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the spot the most remarkable events, and the views of the cities and fortresses which had been the scene of the most memorable victories; and from these sketches he composed the paintings, which were to perpetuate the remembrance of the king's successes. Such opportunities enabled him to attain that perfection in his art, of which his numerous works give such evidence. They are distinguished by truth to nature, excellent colouring, freedom of touch, and the happiest distribution of light and shade. No painter excelled him in designing the motions and attitudes of horses; and this induced his friend Le Brun, whose niece he married, to give to him the execution of the horses in his celebrated paintings of the battles of Alexander the Great. Van der Meulen painted, also, landscapes and other subjects with equal excellence. His principal works are at Paris; but many of his easel pictures are preserved in England, France, and Flanders. He was chosen member of the French Academy of Painting, in 1673. He died in 1690, at the age of fifty-six years. His most celebrated scholar was I. Van Huchtenburg, battle painter to Prince Eugene.

Peasants dancing. Ferg. On copper; 16 inches by 13. £40.

FRANCIS PAUL FERG, born at Vienna, in 1689, had different masters; Hans Graf, Orient, and, lastly, Alexander Thiele, painter to the court of Saxony, who invited him to Dresden, to insert small figures in his landscapes. Ferg went thence into Lower Saxony, and painted for the Duke of Brunswick, and for the gallery of Saltzdahl. He afterwards passed over to England, where he married, became involved in his circumstances, and, according to report, was found dead at the door of his lodgings, apparently exhausted by cold, want, and misery. He formed a manner of his own from various Flemish painters, though resembling Poelenberg most, in the enamelled softness and mellowness of his colouring: but his figures are greatly superior; every part of them is sufficiently finished, every action expressive. He painted small landscapes, fairs, and rural meetings, with most exquisite truth; his horses and cattle are not inferior to Wouvermann's; and his buildings and distances seem to owe their respective softness to the intervening air, not to the pencil. He

passed twenty years in England, but little known, and always indigent; unhappy in his home, and sometimes in prison: the consequence of his sufferings was dissipation. He died in the year 1738, leaving four children.

Landscape. Unknown. On panel; 13 inches by 9. Conversation-piece. Mortimer. On canvas; 13 inches by 16. £35. Soldiers, a woman, child, fish, &c.

Conversation-piece. Mortimer. Companion to the above. A pilgrim in conversation with a man and woman, who appear to be selling oysters.

Adoration of the Wise Men. Unknown. This is a small picture, of octagon shape, exquisitely finished, and sweetly coloured. In the midst of a lovely landscape are ruins of a classical character, near which is seen the group of figures. There are camels in the distance.

Landscape, with Sea and Shipping. Unknown. On panel; 11 inches by 8.

Christ feeding the Multitudes. Ferg. On copper; 23 inches by 15. £50. In the middle distance, Jesus is seen blessing the bread; assembled round him, are numerous figures, in various attitudes, on the ground. The conception, grouping, and colouring of this little gem, are first-rate. The landscape and foliage are in perfect keeping.

Ernbretstein. Sachtleven. This is a sweetly painted picture, representing the ancient fortress of Ernbretstein, on a rocky elevation, at the foot of which runs the Rhine, whose banks are enlivened with figures occupied in various ways with their boats. £30. There is marked on the back of the copper upon which this landscape is painted-“ Ernbretstein, 1660; Herman Sach Leven, Utrecht."

HERMAN SACHTLEVEN was born at Rotterdam, in 1609, and instructed in the art by John Van Goyen, a very celebrated

