Smith, John: A catalogue raisonné of the works of the most eminent Dutch, Flemish, and French painters: in which is included a short biographical notice of the artists, with a copious description of their principal pictures : a statement of the prices at which such pictures have been sold at public sales on the continent and in England; a reference the the galleries and private collections in which a large portion are at present; and the names of the artists by whom they have been engraved; to which is added, a brief notice of the scholars & imitators of the great masters of the above schools (Part 2) (London: Smith and Son, 1830)

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SCHOLARS AND IMITATORS.

adapted for the back-grounds of Rubens’s ease] pictures; and,
when so employed, he imitated the broad free touch of that
master with admirable success. This practice, united to his
own suitable style, gave him the means and facility of copying
and imitating the landscapes by Rubens more deceptively than
any other artist of that school. Van Uden was born at
Antwerp in 1595, and died in 1660.
Josse (or JoDOCtrs) Mompers. That an artist possessing
the superior talents of Mompers should have escaped the
notice of the early biographers, can only be explained by sup-
posing that, like many writers of this class, they more fre-
quently borrowed from others than quoted from their own
knowledge of the subject. He is supposed to have been born
about 1589 ; and as his style and manner of painting resembles
those of Louis Vadder, it is very probable that he was first
instructed in the art by that master. His pictures generally
represent bold mountainous views, intersected by ravines or
deep valleys; these are painted with a firm free hand, but less
transparent in colour than is usual to artists in this school, and.
his works require to be viewed at a certain distance in order
to appreciate their excellence; but, when so viewed, they
present to the eye of the connoisseur a satisfactory proof
that he was an artist of real genius. Rubens saw and
admired his talents, and associated the productions of his
pencil with his own. It is the Writer’s opinion that this artist
accompanied Rubens to Spain, where he assisted him in such
pictures as required a landscape back-ground. He also copied
with admirable success the landscapes of Rubens, and could
skilfully introduce such alterations as to give them the ap-
pearance of original compositions. One of this painter’s most
capital productions, representing a view of the Escurial and
surrounding mountains, is in the collection of the Earl of Radnor;
such is its excellence that it has constantly been attributed to
the hand of Rubens, and it is no injury to the reputation of
that artist to think it so.