THE FIRST ENGLISH ARTISTS. Nicholas Hilliard (1547–1619) has left some good miniatures, as well as life-sized portraits, without taking into account that he was a goldsmith and a jeweler. Isaac Oliver (1556-1617), the pupil of Hilliard and Zuccaro, painted miniatures equally well; his son Peter Oliver (1601-1660) and himself often signed "Oliver." Perhaps Hilliard and these Olivers were of French descent.

In the reign of James I. there was a new generation of foreign painters: Paul van Somer, of Antwerp (1576-1621), came to London about 1606 and painted portraits of the Court and of the nobility.

Cornelis Janssens, van Keulen, born at Amsterdam, arrived in 1618, painted many excellent portraits, and returned to die at Amsterdam. Daniel Mytens (1590-after. 1658) came a little after, without doubt, for the first date which we find on the portraits painted by him in England is 1623. Both Mytens and Janssens became court painters to Charles I., of whom they have left excellent portraits, as well as of the royal family and the English aristocracy.

The reign of Charles I. is a bright period in the history of art in England—thanks to foreigners. In 1629 Rubens came and sojourned a year; and in 1632 Van Dyck took up his abode in London. The designs painted by Rubens for the ceiling at Whitehall, illustrating the History of Achilles, intended for reproduction in tapestry at the manufactory at Mortlake, are preserved in English galleries, as well as the portraits, many times repeated, of the Earl of Arundel and of the Duke of Buckingham. It does not appear that Rubens produced any other great works in England beyond the S. George now at Buckingham Palace, the Assumption of the Virgin, painted for the Earl of Arundel, and perhaps the allegory Peace and War, now in the National Gallery. This painter has always been a favorite in England; there were more than forty of his works at the Exhibition at Manchester and at South Kensington. English painters have good grounds for considering Van Dyck as one of their own school. Van Dyck, a native of Antwerp, is as truly English as Claude Lorraine is Italian. Naturally endowed with elegance, of that type at once haughty and frank, he excelled as a portrayer of the English nobility; and his genius well suited the times of Charles I., who made him painter to the Court, and knighted

him. All the foreigners before him had passed away without leaving a mark in the art of the country. Van Dyck succeeded almost during his lifetime, and it may be said that he was the progenitor of Reynolds and of Gainsborough, of Lawrence and of all the English portrait painters up to the present day.

Sir Balthazar Gerbier (1591-1667) practiced successfully as a portrait painter, chiefly in miniature, in the reigns of Charles I. and Charles II. He was also an architect, and succeeded Inigo Jones as surveyor of the Royal Palaces.

Around Van Dyck was grouped a band of Flemings and natives of Holland, his assistants, his pupils, or his imitators, but we have not room to mention them.

George Jamesone (1586-1644), of Aberdeen, was a good painter; we have excellent portraits by him in the style of both Van Dyck and Rubens; for Jamesone had worked in the studio of Rubens at Antwerp, and he there met the young Van Dyck, Many of his works may still be seen at Aberdeen and in various residences of the nobility. He left several pupils, and among others Michael Wright (d. 1700), who attained some celebrity as a portrait painter.

John Hoskins (d. 1664), a clever miniature painter, has left excellent portraits of Charles I. and his Queen and many of the nobility. His nephew and pupil, Samuel Cooper (1609-1672), was likewise a good miniaturist. He painted excellent portraits of Oliver Cromwell and Charles II. and his Court; he was on intimate terms with Pepys, by whom he is mentioned with praise.

James Gandy (1619-1689), a good painter, lived nearly always in Ireland, in the service of the Duke of Ormond. His son, William Gandy, who settled at Exeter, is also considered an artist of repute.

In London, one of the three sons of Nicholas Stone, the celebrated sculptor,-Henry Stone, called "Old Stone" (d. 1653) to distinguish him from his brothers, also painted in the style of Van Dyck. In the National Portrait Gallery there is a portrait by him of Inigo Jones, copied from Van Dyck. But the greatest Englishman who followed Van Dyck

was

William Dobson (1610-1646), a true artist, whose portraits are worth little less than those of his master. He studied under Francis Cleyn (d. 1658),

and it is related that Van Dyck, having seen in a shop window a picture by Dobson, took him into his studio and introduced him to Charles I. After the death of Van Dyck, Dobson held the posts of sergeant painter, and of groom of the privy chamber, and in this office he accompanied the Court to Oxford, where he painted the Portrait of the King. Dobson's works are found in many of the best galleries of the English nobility.

