artist of no ordinary talent. Mr. West thought highly of his talents, and predicted his success in historical composition, if he would study that class of art. He died in 1782, and was buried at Paddington. His best engravings are from Mr. West's pictures of Venus and Adonis, and Cephalus and Proclis.

GREEN, (VALENTINE,) was born in Warwickshire, in 1739, and intended by his father for the profession of the law. He was accordingly articled to a solicitor at Evesham, in Worcestershire, but soon abandoned the desk, and, without his father's concurrence, became a pupil to an obscure line-engraver at Worcester. In 1765, he came to London, where he became eminent as a mezzotinto engraver, and shared with Earlom and Me Ardell, the merit of being the first to give consequence and variety to that particular mode of engraving. In 1789, Mr. Green obtained from the Duke of Bavaria a patent for the exclusive privilege of engraving and publishing prints from the pictures in the Dusseldorf gallery; but after he had published twenty-two prints of that collection, the French invasion of Bavaria put a stop to the further prosecution of his plan. In 1767 he was elected a member of the Incorporated Society of Artists of Great Britain; in 1774, one of the six associate engravers of the Royal Academy; and on the foundation of the British Institution, he was appointed keeper. During a period of upwards of forty years, Mr. Green produced nearly four hundred plates, engraved from the most celebrated painters, ancient and modern. His best are those of Hannibal and Regulus, after West; which may rank among the ablest and most energetic efforts of mezzotinto. As an author, he made himself favourably known by his publications of A Survey of the City of Worcester; A Review of the Polite Arts

in France, under Louis the Fourteenth, compared with their present state in England, 1783; and the History of the City of Worcester. Mr. Green died in July, 1813.

HALL, (JOHN,) was born at Wivenhoe, near Colchester, Essex, on the 21st of December, 1739. He came to London at an early period of his life, and was at first engaged in painting ornaments upon china for the manufactories at Chelsea, then under the direction of Sir Stephen Janson. Afterwards, turning his attention to engraving, he was placed under the care of Mr. Ravenet, with whom he remained two years beyond the stipulated time. During his apprenticeship he gave proofs of very superior skill and ingenuity; and is said, when only seventeen years of age, to have executed a drawing in pen and ink, in imitation of engraving, in such a manner, that no one but a nice judge could distinguish it from an engraving. Mr. Hall resided first in Berwick Street, and afterwards in Cumberland Street, near the New Road, where, it is said, he never enjoyed his health, from suffering so much for the loss of his son-in-law, Storace, the celebrated composer. Upon the death of Woollett, he was appointed historical engraver to the king, and, on that occasion, presented to his majesty, at Windsor, his print of The Battle of the Boyne, from a picture by West. He died on the 7th of April, 1797, leaving several children, one of whom became master of Pembroke College, Oxford. Hall excelled in that department of art which is called the line or stroke engraving. His principal works are, Pope Clement the Ninth, after Carlo Maratti; Sir Robert Boyd, LieutenantGovernor of Gibraltar; William Warburton, Bishop of Gloucester, after Hoare; Richard Chenevix, Bishop of Killaloe; Richard Brinsley Sheridan, M. P., after Reynolds; Sir William Blackstone, Lord Chief-justice of the Common-Pleas, after Gainsborough ; George Colman, after the same; Edward Gibbon, historian, after Reynolds; Timon of Athens, after Dance; William Penn, treating with the Indians for the Province of Pennsylvania, after West; Oliver Cromwell dissolving the Long Parliament, after the same; and The

Death of the Duke of Schomberg, at the Battle of the Boyne, after the same.

EARLOM, (RICHARD,) was born in London, in the year 1743. His father was many years vestry clerk of the parish of St. Sepulchre, and living near to an eminent coachmaker, where the lord mayor's carriage occasionally came to be repaired, his son there imbibed a predilection for art, by seeing the allegorical paintings on the panels. Being placed as a pupil with Cipriani, he acquired a mastery in the art of design, and in 1765, was employed by Alderman Boydell to make drawings from the Houghton collection, and afterwards to engrave them in mezzotinto. Mr. Earlom had been his own instructor in this branch of art, and he introduced into the practice of it improvements and instruments before unknown. He died on the 9th of October, 1822. Among Mr. Earlom's best works are, his exquisite fruit and flower pieces, after Van Huysum; Agrippina, after West; the Cock Match at Lucknow, the Embassy of Hyderbeck to meet Lord Cornwallis, and the Tiger Hunt, all after Zoffani. He also published the first and second parts of Claude's Liber Veritatis.

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SMITH, (JOHN RAPHAEL,) the son of Mr. Thomas Smith, of Derby, the landscape painter, was born about the year 1750, and died in 1811. He particularly distinguished himself as mezzotinto engraver, and executed a great number of plates of different kinds, both from his own designs and the compositions of other masters, of which his portraits are particularly admired. Among the most esteemed are, the Duke of Devonshire, William Markham, Archbishop of York, Lady Beaumont, Mrs, Musters, and some others, all after Sir Joshua Reynolds. Among his historical engravings, we may mention one of The Bard, from Gray's celebrated ode, and others from the designs of Fuseli. Mr. Smith, besides engraving, drew portraits in crayons with great success.

LEGAT, (FRANCIS,) was born in Scotland, in the year 1755, and was educated at Edinburgh, where he studied under Runciman, the artist.