painter of landscapes; yet he did not confine himself to the manner of that master, but also studied the style, taste, and touch of other eminent artists. He determined, however, principally to attend to nature, as being the best and most unerring director; and, for his improvement, made abundance of sketches, drawings, and designs, which are accounted not the least valuable of his works. But the views of nature in the Low Countries, where he was born, were by no means suitable to the taste of Sachtleven, as they could not furnish him with a competent variety, there being no mountains or rocks in that tract, to diversify the scene. He therefore went to study nature on the borders of the Rhine. It is also affirmed by some writers, that he likewise visited Italy, where he improved himself considerably. He took pains to finish his pictures with extraordinary neatness; and by a light, free touch, as well as by a skilful management of the aerial perspective, he gave to his distant hills, grounds, and trees, a very happy and pleasing effect. His skies and distances are generally clear; and all his objects recede with perspective truth. Although many of the scenes which he copied from nature were not very striking, from that point of view where he stood to design them, yet he had the skill so greatly to improve, vary, and enrich them, by figures and buildings, that he made them agreeable subjects in his paintings, still preserving the appearance of the real place which he designed. The pictures of Sachtleven, painted in his best manner, are not very common, and are highly esteemed. They may be known without much. difficulty, by a neatness of touch in the figures and buildings; by an endeavour to express the vapour between the eye and the objects that are remote, like Berghem and Wouvermann; and by a pleasing bluish tint in his distances. He died in 1685, aged seventy-six.

Landscape with Figures. "V. Hyde" marked at the left corner. On panel; 11 inches by 92. £35. A woman, with an ass and panniers, is proceeding to some buildings. Near a stream running between rocks, are men with nets and baskets. This little gem is in excellent preservation; the colouring is cool and refreshing; and every part is highly finished.

PRIVATE PASSAGE.

Over the door of entrance, there is a portrait of Katharine, first Duchess of Rutland. Over the door at the opposite end, a Countess of Rutland, represented as a shepherdess, with sheep and a crook, by Sir Peter Lely. On the sides of the passage are portraits of Henry, the second; Henry, the third; John, the fourth; Roger, the fifth; Francis, the sixth; George, the seventh; and John, the eighth, Earls of Rutland.

This series of portraits, with that of the first Earl in the regent's gallery, were, without doubt, painted by the same artist, and at the same period. The labels on each are evidently contemporaneous with the painting; and the literal character of all these labels belongs to the latter end of the seventeenth century. Walpole, in his Anecdotes of Painting, mentions a John Van der Eyden, a portrait painter, of Brussels, who copied and painted draperies for Sir Peter Lely, till, marrying, he settled in Northamptonshire, where he was much employed by the Earls of Rutland and the Lord Sherard, at whose house he died in 1695, and was buried at Stapleford. In the register of burials in that parish, there is the following entry:-" 1695. Mr. Jeremiah Vanroyden was buried, Sept. 17." Walpole erroneously calls him John, and the parish register, Vanroyden; but it is impossible to mistake the person intended in both cases, or to have any doubt that Jeremiah Van der Eyden painted the series of portraits of the eight Earls of Rutland.

There are in this passage some very good plaster casts from the antique, of Homer, Demosthenes, and six others;

one of which is a cast, I believe, from the bust of Admiral

Keppel, by Ceracchi.

We now pass into

THE GRAND CORRIDOR,

whose dimensions and architecture render it one of the most imposing portions of the Castle. Its erection commenced under the superintendence of Sir John Thoroton, from models taken from various parts of Lincoln cathedral. Sir John dying before its completion, his brother, the Rev. Charles Roos Thoroton, succeeded him in the accomplishment of the original plans.

Its extreme length, including the area of the staircase, and the galleries at each end, is upwards of 120 feet. Its extreme breadth, including the breaks for the windows, is nearly 24 feet. The central portion within the principal piers is floored with oak, and occasionally used for a ballroom; and when lighted up for this purpose, it must have a magnificent effect. But we must not pass through it without a more detailed observation.

The central portion is lighted by nine windows with multfoil heads, and double lights, divided by transoms. At each end of this portion of the corridor are two pointed arches, decorated with the ball flower, and supported by a central and two semi side-piers, of massive proportions, with flowered capitals. The roof is a groined vault, intersected by ribs springing from vaulting shafts between the windows, and on contrasting portions of the opposite side. A flowered boss in the centre forms a pendant for a chandelier. Above the central pier, at one end, a perforated multfoil is filled with glass, in which are stained the arms of the Duke, as knight of the garter, accompanied by the arms of Howard. In a blank multfoil, in a similar posi

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