Robert Walker painted portraits of Cromwell, Sir Thomas Fairfax, Ireton, Fleetwood, and many of the men connected with the Commonwealth. died about 1660.

He

Robert Streater (1624-1680) painted many portraits, altar-pieces, and ceilings. John Riley (16461691) was also a portrait painter of repute. There are three of his works in the National Portrait Gallery.

To name all the foreign artists who worked in England during the first half of the seventeenth century is nearly impossible. The most celebrated were Gerard Honthorst, the two Netschers, Dirk Stoop (ab. 1612-1686?), and the two Van de Veldes. Many of the works of these Dutchmen are preserved in English galleries.

Peter Lely (1617-1680) appeared soon after the death of Van Dyck. He had the same success; he painted Charles I. and his Court; then Cromwell and his soldiers; then Charles II. and all the beauties of his Court. His genius suited admirably the witty and elegant ladies, and the thoughtless cavaliers, who drowned in luxury and pleasure the still recent recollection of Cromwell and the Commonwealth. Lely painted them by hundreds. Many of his portraits were at the Exhibitions at Manchester and South Kensington. At Hampton Court there is a gallery full of them. Charles II. made him a baronet. As soon as Lely was dead, another famous painter succeeded him at the Court, and soon monopolized the public taste:

Godfrey Kneller (1648-1723), who was born at Lübeck, arrived at London in 1674, painted during the reigns of Charles II., James II., William III., Queen Anne, and of George I., by whom he was created a baronet.

Kneller painted the greater part of the sovereigns and princes of his time, including Louis XIV. and the Czar Peter of Russia. He painted the great Duke of Marlborough; Newton and Locke; Sir

Christopher Wren; Pope, Addison, Steele, Congreve, and other members of the celebrated Kit Cat Club. About thirty of his portraits were included in the Exhibitions at Manchester and at South Kensington. At Hampton Court may be seen eight (there were originally twelve) of the series of "Hampton Court Beauties," painted by Kneller for Queen Mary, in rivalry with the more celebrated "Windsor Beauties" of Lely, which now hang in a neighboring room. By the side of the German Kneller, were other foreigners :

Michael Dahl (1656–1743), a native of Stockholm, was patronized by Queen Anne, and was popular as a portrait painter.

Antonio Verrio (1634-1707), born in the Neapolitan States, charmed England by his architectural paintings. From 1676, he was in the pay of Charles II., and in a few years cost the king nearly 10,000 guineas for the decoration of Windsor Castle. In 1683 he was joined by a Frenchman, Louis Laguerre. His father was a Catalan, and held the post of keeper to the menagerie at Versailles. When Verrio died at Hampton Court, Laguerre continued the work until he himself died in 1721. The number of decorative works these two men painted in England is truly wonderful, not only in public buildings, at Windsor Castle, at Hampton Court, at the Hospitals of Christ Church and St. Bartholomew, but also in the town and country residences of the nobility. Toward the close of his career, Laguerre had as an assistant an Englishman,

James Thornhill (1676-1734), who was born at Melcombe Regis. In his youth he visited France, and appears to have there formed his style, especially on that of Le Brun. His principal works are in the cupola of St. Paul's, London, the great hall of Greenwich Hospital, an apartment at Hampton Court, a saloon of Blenheim Palace, ceilings, and altar-pieces in the churches at Oxford. George I. knighted him; nevertheless, Sir James Thornhill, the first English painter who received the honor of knighthood, would now perhaps have been forgotten, if he had not been-in spite of himself-the father-in-law of Hogarth.

In the first half of the eighteenth century, Art, throughout Europe, was in a state of entire decadence. The brilliant schools which had flourished in the seventeenth century in Flanders, Holland and Spain, had no successors in their own countries.

sented some tickets to the Foundling Hospital, and the winning card was drawn by that fortunate institution.

The last work of Hogarth, worthy of his genius, and known by the title of Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism, was issued early in 1764. Shortly afterward his health began to decline. He was aware of this, and purchased a small house at Chiswick, to which he retired during the summer, amusing himself by making slight sketches, and retouching his plates. He left Chiswick in October of the same

took him to London when quite young, he received a certain amount of tuition in Art from a painter of little note, named Wright. In 1749 the young artist was considered worthy to paint portraits of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. At the age of thirty-six he had managed to save sufficient money to enable him to go to Italy, and it was there that, by a happy accident, he became acquainted with the Italian artist Zuccarelli, who advised him to study landscape painting. In this he was very successful, as far as Art was concerned, but as the taste