He came to London in 1780, and took lodgings in Charles Street, Westminster. where he engraved a plate of Mary Queen of Scots resigning her Crown, and Northcote's celebrated picture of The Children in the Tower. For the latter, he was so amply remunerated by Alderman Boydell, that he was enabled to send to Scotland for his mother, to whom his conduct throughout life was truly exemplary. In 1790, he removed to Sloane Square, and thence, successively, to Camden Town, and Charles Street, Middlesex Hospital, where he died, on the 4th of August, 1809, and was followed to the grave by a respectable body of mourners, among whom was Stothard, the academician. According to Smith, his decease was hastened by a disappointment which he had sustained in being unable to obtain subscribers to a plate which he had commenced of Stothard's Death of Abercrombie. Legat, though an artist of ability, seems to have died poor, as we are told by Smith, that his debts were paid by his steady friend, the father of the present General Kemp. "His style of engraving," says the same authority, "is powerful and clear, particularly in the figure of Cassandra (after a picture by Romney), but I do not mean to compare any of his works to Strange's extraordinary prints after Guido, Woollett's La Hogue, or Sharpe's John Hunter; but next to those specimens, I know of no work of engraving executed with more skill and effect, than the head and helmet of one of the murderers, from Northcote's picture, the chiaro-scuro of which, unquestionably, is most admirably calculated for a fine print." His chief works besides those already mentioned, are, his engraving of Ophelia, from a picture by West; The King, Queen, and Laertes, from the same artist; The Continence of Scipio, after Poussin; The Death of Cordelia, from a picture by Barry ; and two vignettes for Bell's British Theatre. Legat is described, by his biographer, as a sensible, intelligent man; gentle in his manners, and serious, except when enlivened by the conversation of his friends. He drew better than the generality of engravers; and is said to have written, though he never published, some tolerable pieces of poetry.

or

THEW, (ROBERT,) the son of an innkeeper, in Yorkshire, was born in that county, in the year 1758.

After

having passed some years as a common soldier in the Northumberland militia, he settled at Hull, as an engraver, employing himself, at first, on cards, shop bills, &c. At length he attempted historical engraving, and succeeded so well in the head of an old woman, after Gerard Dow, and other pieces, that he was, through the recommendation of Charles James Fox, and other noble patrons, appointed engraver to the Prince of Wales. He was then employed by Alderman Boydell, for whom he engraved, besides other works, nineteen large plates from the paintings of Reynolds, Shee, &c., for Boydell's Shakspeare. Mr. Thew died at Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, in July, 1802.

SMITH, (JOHN THOMAS,) the son of a sculptor, who afterwards kept a print shop, was born in a hackney-coach, on the 23rd of June, 1766. In 1779, he entered the studio of Nollekens, and after studying three years under that celebrated sculptor, attended the Royal Academy. He completed his professional education under the eminent engraver, John Keyse Sherwin, but seems to have given up, for some time, the burin for the pencil, and was, for many years, a drawing master. In 1816, he was appointed keeper of the prints of the British Museum, which situation he still holds. His principal works are, Antiquities of London and its Environs, &c.; Remarks on Rural Scenery, with Twenty Etchings of Cottages from Nature, &c.; Antiquities of Westminster, &c., containing two hundred and sixty-six engravings of topographical objects, of which one hundred and twenty-two no longer remain; Ancient Topography of London, &c. Mr. Smith published, in 1828, a work called Nollekens and his Times, which went through three editions. It contains a vast deal of amusing -gossip, and much information, not to be met with elsewhere, respecting the contemporaries of Nollekens; but, as a biographical work, it has but little merit. In an autobiographical sketch of himself, the following paragraph is said to have been written by Mr. Smith; "I can boast of seven events, some of

which great men would be proud of. I received a kiss, when a boy, from the beautiful Mrs. Robinson-was patted on the head by Dr. Johnson-have frequently held Sir Joshua Reynolds's spectacles-partook of a pot of porter with an elephant-saved Lady Hamilton from falling, when the news arrived of Lord Nelson's death-three times conversed with George the Third -and was shut up in a room with Mr. Kean's lion."

COOKE, (GEORGE,) was born in London, in January, 1781. His father was a native of Frankfort-on-the-Maine, but had settled in England early in life, and acquired a handsome competency by his business, as a wholesale confectioner. The subject of our memoir learnt the profession of an engraver, under James Basire, and not long after the termination of his apprenticeship, he was employed to execute several plates for The Beauties of England and Wales. He was engaged for many years in contributing to Pinkerton's Collection of Voyages and Travels, and other works, chiefly topographical; and from 1814 until 1826, in executing plates for The Southern Coast of England; a work, to use the words of a critic, "memorable on many accounts, and of incalculable importance for its action both on the public taste and the art of engraving." It was planned by Mr. Cooke, in conjunction with his brother William, their object being to make the public acquainted, by this publication, with the works of Turner, then more generally talked of than known. Of the plates, Mr. George Cooke engraved one-third, namely, Poole, Land's-end, Corfe Castle, Blackgang Chine, Netley Abbey, Teignmouth, Brighton Beach, Brighton Chain Pier, Pendennis Castle, Lulworth Castle, Dover, Margate, Hythe, Tintagel Castle, and Watchett, together with eight vignettes. He also contributed three admirable plates to his brother's edition of The Thames, and engraved the plates affixed to the Transactions of the Geological Society, until they disused calcographic, and adopted lithographic illustrations. His masterly execution of the plates in The Southern Coast of England, caused him to be engaged on Hakewell's Italy, and the Provincial