graver on copper; he engraved in wood with a skill that long remained unrivalled; he was a carver in wood and ivory; he wrote treatises in his native tongue, on perspective, anatomy, geometry, architecture, fortification, painting, and the scriptures; and translated them into Latin, French and Italian. Nor must it be forgotten that Albert Durer was a member of the legislature of a free and self-governed republic. The works of West and Durer will go down to posterity; those of Charles Wilson Peale will soon be forgotten, although several portraits painted by him in his old age, deserve preservation, and call forth admiration.

WINSTANLEY-1769,

is known about this time to have painted in the colonies. But of

HENRY BEMBRIDGE-1770,

although we cannot give so full an account as we wish, we have rescued something from oblivion. At a very early period we heard of this gentleman, as one who had gone to Rome to study painting. Mr. Bembridge was born in Philadelphia about the year 1750. Being left at liberty to pursue the bent of his inclination by the death of parents, he devoted his patrimony in aid of his desire to become a painter, no doubt stimulated by the success of West; and he was the second American who studied the fine arts at Rome. Mr. Bembridge was a gentleman by birth, and had received a liberal education; the time of his visiting Italy we must suppose to be 1770: and before he left Philadelphia he had shown his love of the arts by painting the pannels of a room in his paternal dwelling with designs from history. In Rome he became the pupil of Pompeio Battoni, and received instruction from Mengs. We have reason to believe that he returned to America in 1774, and commenced painting in Charleston, South Carolina, where he was the instructor of Thomas Coram. Sometime after the war of the revolution, Mr. Bembridge painted in Philadelphia. He is thus mentioned by James Peller Malcolm: "Mr. Bembridge, a relation and brother-student of Mr. West, who had spent several years at Rome, flattered me with his approbation, and advised an immediate voyage to Great Britain." He was neither a relation, nor brother-student of West.

He married Miss Sage of Philadelphia, and I met a son of his in Perth Amboy, in 1800, whose residence was Philadelphia, and who was at the time married to the eldest daughter of Commodore Truxton. I at this time saw several por

Bembridge, the first instructor of Sully in oil. 143

traits in small full-length, of the Truxton family, by the artist, and they are the only specimens I ever saw of his skill. I remember them as being solidly painted, well drawn, like the personages, but hard and without any distinguishing mark of taste; still they were better than those of Charles Wilson Peale of the same date.

Mr. Bembridge was a gentleman of good classical education, great devotion to the art, and persevering industry. He had the same advantages in Italy that West had had; and yet, notwithstanding Reynolds's remark that nothing is denied to perseverance and industry well directed, he acquired all his nature was seemingly capable of, in three or four years study. In the year 1799, Mr. Thomas Sully, then a youth, found Mr. Bembridge settled in high estimation at Norfolk, Virginia. His works excited Sully to attempt oil-painting, and to introduce himself to the veteran painter, Sully sat to him for his picture, and was "well repaid," as he has said, “by his useful and kind instruction."

After living in high estimation as a man and artist many years in the Carolinas and Virginia, Mr. Bembridge returned to his native city, Philadelphia, and died in obscurity and poverty.

We will conclude our brief memoir by quoting from our correspondents who have answered our queries on the subject of Mr. Bembridge.

Mr. Allston says Bembridge left many portraits of his painting in South Carolina, but he does not remember them sufficiently to speak of their merits.

Mr. McMurtrie says, "He was a promising young man, but did not realize much. His portraits are stiff and formal. He painted drapery well, particularly silks and satins."

Mr. Charles Fraser says: "Bembridge painted a good deal in Charleston: he had had great advantages, having studied in Rome under Mengs and Pompeio Battoni." Of Battoni the reader will find in these pages an anecdote that will not exalt him in his opinion. It is certain that the portraits by Bembridge were sought after eagerly on his return, and he was held in high estimation by his cotemporaries. Mr. Fraser adds: "The generation with whom he lived is passed away, and all means of information are gone with it. I cannot say that I admire his portraits. They bear evident marks of a skilful hand, but want that taste which gives to portrait one of its greatest charms. His shadows were dark and opaque, and more suitable to the historical style. I have however seen one ortwo of his pictures, which I thought displayed great know

144

Cosmo Alexander-Woolaston-Durand.

ledge of the art." We must remark that dark and opaque shadows, though they may be more tolerable in the historic (in certain subjects) than in the portrait style, are faults in any style. Nature disclaims them, and she is the only teacher of

true art.

Mr. Sully describes Mr. Bembridge as a portly man, of good address-gentlemanly in his deportment. He told a good story, and was in other respects not unlike Gilbert Stuart.

The next person who calls for our attention is a Scotch gentleman of the name of

COSMO ALEXANDER-1772,

who painted portraits in Newport, Rhode-Island in 1772. As all we know of this gentleman is from Doctor Waterhouse, and is incorporated with the memoir soon to follow, that of Gilbert C. Stuart, we here merely notice, that at the time of his arrival Mr. Alexander was between fifty and sixty-that he painted all the Scotch gentlemen of the place, and finding Stuart a promising boy, he gave him lessons, and finally took the youth with him to South Carolina, and thence to Edinburgh. Shortly after his arrival in his native country, he died.

WOOLASTON—1772.

This English gentleman visited the colonies about the year 1772, and painted a great many pictures in Virginia and Maryland. Many of his portraits are yet to be seen in Petersburg. Mr. Robert Sully, who has kindly exerted himselt in making researches into the antiquities of art in Virginia to assist the writer, says, "The only artists that are remembered by the oldest inhabitants, are DURAND, MANLY, and Woolaston-the first tolerable, the second execrable, and the third very good. His portraits possess unquestionable merit. Among those in Petersburg, is the grandmother of the late John Randolph of Roanoke, an excellent portrait. The pictures of Woolaston are very much in the Kneller style; more feeble than the style of Reynolds, but with a very pretty taste."

DURAND-1772,

I place at this date, but with uncertainty. My only knowledge of him is from Mr. R. Sully, who says, "He painted an immense number of portraits in Virginia; his works are hard and dry, but appear to have been strong likenesses, with less vulgarity of style than artists of his calibre generally possess."

Of the pictures brought or sent to Virginia, Mr. Sully says, "There are certainly a few pictures in some of the old family mansions, of considerable merit, sent to this country from England during the existence of the colonies, but it is impossible to conjecture who the artists were, as no record is attached to them, and they are remembered by the possessors as old fixtures.

MANLY-1772,

A very bad portrait-painter, and only mentioned as one of the pioneers of the arts. He painted in Virginia.

SMITH-1772.

This gentleman is known among American travellers, particularly artists who visit Italy, as old Mr. Smith. He is said to have been 116 years of age in 1834. If so, he was born in the year 1718. He is a native of Long-Island, state of New-York, brother to the well-remembered Doctor Smith, (whose eccentric character and verses afforded more amusement than instruction,) and uncle to Col. William Smith, an aid to Washington, and son-in-law to John Adams. Mr. Smith devoted himself to painting, and was probably the third American who pursued the coy art to Italy, West being the first and Bembridge the second. Smith never became a distinguished artist, and fell into the trade of picture-dealer, by which it is believed that he acquired a competency for old age. He lives near Florence.

CHAPTER VIII.

Sketch of the history of engraving-Implements used-Early engravers in America.

The earliest specimens of engraving are of the fifteenth century, and the first artist on record is Martin Schoen, of Culmbach, who died in 1486. The Italians claim the invention; but it is remarkable that the first book printed at Rome had the first engravings executed there, and they were done by two Germans-the date 1478. The names of Lucas Jacobs and Albert Durer are too well known to require notice here. We shall mention both in our history of wood engraving, which, though preceding that on copper, was not so soon practised with us.

In the sixteenth century the Italian painters etched and en

146

History of Engraving.

graved on copper. Other artists devoted themselves to engraving alone, and worked from the designs of Raffaelle and the great men who reared the fabric of art at that period. Still the German and Dutch artists led the way, and Cort was the first engraver on large plates, and the instructor of many Italians.

In the seventeenth century the art began to flourish in France, and encouraged by Colbert, attained high perfection. But the most distinguished artist of the time was Edelinck of Antwerp. The history of the art in France in the next century is the same-a German, Wille, being the best engraver.

The Flemish and Dutch painters etched and engraved. Vandyke, Bol, Ruysdael, and many others, practised the art with taste and success.

The true mode of giving a history of engraving would be by a series of prints illustrative of its progress. This forms no part of our plan, and is far beyond our power. Our sketch of the history of the art is merely to illustrate what we may hereafter say of the progress of the arts in America.

In England both painting and engraving were indebted to foreigners, generally Flemish, Dutch and German, for existence, until the middle of the seventeenth century. Of early English artists one of the most eminent is George Vertue, who died in 1756.

The founder of the school of English landscape engraving, is Francis Vivares, a Frenchman. But the greatest of the school is a native of England, Woollett. They both carried the plates a great way towards the completion by etching, and finished with the graver-the usual mode now practised.Woollett was not confined to landscape, as his great work, after West's Death of Wolfe, sufficiently proves. England now stands, and has for many years stood, pre-eminent in engravers and engraving.

The works of Hogarth must not be passed over unnoticed, even in this brief sketch. To mention them is to praise them, both as productions of the engraver and the painter. In the latter character he is now acknowledged as among the glories of the art; in point of time, the first great English painter; in merit, equal to the best.

Engraving, or working with the graver, was the first or oldest practice; etching followed, and became an auxiliary to the graver-this is working the lines through wax, or a preparation of it, and biting them in the metal by acids. Mezzotinto is produced by making the copper a mass of roughness, which, if printed, would be one black spot; and then scraping out